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Larry R. Hayward
April 18, 2004
Second Sunday in Easter

A Meditation on Thomas
John 20:19-31

Lord: Through my words may we see, yet even in seeing's absence, may we believe. Through the one whom we yearn to see, even Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thomas used to be my hero.

I liked him because he didn't go along with the crowd.

When other disciples told him that two of their number had seen an empty tomb and grave clothes where the body of Christ had been, Thomas wasn't particularly impressed. [1]
When they told him that Mary had seen the risen Lord with her own eyes, had heard him call her by name, Thomas didn't jump for joy that the crucifixion was undone, the resurrection a new center of history.[2]
Even when disciples told Thomas that Jesus had appeared to them — that he had showed them the wounds in his hands and his side — Thomas only remarked: "Unless I see and touch for myself, I will
not believe." [3]

Thomas refused to go along with the crowd, and he was
my hero.

I also admired Thomas because he demanded proof, verification, authenticity to his faith.

A hymn by Thomas Troeger captures this aspect of Thomas:

These things did Thomas count as real;
The warmth of blood, the chill of steel,
The grain of wood, the heft of stone,
The last frail twitch of flesh and bone.[4]

Thomas used to be my hero.

But then things began to change between Thomas and me.

I served a church that named itself after Thomas, a church, founded in the 1960s by a renegade Southern Baptist minister, a church that prided itself on questioning, skepticism, new ideas.

The founding minister designed the sanctuary in the round with a large open space in the middle — a space we affectionately called "The Pit."
His plan was to give sermons from the pulpit then come down into "The Pit" and field questions.

The plan worked for a while. It was different. This was the 1960s. People came out of curiosity to see the minister who gave a sermon and then stood out in the congregation and fielded questions. And this was even before Phil Donahue or Oprah!

But then the same people kept asking the same questions and soon the questions became speeches and people got tired of questions and speeches.

By the time I arrived in the 1980s people were content with just a plain ole' sermon. They still had their questions, but they didn't design worship around questions.

Serving that church, I came to realize that while questions are important for faith, faith is never fully nourished on a diet of question. Questions are appetizers. At some point we have to turn to the main course. Maybe that's why by the 1980s, the congregation had adopted a new slogan: "St. Thomas — his faith began with a question mark but ended in an exclamation point!" [5]

Something else changed my hero-worship of Thomas. This change occurred yesterday, as I was writing and re-writing this meditation.

In the past, I always thought Thomas stood out because his faith differed from that of the other disciples. But in reality Thomas' faith differs little from those in the Gospel of John who come to faith following an encounter with the risen Christ. They all come to faith based on what they see.

Mary sees a rolled away stone and an empty tomb. These are not sufficient to convince her of the resurrection. She sees the risen Jesus in the garden outside the tomb but thinks he is the gardener. It is only when Christ calls her name — Mary — that she is able to exclaim: "My teacher, my teacher!"[6]
Peter and an unnamed disciple race to the tomb when they hear that the tomb is empty. They see the stone rolled away. They see a pile of burial clothes where a body should be. The sight of the empty tomb and burial clothes is sufficient for the unnamed disciple to believe; but Peter remains unconvinced. [7]
That night, the disciples gather in a locked room. The risen Christ appears without passing through a door.
- He speaks to them.
- He shows them the wounds in his hands and
  his side.
- He breathes on them the breath of God.
- And they believe. [8]

Thomas is not among them. When they tell him what they have seen, he says, "Unless I see and touch, I will not believe."[9]

A week later Jesus appears to Thomas, offers him an opportunity to touch the wounds he sees, and Thomas believes. "My Lord and my God!" he exclaims.[10]

Thomas has more in common with Mary, Peter, and the other disciples than he has differences with them. When they see the risen Christ, they believe. Likewise, when Thomas sees, he believes. He simply sees a little later than the others see, and prior to seeing, he expresses skepticism. But still he sees and believes.

What makes it difficult for Thomas to be my hero any longer is that unlike Thomas, I do not have the opportunity to see the risen Christ.

The risen Christ has never appeared to me.
I have never heard him call my name.
He has never extended his wounded hand for me to touch, lifted his robe that I may place my fingers in his
torn flesh.

Were the risen Christ to appear to me, I would likely bow down and believe like Thomas and the others. But my belief would not be heroic, for it is not a matter of heroism to believe what you see.

The real hero for me is not Thomas. My real heroes are Jesus, for what he says to Thomas, and John, for closing his gospel with what Jesus says.[11]

You see, 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."[12]

Gail Ricciutti, a member of The Moveable Feast Preaching Seminar I attend, and who teaches preaching at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, writes that in John's gospel,

No contrast is drawn between those who have joy from seeing and believing and those…who have not seen and yet who believe. Two equal types of blessedness are portrayed…[13]

Gail maintains that Jesus blesses those who see and believe, and he blesses those who believe without seeing. John concludes his magnus opus with this second blessing: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet come to believe." Two equal blessings, both from the lips of Christ, both remembered by John.

I think Gail is correct in seeing two blessings, but I think it is possible that Jesus is holding up as being slightly more heroic those who believe without seeing rather than those who see and believe.

In the year 250 A.D., Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish made the following observation:

The proselyte is dearer to God than all the Israelites who were at Sinai [he says].

For if those people [who were at Sinai] had not witnessed thunder, flames, lightning, the quaking mountain, and the trumpet blasts, they would not have accepted the rule of God.

Yet the proselyte who has seen none of these things comes and gives [self] to God and accepts the rule of God.

Is there anyone who is dearer than this person?[14]

In 1844, Henry Alford wrote words we sang a few minutes ago:

We walk by faith and not by sight;
No gracious words we hear
From Christ, who spoke as non e'er spoke;
But we believe him near.

We may not touch His hands and side,
Nor follow where he trod;
But in His promise we rejoice,
and cry, "My Lord and God!"[15]

To me, the real heroes are not Thomas and the others who see and believe, but Jesus who blesses those who believe without seeing and John who concludes his gospel remembering them.

My friends,
I doubt that any of us here today
Have seen the risen Christ directly.
And I would wager
That many of us are insecure in our faith
Because of this absence of seeing.
Our insecurity sometimes deepens when we pray
And no one seems to be listening.
It deepens when we meet friends or family
Who seem so sure in their faith.
We wonder about our faith
When we attend worship
And nothing seems to happen for us.

Let me assure you, however,
That two blessings come from the lips of Christ:
A blessing to those — like Thomas — who see and believe;
A blessing to those — like us — who must believe
Without seeing.

The hardest task,
But perhaps the richest blessing,
Is given for people like you and me,
Who, unlike Thomas,
Do not see,
Yet who still believe.

"Blessed are those who have not seen
Yet who have come to believe."

Amen.

1 John 20:24-26.
2 John 20:24-26.
3 John 20:24-25.
4 Thomas H. Troeger, "These Things Did Thomas Count as Real," from Imaging the Word: An Arts and Lectionary Resource, Volume 2, edited by Susan A. Blain, et al. (Cleveland: United Church Press, 1995), 186.
5 This slogan was in force at St. Thomas Presbyterian Church, Houston, Texas, in the early 1980s.
6 John 20:1-2, 11-18.
7 John 20:3-10.
8 John 20:19-23.
9 John 20:25.
10 John 20:26-28.
11 Most scholars consider John 20 the formal conclusion of the gospel, with John 21 serving as an epilogue.
12 John 20:29.
13 Gail A. Ricciuti, "Easter 2 - April 18, 2004," a paper for The Moveable Feast Preaching Seminar, January 2004.
14 This is also found in Ricciuti's paper.
15 Henry Alford, "We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight," The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms and Spiritual Songs (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), #399.

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310 Fifth Street SE Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
Phone: 319-364-6148
E-mail: church@fpccr.org