In our gospel reading for today, the risen Jesus appears in dramatic fashion to ten of the apostles. And for whatever reason, Thomas the Twin is not with them, and does not get to experience the risen Lord, AND does not accept the story of the ten as proof. As a result, he is forever known to us as Doubting Thomas. But that's a bad rap, because how Thomas responded, and how the ten responded to Thomas, worked for good. And in the end, Jesus came back for Thomas, and brought him around – a great story for all of us doubters to hear...
How often has something like this happened to you? “Too bad you didn't make it to the Oiler game last week. I know it was a routine game against Chicago, but then, they actually put their emergency backup goalie, Matt Berlin from the U of A Golden Bears into the net with 2 minutes left. You don't see that every day, and the crowd went absolutely nuts. You should've been there!” Now, if only you would have known in advance that it WASN'T going to be routine, and what it was that you would MISS, you WOULD'VE been there....
If only Thomas would have known in advance that his risen Lord and Saviour was showing up behind locked doors that Sunday night, he might have made more effort to be there! Instead, he missed what was in John's gospel, the second appearance of the risen Jesus, and the first appearance to more than one person – the first evidence acceptable in a court of law, of the most important event in human history. Talk about the wrong meeting to miss! It's worse than missing the church council meeting where we make committee assignments!
And we can sit back in our armchairs and criticize Thomas' response all we like. We can point to the fact that Thomas WAS there when Jesus prophesied his resurrection, he DID hear the voice of God clearly affirming Jesus as his son, he DID experience the bodily resurrection of Lazarus. So why couldn't he accept the report from the ten, that they had seen the Lord?
Because the resurrection of Jesus was something entirely new and different, something the world had never seen before. Unlike Lazarus, who was RESTORED to his previous life, and died again later, Jesus was CHANGED. He was unrecognizable at first glance to his good friend Mary Magdelene in the garden. And the physical world, like walls and locked doors did not seem to limit Jesus any longer. Thomas knew that the resurrection of Jesus was an extraordinary claim. And like scientist Carl Sagan once said about extraterrestrial life, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Thomas NEEDED to put his finger in the mark of the nails. Much to the annoyance and frustration of his ten friends.
Now if this event had happened these days, that would have been the end of Thomas' association with the church. A disagreement that strong today would dissolve friendships, family ties....maybe even marriages. The only question would be whether Thomas would storm off himself, or Thomas would be thrown out by the group. Thomas would be accused of being a resurrection denier, and the ten would be accused of committing a religious conspiracy. And each side would retreat to their own bubble on social media, and wonder aloud how the other side could be so stupid, ...or so evil.
John probably didn't recognize it at the time, but for us in our culture, John recorded a miracle with these words, “A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.” The disciples did the right thing when they kept the door of friendship open for Thomas, and did not shut him or his dangerous ideas out of the group. And Thomas did two right things: he specified what he rationally needed to see as the extraordinary evidence of Jesus' resurrection, AND he kept himself open to receiving this evidence by continuing to gather with the ten. Thomas did NOT do what so many atheists do today – refuse to accept ANYTHING as proof of God's action in the world, because of a strong emotional need for God not to exist. And of course, Jesus responded to Thomas by providing PRECISELY the extraordinary evidence that Thomas said he needed, so that Thomas could be brought around, and declare, “my Lord and my God.”
What about US and OUR doubts? Well, we have this book that has been “written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” And as Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have come to believe.” But what if we are not in that group of blessed people? What if we need evidence that is more extraordinary? Maybe we were out of the room when Jesus miraculously cured people in our community from life-threatening diseases. Maybe we missed the meeting where people in our community told about how Jesus had saved them from their own destructive patterns. Maybe we didn't see the memo showing how countries with a history of following Jesus are generally pleasant, safe, and free, while those without a history of following Jesus are generally unpleasant, dangerous, and tyrannical. What should we do if, despite the evidence given to us by others, we still have doubts?
Do what Rational Thomas did! Determine exactly what extraordinary evidence you would need to see to believe. And then, continue (coming here) (listening) with an open mind until you see it. Jesus was not about to leave Thomas hanging, and he won't leave us hanging either, if it is TRULY what we need to believe. I don't claim to have seen the mark of the nails on Jesus' hands, but I HAVE seen the extraordinary evidence I needed – the astounding number of times where my life has intersected with someone totally at random, and I either received or gave a word of grace that could only have come from Jesus. Hopefully, you too have seen enough to say, “my Lord and my God.”
Gracious God, we thank you for the glorious resurrection of your son, and for all that this most important event in human history means to us. Resolve all our doubts, and enable us to be effective witnesses, in Jesus' name.