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The Second Sunday Of Easter
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery hast established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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The Second Sunday Of Easter
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Scripture citation(s): John 20:19-31
A Sermon by
Fr. Austin
on
John 20:19-31
✛
Faith, Doubt, and the Sign of Thomas
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I think a lot of us worry from time to time that our faith falls short of what it ought to be. We receive, say, a piece of medical news that not everything is right with our body, and we find that we are fearful and worrying. What will this mean for my job? Can I keep working? Can I still go on that vacation? Will I be able to take care of myself? And is there a chance that this is, that this is, that this might be, that I’m coming to —? We fear and worry and then we feel guilty. “If I had more faith,” we tell ourselves, “I wouldn’t feel this way.”
It can also be on the intellectual side, this worry, even for people who come to church week after week for years. We stand and say the Creed. “I believe in one God. I believe in Jesus Christ, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, dead, buried, on the third day rose again.” We say those words every week, but sometimes there’s a voice in our heads that says back to us, “Do I believe that, or am I just saying the words? Do I really believe Jesus was truly God and died and rose in his body from death? Or is it all make-believe; am I just saying the words and ignoring the doubts that are in my mind?”
To think this way, to worry that when we get down to business we turn out to be doubters rather than believers—this is to think of doubt and faith as exclusive alternatives: you either have one or the other. But what if that’s a mistake? What if doubt and faith are not like an off/on switch, so that either your faith is ON, and you have no doubt, or your faith is OFF, which means you have doubt? What if reality is more complex than that?
+++
In St. John’s gospel we are told that Thomas was not present when Jesus first appeared to the disciples. When they told him the good news that their dear rabbi and friend, in whom they had placed so much hope, was in fact alive, that crucifixion and burial were not the end of things, Thomas would not believe it. We don’t know why he refused to believe, or couldn’t believe; it was just there, unbelief. There is a suggestion that he thought the other disciples were always a bit too cheery, a bit too quick to look on the sunny side; there are suggestions, earlier in the gospel, that Thomas was the one most likely to take a gloomy view. Eeyore is a name that comes to mind for some people, when they think of Thomas. For whatever reason, Thomas didn’t believe. Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails—that’s what he said.
The next Sunday, one week later, Thomas got what he asked for. Jesus appeared to all the disciples and called Thomas to come over to him. Put your finger here, he said, and see my hands . . . do not be faithless, but believing. It is the climax of St. John’s gospel. Everything—from the calling of the disciples, the wedding at Cana, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, feeding the 5000, healing the blind man, raising Lazarus from death, Hosanna on Palm Sunday, washing feet, condemned, hung up, dead, buried, alive—everything has been waiting for this moment. For in this moment, Thomas says something no human being has ever before said to Jesus. It is not given to Jesus’ mother to say this, the beloved disciple didn’t say this, not Peter, not the man born blind, not Lazarus; it is Thomas, Thomas who doubted, Thomas who says: My Lord and my God.
So you see, doubt and faith are tied together in some way. It is as if it was because Thomas doubted that at the end he has a more insightful faith than anyone else. God can use doubt to make faith, the way he uses weakness for strength and folly for wisdom—the way, indeed, he uses defeat on the cross for the victory of new life.
To see how St. John nails the point home, look with me again at the conclusion. St. John makes what Thomas said the climax of his gospel. “My Lord and my God” is the most profound christological affirmation made of Jesus. And that having been said, immediately the gospel “drama” is over. John gives Jesus one more line, but he speaks it, as it were, turning to the audience, turning to us who are watching all this in the darkness of the theater: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. (1)
And then (if you will) the curtain falls. As it does so, we hear a voice-over narrative from the author. The author says, Jesus did many other signs which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe.
And now you’re getting up, the lights have come up a bit, and you’re shuffling down the aisle towards the door, and it hits you. The author just said Thomas is a sign. “There are other signs Jesus did; these signs have been written . . .” The whole story is about having faith, and right at the end is this very important sign of faith. And the take-home question for us is, Does it help?
+++
Do signs help us find faith in the midst of doubt? Consider:
He was at a wedding, and they ran out of wine, and he turned water into very good wine. Does it help?
He took five loaves and fed 5000, and refused to be the king they wanted. Does it help?
He gave sight to a man born blind, and led him through conflict and controversy to see more clearly the truth about himself. Is it starting to help?
He walked to the tomb of his friend Lazarus, right up to the tomb, walked with tears, and called forth his name, and Lazarus came back from death. Is it helping?
You don’t know about this word from the doctor, what it means, whether you will be strong and faithful or just fall apart. You’re starting to wonder, in a manner you’ve never wondered before, whether it’s true that his body rose from the grave. Did he really taste all the bitterness of death, and come out—in his body—on the far side of death? And he comes to you with this “sign” of Thomas and you hear him say, Reach forth your hands, and believe.
The signs all say that he comes to us where we are and gives us what we need. Wine, bread, sight, life itself—and to that list let us add “faith.” He comes to us in our doubts and anxieties and gives us the Saint Thomas words, “My Lord and my God!” And what’s really great, I think, is not the words themselves (great as they are), but that he gave them to us. The reality that all the signs point to is that he comes to us. Even from the grave he comes to us, even when we doubt he comes to us.
__________
(1) Raymond Brown refers to “the Gospel form” as a “stage drama,” and says the evangelist has “in mind an audience seated in the darkened theater of the future, silently viewing what Jesus was saying and doing. . . . [N]ow, as the curtain is about to fall on the stage drama, the lights in the theater are suddenly turned on. Jesus shifts his attention from the disciples on the stage to the audience that has become visible and makes clear that his ultimate concern is for them.” The Gospel According to John, vol. 2, p. 1049.
I am making throughout the ancient and modern assumption that chapter 21 is to be understood as an appendix to the Gospel.
