Day Sixty One - Just-like-us Thomas

The lectionary reading for today is John 20: 19-31, which I love as it seems so honest and true to life. Despite all that had happened in the previous three years, and despite the previous verse, “Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples: ‘I saw the Master!’ And she told them everything he said to her” (Jn 20:18 The Message), the disciples were huddling in fear. We might sing “Be bold, be strong…” but we too are timid much of the time.

What those early followers needed was reassurance that their trust in Jesus had not been in vain, that they had not wasted three years of their lives. First with words, then with an action, Jesus offered that reassurance. Those precious words were repeated and, again with words backed up by action, the sacred breath of God was shared with a reminder: people need to know they are forgiven.

Thomas was missing. I think John hinted where Thomas might have gone. Thomas was a twin. I suspect the bond with his womb-sharer was stronger in his distress than the link he had with the other disciples. Thomas had gone to share his sorrow and bewilderment with his closest brother or sister.

The next words have marked Thomas for years as doubting Thomas. How about honest Thomas? Slow-to-trust Thomas? Just-like-us Thomas? Once again, Jesus offered reassurance, shalom, deep peace. Having said those words, Jesus invited Thomas the chance to perform an action, but Thomas no longer needed to do what he had suggested he would. Seeing Jesus and hearing Jesus was enough for him.

Jesus asked, “Have you believed because you have seen me?” (v.29) There’s a rhetorical question if ever there was one! But who was Jesus talking about in the second half of the verse – “those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”? Obviously John had aimed these remarks at his first listeners/readers – those who had seen the eye witnesses dying without Jesus returning. But surely we can extend these words to ourselves too? We have not seen Jesus, and yet we believe. Partly we believe because we have our Bibles and can read for ourselves: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Prayer:

Risen Lord, we thank you for the lives of your apostles as we glimpse them in the Gospels.

We thank you for Simon Peter, whose habit of speaking first and thinking later led him to deny that he had ever known you.

We thank you for Andrew, who found the young lad who shared his lunch so that Jesus could feed the multitude.

And we thank you for Thomas, whose honesty prompted you to say “I am the way, the truth and the life” and whose scepticism made him the first to call you God.

Thank you for calling them; thank you for calling me. Amen.

Elaine Kinchin