Leaning In
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Thomas said, "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."
-John 20:25
On the Sunday after Easter, we always hear about Thomas and his doubts. The lectionary designers must have thought this to be a very important reading, because we hear it every year instead of once every three years like most Sunday. readings. And it always comes right after the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. In the next few weeks, we’ll hear many other stories of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, but Thomas always starts it off.
I can relate to Thomas. I mean - how many of us have seen someone who was dead and buried literally alive again? Sure, it’s a miracle, but do such things really happen? Thomas wasn’t so sure. And he wasn’t willing to take his friends’ word on it, either. “Unless I see him myself I will not believe,” he tells them.
Jesus understood his skepticism, too, and he know that it is our doubts that keep us searching. So he made sure to come back again when Thomas was there and invited him to look at him and even touch him. Then, after this personal encounter with Jesus, Thomas says to him, “My Lord and my God!”
There is no faithful person alive who is not like Thomas. Like him, we all were not in the room when Jesus first re-appeared. And we, too, have a hard time putting the resurrection story together logically, because in human history, no one who has died and buried comes alive again, except in zombie movies. So it is simply not a logical story. Who wouldn’t have doubts? We have a hard time accepting anything that we have not seen with our own eyes, right? But Jesus makes a point of saying that those who have not seen but yet come to believe are blessed. That’s a tall order.
I think rather than focus on just one sense, sight, we need to recognize that Thomas had a complete experience with Jesus that day - an encounter that went beyond his sight and his touch. And such experiences still DO happen to people of faith everyday. It may not be literally seeing the historical Jesus, but it can nonetheless be a powerful encounter with, or insights about, Christ. And it is such experiences that help us trust and believe, even when it means we have to let go of the need to have logical explanations.
In an era when gazillions of bytes of data are at our fingertips, what does it mean to lean into the unprovable story of the resurrection and Jesus and faith? How does it help us to enter into mystery and into the big questions that really have no answers? I think whatever the answer is, it is what makes us, as human beings, different than AI robots. I think the answer is beyond logic and reason. It is cosmic territory that transcends logic and understanding.
Each year we remember that the human struggle with doubt and faith is a lifelong process in which layers get peeled off one at a time until the day we will stand with no pretense or armor before the throne of God. Until then, we learn how to lean in and trust Christ to be our guide to get there.
