Nobody wants to miss a big event. Like when you’re in line for hot dogs at the stadium and you hear the crowd go wild at a homer with the bases loaded. That you didn’t see. Or you leave a party just before Brad and Angelina show up (happens to me all the time… not you?) Or you relinquish your front row place at a parade and then hear that the President’s motorcade is in sight.
Perhaps the biggest “miss” in human history was Thomas’, who ducked out for a smoke or some errand, and missed the risen Lord of heaven and earth suddenly showing up for supper with his bereaved and confused disciples! And despite the fact that they all told him the same story – “Jesus was here! He really was!,” Thomas refused to buy it.
“But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, 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 the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’” [Sunday's Gospel passage is here.]
Did he think they were prey to a shared hallucination born of wishful thinking? Were his credulity muscles worn out by the roller-coaster of the past few days? Or is it that Thomas was always a fast decider, and thus quickly evaluated the data available to him, and deemed it insufficient?
Is Thomas the patron saint of doubters? Or is he the patron saint of “trust but verify?” There was nothing wrong with Thomas’ faith, nor his courage. He was quick to follow Jesus into situations of danger if called for, including during the incident with Lazarus. But for some reason, despite having witnessed that miracle, he found it too far a stretch to believe that Jesus was risen from the dead on faith alone. He wanted to see, he wanted to touch.
He is not alone. How many people do you know who are drawn to the Jesus story, drawn to the life of the church, even inclined to believe – if only they could see some proof. Some people are wired that way, others formed that way by past experiences or disappointments. As this story continues, we see that Jesus was willing to indulge Thomas’ desire to see with his physical eyes – and he commends those who are able to believe on faith-sight alone.
Does Jesus indulge those who want proof in the same way? Not quite in the same way – after the Ascension, nobody got to see Jesus’ resurrection body or touch his wounds. But in many ways, I believe God does allow us to “see” the reality of God-Life around us. We might use the same criteria that Jesus did when John’s disciples asked if really was the Anointed One they’d been expecting. “Go and tell John what you see,” he replied, “The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Luke 7:22).
We can see – and experience – amazing healing, transforming love, injustice addressed, chains of addiction and destructive patterns broken. In some Christian communities people even witness the (recently) dead raised. One message that Easter shouts to us is “Nothing is impossible with God!” The more we believe and live out that truth, the more evidence our senses and minds receive.
Christ is visible now through us, his body in the world. His wounds are visible in ours, and as our wounds become healed ones, as his were, healing can flow through them to others. Then everyone can see and touch and believe.
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