Second Sunday of Easter 
Mary Holmen

John 20:19-31

“Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord…But Thomas said, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’” (John 20:20, 25).

Today’s reading contains the second and third appearances in John’s gospel of the risen Christ to his followers. The gospel choice for Easter Day, that we didn’t use because we read Mark’s account, tells of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene in the garden on Easter morning. Today’s reading takes place first on Easter evening, when Jesus appears to the disciples, and then a week later when he appears again and speaks to Thomas. The fourth appearance is to Peter and the other disciples on the shore of Lake Galilee.

Today’s passage occurs every year on the second Sunday of Easter season, but it seems especially appropriate this year. The risen Christ appears to his terrified, demoralized, desolate followers who have locked themselves in the room in fear for their lives. Well, we sure know about fear and lockdowns, don’t we? And Thomas – why isn’t he with the others the first time? I think he’s exhibiting classic signs of depression: apathy, loss of interest, social withdrawal. His leader is dead, his mission apparently in ruins, his companions seem to have taken leave of their senses. For three years, he had been in close communion with Jesus, had followed, absorbed, been formed in the ways of the new community Jesus was creating. Thomas is grieving the life he knew – and so are we. As Donna said so clearly in her reflection last week, Easter does not miraculously remove all the problems we have to face. So, Alleluia! Christ is risen – and we’ve entered the third wave of the pandemic. Happy Easter – there’s still a climate crisis – and racism – and addiction and sickness, and, and, and…Christ is risen – and our loved ones are still dead. I’ve said many times that faith is not a vaccine against trouble. So yes, Thomas is a good person for us to be thinking about this year.

The disciples give their testimony: they have seen the Lord. A week later, Thomas is with them. Whatever motivates him to come, the disciples don’t exclude Thomas, and he doesn’t give up on their testimony either. They can let Thomas be there, scepticism and all, and he can choose to come. There is room in the community of faith for questions and doubts.

And here’s the thing. Jesus meets each person where they are and gives them what they need. And when that need is met, there is recognition and renewed relationship.

• Mary, in her despair, is called by her name. That is how she recognizes Jesus, and she calls him Rabbouni, teacher. She is once again a disciple.
• The disciples in the upper room are confused and fearful. One of their own has betrayed their Lord, they deserted him to save their own skin, they denied him. They know they have failed. And Jesus bestows peace, the peace he had promised to give them. In this renewed relationship, they are commissioned, sent out with the mission to forgive others. Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on them, just as God blew the breath of life into the first humans at creation.
• Peter the denier, on the shores of Lake Galilee, is restored and given the mantle of leadership of the flock that is placed into his care.
• And Thomas, having stated categorically that he will not believe unless he can see and touch, is invited to do just that. We are not told whether Thomas does actually put his finger in the nail holes or his hand in Jesus’s side. Earlier in the gospel, Jesus has complained that the people will not believe unless they see signs and wonders. Based on that, many biblical scholars conclude that Thomas does not need to touch. If he had, it would have been an indication of unbelief and he would have ceased to be a disciple. As it is, Jesus offers his wounded body to Thomas, and that is what brings Thomas to faith. He responds with a confession of the most central relationship of all: “My Lord and my God!” It is an extraordinarily personal encounter, where intimacy is offered and experienced.

What is the nature of the faith to which Thomas comes? What does it mean to believe? The text as we read it today says, “Do not doubt, but believe.” That translation has set up what I believe is a false contrast between faith and doubt. Many of us were brought up to believe that questions were a sign of lack of faith. On the contrary, I believe they are signs of a very robust faith. Faith encompasses both doubts and questions.

We Anglicans are a church rooted in the Protestant reformation of the sixteenth century. We have inherited a view of faith that is largely rational – I almost said an understanding of faith, which shows just how deeply that rationalism is embedded in how we view faith, as thought it were simply assenting to a set of propositions. But the Greek verb pisteuo and the Latin credo (from which we get our English word creed), meaning “ I believe”, and the related noun which we translate as faith or belief, are better rendered as “to set one’s heart upon something or someone, to give one’s allegiance, to trust”. The noted biblical scholar Raymond Brown says Jesus’s words to Thomas are better translated “Do not persist in your disbelief, but become a believer.” Put aside your disbelief and trust me.

To say “I set my heart upon God. I give my allegiance to Jesus Christ, God’s Son. I trust in God,” gives quite a different ring to faith than to say “I assent with my mind that God exists. I have reasoned out the facts about Jesus. I accept the doctrines of the church.” In the tenth chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul, discussing how people come to faith, says this: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” Notice that Paul does not say, “One believes with the head.” Faith is not only a matter of the head, but of the heart, and it unites both.

Now, what we believe does matter, because it shapes how we live in response to God’s grace. We are called to love God with all our hearts, our souls, our minds, yes, and our strength. Faith integrates all our faculties. Faith is shaped and nurtured in community. And faith must lead to action.

The twentieth chapter of John’s gospel is all about believing. And belief leads to salvation. In John’s gospel, salvation means knowing God through Jesus Christ and being in relationship with that God through Christ. It is a relationship that is deep, intimate, personal, and abiding. To believe is to recognize Jesus and to find our identity in him. With Thomas, we are invited into that relationship and identity. My Lord and my God: he is my Lord, and I am a disciple, but he is also my God who calls forth my praise. If Thomas is blessed to have seen and believed, even more blessed are those who believe without seeing. That is us. John says that the signs recorded in his book are written “so that you may have faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this faith you may have life in his name,” (Raymond Brown’s translation). The purpose of faith is not to be intellectually correct. The purpose of faith, and of the gospel that is written to bring us to faith, is salvation and life.

The Christ who appears to the disciples and Thomas still bears the wounds of nails and spear. The resurrection does not erase the crucifixion. It is the crucified Jesus who is raised and who appears. And this establishes the pattern for God’s presence in the world, that is, that God shows up in suffering. God shows up in the person of this crucified and risen Lord to this disillusioned, discouraged, despairing group of followers. God will show up in our suffering because God has promised, and God is faithful. Bishop Michael Curry, in his Easter message to the Episcopal Church in the United States, took his title from the memoir of Bishop Barbara Harris, the first woman and the first Black woman to be consecrated a bishop in the Anglican Communion. Bishop Harris called her memoir Hallelujah Anyhow. Bishop Michael said that is the message of Easter. “In spite of hard times, in spite of injustice and bigotry, in spite of war and violence, hallelujah anyhow.” Love does not give up. Death is not the final word. Love is stronger than death. So yes, today let us say with our hearts, our minds, and our lips, in the midst of all the suffering that besets the world, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” Hallelujah anyhow! Amen.