Sermon 03/30/08 (John 20:19-31)

“Believing is Seeing”
John 20:19-31
Rev. Désirée H. Gold
St. Mark’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, MD
Sunday, 30 March, 2008
Second Sunday of Easter
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 My Easter tulip is still blooming in the dining room window. Its red flowers cheer me up every time I walk past it. The pink hyacinth, however, is another story. I had to bring it outside because its wonderful scent was giving me a sore throat. It survived the chilly evenings we had this past week, but then it fell off the porch...twice. The blooms are still pretty, but it looks rather bedraggled in its pot now -- no longer the glorious Easter flower it was just a week ago.

The fate of my Easter flowers is kind of a metaphor for what is known as “low Sunday” in the church. Last week our pews were overflowing. This morning, not so much. Last week we had children gloriously interrupting my words with their holy chatter. This week we’re back to unnatural silence. Last week we had live music. This morning, we’re back to the cds. Last week our church was filled with the aforementioned tulips and hyacinths. This morning our allergies might be better but our sanctuary isn’t quite so cheery.

Traditionally the lectionary -- the calendar of scriptures we read from Sunday to Sunday -- has been treated this way too. Last Sunday we had the disciples’ discovery of the empty tomb. When Mary Magdalene recognizes the risen Jesus, she cries, “I have seen the Lord!” On Easter Sunday we focus on the empty tomb and on her proclamation. This Sunday, not so much. Today we hear the story referred to throughout the ages as “Doubting Thomas.” While the good disciples believed that it was Jesus who stood before them the moment they saw him, that bad old Thomas needed proof! How dare he?! We live in a world that we expect to be logical and rational -- we get upset when it isn’t. Nonetheless, the name “doubting Thomas” has stuck. The disciple got such a bad name that there is now a dictionary entry under “doubting Thomas”: “an incredulous or habitually doubtful person.”1 We immediately condemn Thomas when we read this scripture, because there is a tradition of condemning Thomas. We fall into the old rut: Easter Sunday is happy, but this Sunday Jesus must deal with that awful doubter. We forget to actually look at the scripture. As is often the case, we follow the tradition. After all, centuries of teaching -- in this case, that Thomas was an evil twin -- are hard to beat.

I ask you, difficult though I know it is, to set aside your foreknowledge of this story and to actually look at the scripture itself. First, notice that Thomas was not present when the other disciples saw and believed. We’re not told where he is. There is no indication from the scripture itself that he was off messing around while the faithful disciples were at Christ’s side. We are simply told that Thomas was not there at the time. Sometimes it’s easier to believe things when you are in a group of people. It’s the old peer pressure effect -- well, maybe not peer pressure, exactly, but you have the encouragement of your friends to believe this strange thing that is being presented to you. “They all rejoiced when they saw him.” Thomas, on the other hand, was on his own when it came to believing. Sure, the other disciples were around when he approached Jesus, but he was alone in his discovery. He wasn’t discovering Jesus’ risen presence together with friends: “Hey, look! Is it really him? Could it be? Nah, that doesn’t make any sense. He died. ...But wait, it sure looks like him! It is him!!!” Thomas, on the other hand, had to come to the conclusion by himself. The other disciples could tell him what they had seen, but he was seeing it for the first time on his own.

Tradition also tells us that Thomas actually did stick his finger into the holes in Jesus’ hand and side. When I searched for artwork that depicted this Biblical scene almost all of it -- from the Middle Ages to the present -- showed Thomas actually sticking his finger in the holes, as Jesus invited him to do. Look at the scripture again. We are not actually told that Thomas did stick his finger into the holes. “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!” We are told only that Jesus invited him to do so, and immediately Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!”

Maybe Thomas did put his finger into Jesus’ side and hands, as all the artwork shows, but the scripture doesn’t say that. Let’s consider then, that he didn’t. Doesn’t that change the story? As the scripture has it, Thomas believed the moment Jesus invited him to touch his wounds. It was the invitation, then, and not the wounds themselves, that made Thomas believe. Here was his friend, his teacher, his Lord, his God -- a man he loved who had been in the tomb only moments before, it seemed. Who can blame Thomas for not believing that it was the same man standing in front of him now? But Jesus understood. Jesus loved him. And Jesus, his dear friend, was willing to allow Thomas to put his finger into those wounds that had caused him, Jesus, to endure such great suffering. Sure, the wounds might not have hurt anymore (we don’t know that from the scripture, though). Still, they were the signs of his tremendous humiliation and suffering. Jesus gave permission to touch those bloody holes anyway.

We are all familiar with the phrase “seeing is believing.” Just as the phrase “doubting Thomas” has become a colloquialism, so has “seeing is believing.” We have these two contradictory phrases as part of our lexicon, and we believe both of them: Thomas was bad because of his disbelief, but we won’t believe things until we see them. We condemn Thomas while maintaining our own skepticism. We have, thus, declared that Thomas had to see the wounds on Jesus’ hand and side before he would believe.

The suggestion I have given that Thomas may not, in fact, have touched or even seen those wounds changes things, however. (Jesus’ comment “Blessed are those who believe without seeing” is not spoken to Thomas directly in the text.) When Jesus invited Thomas to touch him in a most intimate way -- to touch the places where his body had been ravaged by violence -- Thomas believed. And it was because he believed that he was able to see those wounds -- at least in his mind’s eye -- and thus to visualize the suffering and the risen body of his Lord.

Last Sunday I asked you to suspend your disbelief, to set aside your sorrow and accept the Easter miracle as is. I suppose today I am asking you to do the same. Many stories in our Bible are hard to believe if we think about them logically, rationally. I am asking you to believe in their truth anyway.

Like Thomas, we weren’t there the moment that Jesus revealed himself to the other disciples. Of course, Thomas was eventually given the opportunity to meet Jesus face-to-face, a chance that we may never have, at least not in this lifetime. But in order for him to see, Thomas first had to believe. Thomas first had to trust that such a bizarre thing could be true. He had to set aside his horrific grief and come to the ridiculous conclusion that the friend he had seen nailed to a tree might actually be alive.

As I acknowledged last Sunday, our belief in the Resurrection of Christ will not mean that all our troubles will suddenly disappear. But we are called to accept these miracles anyway. Jesus is inviting us, too, to touch his wounds, to realize that this joy we see in his disciples’ cries came only after the painful, humiliating, awful experience of his Crucifixion. Jesus, too, knew horrendous suffering, and he has the gruesome wounds to prove it. Jesus, our Lord and our Messiah, hurt just as much, if not more, than any of us. Let us find comfort in the suffering that he so willingly shares with us. Now let us pray.




1 Merriam-Webster Online, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doubting%20thomas, accessed 03/30/08.