In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!
John 20.19-31
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” And 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; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, 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 in His hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe.” Eight days later, His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but 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; and put out your hand, and place it in My side; do not be faithless, but believing.” 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 believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.
Today is Thomas Sunday. I recently came across a little cartoon on the subject of Saint Thomas. In it, the artist shows him having a conversation with Saint Peter and Saint Mark the Evangelist. Saint Thomas is complaining about his nickname and points out that no one calls Saint Peter ‘Denying Peter’ or Saint Mark ‘Runs away naked Mark’. Saint Peter says that he understands the point that Saint Thomas is making, but that he really it’s time to move on!
The cartoon, of course, is only making a joke. Saints, as we all know, are generally humble people, so I think it unlikely that Saint Thomas would be complaining in this way. Nonetheless, it does make a fair point, in that we sometimes only focus on one aspect of Saint Thomas’ character when we look at him through the lens of this nickname – and, as an aside, it is worth noting that the Church titles this day Thomas Sunday and not ‘Doubting Thomas Sunday’. And it is worth reminding ourselves why it was that Thomas was not with the other Apostles on the day of the Resurrection. They were inside with the doors closed ‘for fear of the Jews’. Since Thomas wasn’t there, he had clearly gone out and was not afraid like his fellow-apostles were.
We may also note that the Ten who stayed indoors had already been told earlier by the Myrrh-bearing women that they had gone to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away and it was empty; and that they had been told by angels that He had risen. Further, a few verses earlier in this same chapter of Saint John’s Gospel, that Mary Magdalene had told the disciples how she had met with and spoken to the Risen Lord in the garden where the by then empty tomb was located.
However, we read in Luke chapter 24 that what the women had to say was regarded by the disciples as ‘idle tales’. Some ran to the tomb themselves and confirmed that it was indeed empty; ‘but Him they saw not.’ Looking to what is written elsewhere in the Gospels it is clear, despite what they have been told by the women, the Apostles are shocked and amazed when they finally see Jesus for themselves. In other words, they also did not believe until they saw for themselves.
So, let us not focus too much on the doubt of Thomas and the fact that he did not believe until he saw, for it was something that he was not alone in. Indeed, the Fathers point out that when Jesus returned to that room on the following Sunday, He did not wait for Saint Thomas to ask to touch His wounds, but at once invited him to do so. Not only did Jesus know what Saint Thomas had said, He was willing to allow him to do what was needed to assure himself that Jesus had indeed risen, but was actually standing before him in the room, a real, physical human being, alive but carrying the wounds that had been used to torture and kill Him.
Saint Thomas, however, does not need to touch the Risen Christ. At that moment, all becomes clear to him. The Messianic prophesies of the Old Testament and what our Lord said about Himself and what would happen, all fall into place; and he expresses this understanding in the simple but profound phrase ‘My Lord and My God!’
And our Lord’s response to that exclamation is one that has also echoed down the ages: ‘Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe’. Who is it that He says are so blessed? No one in that room with Him on the first Sunday after His resurrection, for all there saw Him before they believed. Nor the women who met with Him in the garden on the day He rose from the dead, for they also had seen Him. He speaks of those who a few weeks later would listen to Saint Peter on the day of Pentecost and be baptised. He speaks of those who in every part of the Roman Empire in the years to come would be convinced of the truth of Who Christ was, and would hold to that truth even in the face of torture and death. He speaks of the generation after generation who have accepted the Faith and held to it, whatever the cost, down through the centuries. He speaks to us, we in the present day who believe in Christ and dwell within the fold of the Church that He founded.
We are among the ones Christ called blessed. We are the ones who believe, not because we have seen Him in the flesh, but because we have faith in the witness given to us by Saint Thomas and his fellow Apostles, a witness passed down to us faithfully by the Holy Orthodox Church every day since that day Saint Thomas first proclaimed ‘My Lord and My God!’ And it is because of that that we can ourselves proclaim, without any doubt: ‘Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!’
Amen.
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