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April 18, 2004; the Second Sunday of Easter, Year C
    The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector

This story was sent to me last week over the internet.  It was Palm Sunday and, because of a sore throat, five-year-old Johnny stayed home from church with a sitter.  When the family returned home, they were carrying several palm branches.  The boy asked what they were for.  "People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by."  "Wouldn't you know it," the boy fumed, "the one Sunday I don't go, he shows up!"

As we know from our gospel reading from John this morning, Thomas was absent when Jesus appeared in the upper room on Easter evening to the other ten disciples.  We also know that he struggled with the amazing story that they told him about Jesus appearing to them out of no where.  And then there is his statement, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and hand in his side, I will not believe.”[i]  Hence his nickname, “Doubting Thomas.”  But I’m not so sure Thomas was any more of a ‘doubter’ than the rest of the disciples.

The New Testament mentions Thomas eight times.  On four of these occasions he appears in the lists of the men called by Jesus to be one of his twelve disciples.  The fact that Thomas was counted among this special group is, in and of itself I believe, evidence that he should not necessarily be identified with the fainthearted and those who doubt.

Those twelve disciples who accompanied Jesus throughout the approximately three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry, left their homes, families and occupations in order of follow the Master.   They had been sent on preaching and healing missions by Jesus on at least two occasions; and like Jesus, they often encountered some hostility in the towns they visited.

If Thomas had been plagued with doubts about Jesus, it is unlikely that he would have stayed with Jesus and the other disciples for three years.  He probably would have called it quits and gone home.  But he didn’t.  This is a testimony to the faith, maybe not blind-faith, but faith never-the-less that he had in Jesus – what he was about and who he said he was.  Thomas like the others did not know where their next meal was coming from, where they would sleep at night, and like the other eleven disciples, he struggled to understand what Jesus told them.  I wonder if we would be as devoted, if we like Thomas and the other disciples had to leave everything behind.

John is the only the gospel writer who records Thomas’ moment of doubt.  But it is also John who records one of Thomas’ deepest moments of faith in Jesus.  In the eleventh chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus decides to go back into Judea after learning that his friend, Lazarus, has died.  Some of the disciples protested because the Jews were planning to stone him to death if he returned.  It was Thomas who responded with the statement, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”[ii]  Thomas believed so much in Jesus that he was willing to give up his life in order to follow him.

I don’t know about you, but there are very few people for whom I am prepared to put my life on the line for.   Several times in his teachings, Jesus reminded those who listened to him that life itself was their most precious possession – and the ultimate sacrifice anybody might ever make.  You have to believe in someone quite a bit to be willing to die for them.   If you have doubts about the person, you are not likely to make this kind of sacrifice.  Thomas offered to die with Jesus if need be.  That, to my way of thinking is faith.

Even though Thomas was committed to Jesus, he was still searching.  When Jesus began to talk about leaving the disciples to go and prepare a place for them in his Father’s kingdom, Thomas asked, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?” [iii]  Jesus’ responds with one of the most memorable statements in scripture, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”[iv]  Had Thomas not asked the question, we would not have this declaration by Jesus, has become part of the foundation of the Christian faith – salvation is only received through Jesus Christ.

We are now at Thomas’ moment of doubt, which unfortunately has become his defining moment.  Peter, James, and John, and the other seven disciples were making an utterly fantastic claim regarding Jesus, a dead man was alive again.  Stunned by this absurd claim, that had even ‘tried’ the 1faith of the other ten disciples earlier in the day when the women who had gone to the tomb reported that Jesus had been raised from the dead, Thomas did not say, “That is impossible!”  He did not say, “There is no way I can believe in such a ridiculous tale!”  No, Thomas’ statement of doubt held out the possibility if believing, if, further evidence was supplied.

When Jesus appeared a week later, he did not chastise Thomas for not believing.  He presented himself to Thomas and awaited his response.

If we are honest with ourselves, most of us have questioned or challenged the resurrection of Jesus.   Maybe we have not spoken it out loud to others, but just wrestled with it in our minds.  There is a portion of the Christian Church, even today, that has by and large backed away from the absolute belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Some accept him just as a great teacher.  Others will accept his crucifixion on Good Friday.  But that is where some stop.  For them that part of the story is believable.  Well folks, like I said last Sunday, take away the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and you no longer have Christianity, the church, or St. Philip’s.

We are here today because of Thomas, who upon seeing Jesus, responds with the ultimate confession of faith, coming not from the mind, but from his heart and soul, “My Lord and my God!”  

That we could be as fortunate as Thomas and see the resurrected Christ, but that is not our moment.  Our moment is to be among those who are, “blessed … who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”   Why do we believe?  We believe because of Thomas’ willingness to express his doubt that the resurrection occurred in the first place.  We do not believe blindly, just as Thomas did not believe blindly.  We have heard what the witnesses have to say.  We have thought about it.  We have wrestled with it.  Maybe we are still wrestling with it.  We want to believe.

May we all become aware of the presence of Jesus in our lives, so that like Thomas, we too can say, “My Lord and my God!”

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