Written and Delivered by The Rev. Canon Paul S. Nancarrow, PhD

Thomas, Thomas, Thomas. What are we going to do with Thomas? Thomas was one of the Twelve, one of the closest of Jesus' disciples, one of the most intimate of Jesus' followers. Yet Thomas was the disciple who wouldn't believe until he had seen, he was the doubting disciple, the one who has been held up for generations as the poster child for how not to believe. On the other hand, Thomas has been experiencing a bit of a resurgence of late, an increase in his popularity, as the Gospel of Thomas--a collection of sayings attributed to Jesus, with a decidedly Gnostic flavor--has been getting a lot of press in books like Elaine Pagels' Beyond Belief and Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. People today seem very curious about Thomas's "secret knowledge" of Jesus. Thomas the doubter. Thomas the mystic. What are we going to do with Thomas?

Well, one thing we can do is to realize that the story about Thomas we hear in the Gospel reading today was never meant to stand alone, it's not an isolated incident just between Thomas and Jesus. The encounter which Thomas has with the Risen Jesus is in fact the climactic moment of a whole series of encounters, it's the culmination of a whole set of little revelations that lead up to faith in the New Life in Christ. The entire twentieth chapter of John's Gospel is a very tightly structured, very carefully arranged set of steps intended to lead us, the readers, into believing in the Risen Christ. Of course, we seldom see the entire chapter all together. Last week, on Easter Day, we read the first half of the chapter. Today, on the Second Sunday of Easter, we read the second half of the chapter. But to get the full effect of this rising crescendo of revelations John structures, we have to see the whole chapter all at once. So I've prepared this handy-dandy helpful handout (see below), laying out all of Chapter Twenty, with a paragraph for each step in the revelation of Resurrection. Let's take a look at it.

It all starts early in the morning on the first day of the week, when Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb and finds that the stone has been removed. That's all: she doesn't go to the tomb, she doesn't look in the tomb, she just sees the tomb is open. She runs and tells Peter and John.

Peter and John run to the tomb, John gets there first, John looks in the tomb, but doesn't go in. Peter arrives, Peter goes in the tomb, and then John goes in too. They see the linen wrappings that had been on Jesus' body, but no body; and they see that the wrappings, especially the headcloth, are not just tossed around but are carefully folded up and laid aside, as if they weren't needed anymore. John believes, even though he doesn't yet understand; John doesn't quite get what is going on here, but he's seen something remarkable and he believes it means something for them all.

That's when Mary looks in the tomb--something she hadn't done yet--and she sees two angels. Now Mary knows that there is something divine happening, that this isn't just the absence of an earthly body but the presence of a heavenly reality. Turning away from the tomb then, Mary sees Jesus--but she doesn't yet understand that it's Jesus. It's when Jesus calls her by name that she recognizes him, and she calls him "Rabbouni," "My Teacher." The NRSV just translates it "Teacher," but the "-ni" at the end is a Hebrew possessive suffix indicating a relationship, and it is significant that Mary recognizes the risen Jesus as her teacher, someone with a real relationship to her. But Jesus tells her not to hold on to him, and then sends her to tell the other disciples he is risen. When Mary reaches them, she says "I have seen the Lord"--not just "the Teacher" but "the Lord"--and that simple change of title indicates that Mary has seen a little more deeply into the mystery of Resurrection and believes a little more powerfully in Jesus.

Then later that same night, when the disciples are together and the doors are locked, Jesus comes and stands among them and says "Peace be with you." The disciples rejoice when they see the Lord--seeing him alive again, they also recognize him as Lord and believe in the reality of his Resurrection Life. And because they now believe, Jesus breathes on them the Holy Spirit, and sends them out to do his work in the world.

All except for Thomas. Thomas, for some reason, wasn't with them on Sunday night, and when the disciples say to Thomas what Mary had first said to them--"We have seen the Lord"--Thomas doesn't believe them. Thomas wants to see for himself. So, a week later, when it is once again the first day of the week, the disciples are together and the doors are locked, and Jesus comes and stand among them. He says "Peace be with you"; and then he says specifically to Thomas "Look at my hands; touch my wounds; believe that it's really me." And Thomas says "My Lord and my God." Thomas is the first one of them all to call Jesus "God." Thomas is now the one who sees most deeply into the mystery and believes most powerfully in Jesus: he believes that Jesus is not just "Teacher," not just "Lord," but "God." Thomas the doubter has now become Thomas the most believing of them all.

At each stage of the story there is a new revelation of Resurrection--the empty tomb, the recognition of Jesus, the giving of the Holy Spirit, the call to believe. At each stage of the story there is a new response of faith--believing even when you don't quite understand, knowing Jesus as Teacher, knowing Jesus as Lord, knowing Jesus as God. The whole of Chapter Twenty builds this rising crescendo of revelation, until we finally see the Risen Jesus saying "Do not doubt but believe."

And then comes the kicker: Jesus says to Thomas, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Jesus says this to Thomas; but he might as well have said it to all the disciples, because all of them have seen something. Mary saw the open tomb and then saw Jesus standing there, and she believed; John saw the linen gravecloths empty and folded up, and he believed; the disciples saw Jesus showing his hands and side, and they believed; Thomas saw Jesus calling him directly, and he believed. All of them saw something. But now Jesus says "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." Who might those unseeing believers be?

Well, in case we have any doubts, the narrator steps in to help us here. In one of those rare moments in the Gospels when the Evangelists step out of storytelling mode and speak directly to the audience, the narrator of John turns to us and writes: "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are 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." The whole point of Chapter Twenty, the whole point of the entire Gospel, has been to help us--you and me--come to believe in Jesus, come to have that same kind of life-transforming relationship with Jesus that Mary and Peter and John and Thomas had, so that we might have life in Jesus' name. The whole point of the rising crescendo of revelation is to break out of the narrative frame, to make the story jump out of the book and jump into our lives, to help us learn to recognize the presence of the Risen Christ in the New Life we encounter in our lives.

So how then do we come to believe? What small steps of revelation lead to a rising crescendo of faith for us? We can see steps to New Life where there is healing and wellness and recovery in the lives of people we care about, people we pray for--and we can believe the Risen Jesus is there. We can see steps to New Life where there is justice in a community, where barriers are being broken down, and the outcast are being welcomed in, and the forgotten are being remembered, and the poor are receiving the good things of life, and strangers are becoming friends--and we can believe the Risen Jesus is there. We can see steps to New Life where joy is emerging out of depression, where courage is overcoming despair, where people whose lives seemed overwhelmed and lost are finding a new direction and a new way--and we can believe the Risen Jesus is there. We can see steps to New Life in our own congregation, right here in St George's, where new ideas and innovative practices help us grown in the Spirit and share that Spirit with others--and we can believe the Risen Jesus is here. We come to believe in the Risen Jesus because we experience his New Life raising up justice and peace and compassion and love in all kinds of places, places as surprising as an empty tomb, or a spring garden, or a locked room, or a doubtful heart. We come to believe, and through believing we have life in Jesus' name.

That is what the story of Thomas has to say to us. That is what we can do with Thomas today. And that is the kind of faith we can live and grow in every day.

*****

The Gospel according to John, Chapter 20

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."

When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "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." A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are 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.