Doubting Disciples

This Sunday’s Gospel reading is the “Doubting Thomas” story (John 20:19-31).  He’s not there on that first Easter evening when Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors for fear.  Jesus shows them his wounds, gives them his peace, breathes on them his Spirit—the Holy Spirit—and commissions them with the mission he received from God.  Thomas isn’t there and he doesn’t believe them.  He insists on touching the wounds for himself.  Thomas gets singled out, but he’s not the only one who doubted.  Mary Magdalene encounters the Risen Lord that morning, she runs and tells the disciples… who don’t believe her, even though there is some objective reality to her news—Jesus’ tomb was empty.

            Who do you trust?  When they tell you something momentous has happened to them, do you believe them?  I think most of us have people in our lives that we would believe.  And there are some people we wouldn’t believe.  In most cases, I think, we would need to see some “evidence” of change, or some effect on them for us to believe it.  Sometimes something happens to us and we’re not sure we believe it ourselves!  And we look for advice or guidance from people we trust—“This happened to me; what does it mean?”  In Lutheran theology at least, there’s an idea that you can “know a thing, understand a cause, by its effects.”  For instance, the Holy Spirit works through the Good News, because we can feel and see it’s “effects”—peace, joy, strength, etc.  In our modern scientific age, I think we “overthink” the Bible, demanding it provide a certain kind of evidence, when in our lives deep things happen to us (or the ones we love) and we believe them anyway.

            Jesus gives Thomas what he needs, invites him to touch the nail holes and put his hand in his side.  And then Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (vs. 29).  I think that describes the vast majority of us—certainly me.  I have come to trust God in Christ and have seen and felt the effects of the Spirit in me and others.  That’s enough for me to listen to Christ and to follow.

Happy Easter!

Pr. Christian