So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
The disciples who had seen the Lord couldn't help but proclaim his resurrection. Yet it was never enough for those who heard it. Mary Magdalene proclaimed the resurrection to the disciples, but to them it sounded like nonsense (see Luke 24:10). The disciples who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus proclaimed it to the eleven. Yet when Jesus himself appeared they were still terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost (see Luke 24:37).
But Thomas said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Everyone understood that the dead do not rise again, especially after a horrific death like the one Jesus experienced. They were not not overly credulous because they heard something they wished to believe. Rather, they were traumatized and in shock. When they heard things that sounded too good to be true they refused to even open a door to a hope that would, in their mind, only be quickly crushed.
When the disciples walked with Jesus before his crucifixion they did so because they hoped for the coming of the kingdom. But this kingdom was often misunderstood. There was a process of hoping, being disappointed when their expectations weren't met, and then of refining their hope to be more in line with the kingdom Jesus came to preach. Yet as things looked worse and worse for Jesus in earthly terms this hope must have become harder and harder to maintain. When he died it would have been all too easy to feel it crushed altogether, rather than receiving the final and greatest refinement of it that was to be found in the resurrection.
Should we even proclaim the resurrection? Is it helpful if it only seems like a cruel joke to those who have been so crushed and traumatized by life? We should, and for this reason: that it is in the context of our proclamation that Jesus himself appears. On our own our words lack the power to give faith and restore hope. But Jesus desires to work in the context of our inadequate proclamation to himself do whatever else is necessary.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Jesus doesn't always do this on our timeline. It may be a week, a month, or many years between when we first proclaim him and when Jesus himself chooses to appear. But we can trust that he will do so in our own day, no less than his own. In our day it may not be a physical experience like that of Thomas, but it will nevertheless be an experience of his presence so real that those who have not seen will be able to overcome the same doubts and disappointments as did Thomas and receive the blessings of belief.
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
The best thing we can do with our own doubts and disappointments is to struggle with them in the context of the community of believers, to listen to their testimony, and to await the revelation of Jesus. If we shrink back from the community because it seems too difficult to see people thriving when we suffer we do ourselves a disservice, for it is in his body that Jesus is present. It is there he wants to manifest himself and be known.
This feast of Thomas the Apostle is so urgently necessary for our world today that has been too traumatized by death and suffering to believe that a resurrection could be possible. They have surrendered their hope to a cold materialism that permits no miracles, that can sustain no lasting objective meaning. It is no wonder that they have a hard time with our proclamation that Jesus is risen. We must be sensitive to their suffering yet not cease to proclaim it, knowing that Jesus can overcome anyone's doubt just as he did for Thomas, and that this is just what he desires to do. It is a blessing to believe without seeing, and this blessing is a grace that Jesus himself wants to give.
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God,
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
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