My mother is from Missouri. As a young child I discovered that Missouri is known as the Show-Me state. My Mom would need to be convinced of something before she'd go along with it. It wasn't that she didn't trust me, or that she lacked confidence, because those who know her know that she is extremely confident and has the world of trust and confidence in me, but there is a good solid strain of skepticism in her. I learned from her that there is big difference between honest skepticism, as evidenced in the Show-Me state attitude, and doubt. Doubt implies not just skepticism but true uncertainty. This is probably the root of my ambivalence about the story of doubting Thomas. Certainly for most of my life Thomas was portrayed as someone who exhibited that deep uncertainty. He went beyond needing to have something explained, he had to have the evidence placed right in front of him, unequivocally. I don't know why but I never felt that Thomas was an example of the kind of Christian I wanted to be. Also as a child, I had the opportunity to travel extensively in Mexico. One of the things I hated as a child traveling in Mexico was visiting the churches. This is quite ironic since my professional career for the last 30 years has involved studying the Church in Mexico. What really bothered me about Mexican churches when I was a kid were the very graphic sculptures of the Crucified Christ, as well as similar statues of saints and martyrs. The very graphic depiction of the wounds of Christ, as well as the suffering of the martyrs, was just too much for a little Protestant kid, and a Presbyterian to boot, from western Kansas. The statues, along with the paintings and other devotional objects just scared me to death. Yet I now appreciate that these are important and defining elements of popular Mexican Christianity.
The very essence of the sculptures of the Crucified Christ, lying in a glass coffin, were real depictions of Christ's suffering, and of the miracle of the resurrection. They are so real they almost invite the viewer to put their fingers in the wounds. It is a depiction of what it might have been like for Thomas and the other disciples. As a kid I'd ask myself if this was necessary for the development of my faith. To be perfectly candid it was not something to which I could relate. While I now know and appreciate the thought, emotion, and tradition behind the artistic tradition I witnessed as a child in Mexico, it still does not move me. On the other hand, the Holy week processions in Seville, where crews of the faithful carry religious tableau weighing several tons through the city on their shoulders, moves me more than any single religious experience I have experienced. So at the end of the day, maybe it is that different experiences move different people to confront their faith.
All of this beings us to Thomas, famous throughout Christendom for his doubt. Looking at the Biblical story of Thomas a few things stand out. Thomas is mentioned as one of the apostles in all four of the Gospels. In fact he is always listed along with Matthew and had the nickname of the "Twin." There are several traditions about Thomas. One holds that he was none other than Jesus's twin; another that he was Matthew's twin. Lastly, others say that the name Thomas means twin in Syriac, and that the apostle was originally from Syria. Be that as it may, the only place he appears in an active role is in the Gospel of John. This is not a unique situation. As you all know, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the synoptic Gospels. This is from the Greek meaning "one view." They present one relatively unified perspective of the life of Christ, with minor differences among themselves. John stands alone, with many stories that appear nowhere else. Such is the case with the story of Thomas.
But when we look closely at the rest of the story some really surprising things emerge. While the "Doubting Thomas" story does not appear in the other Gospels, a similar situation does. Specifically the closest version to John's story appears in Luke's Gospel, 24:36-40. [As it turns out this is the Gospel for next Sunday]. Following the encounter on the road to Emmaus, apostles came together. The New Jerusalem Bible recounts it thus:
They were still talking about all this when He Himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But He said, "Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts stirring in your hearts? See by my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have." And as He said this He showed them his hands and his feet.
Matthew's Gospel does not deal with this appearance to the disciples, while Mark 16: 14, dismisses it in just a few lines: "Lastly, he showed himself to the Eleven themselves while they were at table. He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy, because they had refused to believe those who had seen him risen."
Consequently, this appearance of the Risen Christ to the remaining disciples is one of the very few stories shared among most of the synoptic Gospels and John's Gospel. While Luke and Mark do not mention Thomas by name, they do concur on the fact that the prime issue regarding the appearance of the Risen Lord was the issue of doubt or incredulity. This correspondence among the different accounts increases the likelihood that we are dealing with an actual occurrence involving the disciples. In fact it is correspondences such as this that the Jesus Seminar used to determine which of Jesus' words were what we might characterize as historically accurate, and which were merely exemplary, that is less likely to be historical and more likely to be examples of what might have been said. While the Jesus Seminar dealt with Jesus' words, we can use the same technique to analyze the various stories and events of Jesus's life. Events carried by all four Gospels, using basically the same descriptions, such as the crucifixion, are certainly more accurate, than a single event narrated by a single Gospel. Using this logic then, this story is one of the strongest examples we have. What is important is that it is the one significant event of the resurrected Christ appearing to the disciples common to all the Gospels.
Yet this is only part of the story. The story helps to drive home the point that belief is not necessarily based on a physical appearance of Jesus. Except for the first Christians, this was not even an option. But each of us comes to know Jesus in our own lives and through our own experience, probably not so dramatic as that of the apostles, and Thomas, but the Gospel reading for today goes on. It then describes what is known as the commissioning. This is one of the singular events of the Gospels when Jesus empowers his followers to share in his earthly authority. Our reading today is as follows: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Each of the other Gospels focuses on a different aspect of the empowering of the disciples. Matthew tells of making disciples of all nations and baptizing (28: 18-20). Mark has Christ telling his disciples to go out to the whole world, to proclaim the gospel. "Whoever believes and is baptized, will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned." (16: 15-18) This is strikingly similar to the sin and redemption described in John, but not quite. Lastly, Luke tells us that "in his name repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (24:47)
What a complex picture we have! The disciples doubt, then believe when Christ comes to them and offers to clearly manifest his identity. Then (or intimately related to this because in some Gospels it comes first, in others second) he empowers them to continue his work on earth. We humans, because the disciples were nothing if they were not truly human, with all our foibles and frailties, receive the Risen Lord and then are empowered to do his work on earth. This is a story not just about the disciples, but about each and every one of us too. In fact this is the essential element that makes the version of this story so much more powerful in John's Gospel. Thomas was left out. He failed to witness the other appearances of Jesus. Finally he was lucky enough to be present. You can imagine his situation. He had been hearing stories from the other disciples about their experiences seeing Jesus. Could he believe them? What was there about him that prevented him from having the same experience? So when the others told him of their experiences, he rather defensively questioned their veracity. It was his way of saying "Sure. You saw him. Right." While questioning not only their veracity but also maybe even their sanity, he resolved to present himself as rational and dispassionate as possible.
Jesus in essence confronted Thomas about his incredulity. Jesus volunteered to have Thomas touch his wounds. We do not really know if he did. The gospel just doesn't tell us. What it does tell us is that Jesus used this opportunity for his own purposes. He presented his disciples with a new Beatitude: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." This is most assuredly directed at the Christians beyond the Gospel era, those who had come to know Jesus without actually knowing the man Jesus. This beatitude is directed at all of us. It is one of the very powerful statements in the Gospel of John that speaks beyond the apostolic era and resonates in our own day. This beatitude allowed the apostles to spread the Gospel well beyond the place and time in which Jesus actually lived. It gives to each of us, and to the line of faithful stretching back to the apostolic era, a share in the heavenly kingdom.
Yet not only do we share in this beatitude, we also share in the commissioning that so intimately accompanies it in all the Gospels. We are blessed and we are empowered. While traditionally we date the birth of the Christian Church to the opening events of the Acts of the Apostles, in fact that event is firmly founded on the bedrock of the events described here in the closed upper room. Disciples hiding from the world, lost in their own grief, confused by what was happening to them, finally see God and are transformed and empowered to continue the work of Christ in the world.
When we look at the other readings for today in this light, one of the central messages is that of the chain of believers stretching from the time of the Apostles to our day. The passage from Acts links the reader to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: a line that passed through Jesus and on to us. Similarly the selection from the Epistle of John ties us to the chain of the faithful since we all become children of God through Christ, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God…." This in turn takes us to one of the other fascinating things about our readings. The Second Sunday of Easter is one of the few instances where a reading is repeated exactly from one Sunday to the next. If you recall part of the Psalm reading for last Sunday, was the last section of Psalm 118. Specifically these two Sundays repeat verses 22-24: "The same stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone."
In the light of the Resurrection, we as Christians identify this rejected stone with Jesus. He was rejected by humanity, yet went on to become the cornerstone of our new salvation. It is upon this cornerstone that our faith is built. The cornerstone that established the chain of faith that reaches down to our days.
OK. I'm not from Missouri, like my Mom, although a strong line of skepticism does run through my veins. I'm also not really a doubting Thomas. I have to confess that the graphic statues and paintings of colonial Mexico did not inspire a deep faith in me. Each of us has experienced Christ in our own way. He has touched our lives and we are forever changed, just like those apostles in the upper room. Perhaps he didn't come to us in the flesh, but he has come to each of us: in our baptism, in our life of faith, perhaps in the face of a homeless person, an Aids victim, a loved one. Christ is surely there. Not all of us are called in the middle of the night, or from our fishing, or from our daily job, but assuredly we are called. And in that calling, in the faith we develop without having seen but having believed, we join the great chain of belief that stretches from that imperfect yet perfect cornerstone.