“Yet you believe.” 

April 16, 2023,  Silver Spring Presbyterian Church,  Mechanicsburg, PA 
Rev. Lisa Strong Chase
All Rights Reserved.

Jesus Appears to the Disciples (John 20:19-30)

¹⁹ On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Jesus and Thomas

²⁴ Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

²⁶ Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” ²⁸ Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!

Humans tend to need to see a phenomenon before they can believe it. When I read the story of Doubting Thomas, I can’t help but remember growing up in Roanoke, where my siblings and I were always bringing creatures home – snakes, baby squirrels, lizards, injured birds, baby birds. I could not wait to tell my friends at school about our new animal, and when I did – often they would have the audacity not to believe me! They needed to see it to believe it!

Thankfully, I went to school at a time where Show and Tell was a regular occurrence, and special animals just for show and tell were allowed, as long as they were not sick, poisonous, or dangerous, and they would not bite. One fall, Mamma brought in Plato, our precious baby squirrel that would drink special formula out of a medicine dropper, and one spring, Daddy brought in the green snake we caught. (We did end of releasing them!)

Seeing is believing, and in the process, I earned a bit of street cred in the game of playground politics. 

Patient parents. Patient teacher - and in Thomas’ case, Patient Jesus!

Studying this text about Thomas and his doubts, took me back to those innocent days, where I was faced with “We don’t believe you until we see it ourselves!” And yes, there have been times that I too have been doubting Thomas until I was able to see, hold, touch something.

Seeing and touching an item further our understanding. Nowadays, museums will have displays that allow visitors to touch the objects in order to see how they feel or how they work. Jesus knows this, as he makes a special trip back to Thomas a week after he appeared to the disciples hiding fearfully. Once Thomas sees Jesus standing before him and touches the holes the nails had made, or the slash in in his side the spear made, he believed! But he had to see them for himself.

The Greek verb for “to see” βλ?πω is used repeatedly in this passage. It can also be translated as “to perceive,” “to come to know” or “to come to understand,” turning this scene from mere witnessing, or the “seeing” of a miracle, to a teachable moment. The best teachers – like Jesus – know that students have different learning styles. Jesus meets Thomas’ need to not only hear the other disciples announcing that Jesus has returned, but to fully experience it for himself as a physical sensation Thomas can receive and believe in Jesus too. Jesus meets Thomas where he is – Just like Jesus meets us where we are.

Who was Thomas and what was his role in Jesus’s Ministry. We don’t know a lot about him except for this one important story. There are a couple of other mentions.

1. At the Raising of Lazarus

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” John 11:16

2.  Jesus the Way to the Father

⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (John 14:5) Jesus answered… “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” John 14:6

Thomas’s ministry took him to India, where he is honored as the country’s patron saint and where he died in 53 AD. As a footnote, there is a Gospel of Thomas, but scholars write that it is not this Thomas’ work.

A question begs to be asked in all of this: Where was Thomas when Jesus made his appearance after the resurrection? We’re told that the disciples were hiding and afraid. Thomas even more so. No one knows. (Scholars don’t know.)

His unbelief prompted Jesus to return just for him. Jesus makes personal house calls. He just appears in the room where they are, locked in. How did Jesus know? He knew as he knew what was going on with us today. 

Commentators write that Thomas was absent to increase the dramatic effect and to provide the ultimate, convincing proof from the most incredulous person, that Jesus is "my Lord and My God". Without this declaration, these scholars believe that John's Gospel would be somehow incomplete, theologically. This remarkable story, which comes just after Mary Magdalene sees Jesus resurrected, pulls the gospel all together – as we have a group of fearful disciples in hiding in a locked room, all of a sudden have the Holy Spirit breathe upon them, Jesus appears to them again just for Thomas’s sake, who recognizes Jesus’s true, divine nature. 

It is interesting to note that only Thomas is given the moniker Doubting Thomas, when the other disciples also had trouble believing Christ’s resurrection and needing that tangible proof. Commentator Martin B. Copenhaver remind us that Mary Magdalene saw the empty tomb and didn’t believe until the risen Christ appeared and spoke directly to her. When Mary told the disciples about her encounter with Jesus, they too could not believe it, they dismissed her, only believing after the risen Jesus appeared and spoke to them, as well. Thomas couldn’t take his colleagues at their word, he just needed more. He must see and feel the mark of the nails in our crucified Savior’s hands.

Doesn’t the Doubting Thomas story say much about human nature that we so often must see something to believe it. The Ripley’s Believe or Not franchise has capitalized on that notion and made some serious bank in the process. What began as a newspaper column, has grown to 29 attractions, which includes 20,000 photographs, 30,000 artifacts and more than 100,000 cartoon panels seen by on average, by 12 million visitors each year. If I told you they had a violin made completely with match sticks, you would want to see it! (Look it up – but not now!

As the most perfect teacher, Jesus knows how to communicate information effectively to others - whether someone is an auditory, visual, kinetic, or tactile learner. In this case, Jesus knew he needed to teach to Thomas’s visual and tactile modes of learning to understand his resurrection! And friends, Jesus knows how he must come to each of us to help us understand.

Being able to see and touch are precious gifts and help us with our faith. Imagine people not having those abilities, yet they still believe. Helen Keller lost her sight and vision as a toddler, and grew up being a writer, speaker, social justice activist all supported by her faith in the risen Lord. 

Helen had a wonderful teacher – Anne Sullivan. Anne would spell words in American Sign Language into Helen’s hands. When Anne would form words with her mouth, Helen would put her own fingers on Anne’s mouth and throat and feel the movements – the vibrations of the words being spoken. Helen would touch the objects for which she was learning words. Helen’s first word was water.

Helen had to touch and feel Anne’s mouth, touch, and hold inanimate objects as she was learning the words, making the connection of what she was holding in order to comprehend. Helen Keller was a remarkable woman. She graduated from Radcliffe in 1904, with Anne Sullivan by her side. Helen Keller was a devout Christian. Later in life, looking back on her years of silence and darkness, she wrote, “I always knew [God] was there. I just did not know his name.”

We may not see Jesus in the flesh, but we can certainly experience him, when we pass the peace of Christ with one another, share the body of Christ and the cup of salvation during Holy Communion, or we hold each other hands in prayers at Bible Study or by a member’s hospital bed. A gentle touch among fellow church members, and strangers in the name of Christ gives us physical proof that Jesus is present.

A couple of questions to ponder this next week:

When have you doubted and needed more from God?

In what ways have you experienced the risen Christ?

In closing, Jesus said the following to his disciples: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

You have not seen, yet you believe. Church, your presence here, and online, your faith supports that. You have not seen, yet you believe as evidence:

Yet you believe, because you serve the cause of Christ in so many ways.

• You attend Bible Studies.
• You perform outreach here at Silver Spring and out in the community.
• You serve as a deacon, an elder, Friendly Visitor or Stephen Minister.
• You visit and call people to encourage them in the faith.
• You pray.
• The list goes on.

You have not seen, yet you believe in the risen Lord, and we and others are all blessed by your belief and your enduring faith. Thanks be to God!

And may it be so. Amen.