This is Thomas Sunday throughout the Orthodox Church in the world. It is the Second Sunday of Pascha and the first lesson that the resurrected Christ would give us through His holy Church is that of the example of Thomas. Such an example may seem strange at first. After all, in the West, Thomas is well characterized as a doubter—“doubting Thomas” is a name you call someone who doubts. It has a decidedly negative connotation.
If we examine the Gospel a little more closely, however, we soon realize there the story of Thomas—and his doubts—is actually a catalyst to greater faith. The context of Thomas’ questioning and seeking, is this miraculous visit by the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. The doors are shut. Jesus is flesh and blood. He is in His resurrected body. Yet, he just appears to them in their midst without passing through the closed door. Amazing. He shows them His now healed hands and feet and side and it is enough for the other disciples. As they report to Thomas, they exclaim, “We have seen the Lord.”
But the other disciples have done more than just “seen the Lord”: they have had an encounter with the risen Lord, that is, they have received His peace—He who is the “Prince of Peace.” They have received the Holy Spirit—that is, they have been commissioned to go forth to spread the truth of Christ, the Gospel, into all the world. And, significantly, Christ has established His New Covenant Church through them and their witness at this time, empowering them to forgive and retain sins in His holy Name.
Thomas was not with them for this encounter with the risen Lord, the God-man who has battled sin and death and emerged victorious as no one else could. And so, it’s at this point that we hear the lines that have made Thomas renowned by some as a “doubter”: “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (Jn. 20:25). It’s quite a definitive ultimatum.
Eight days later, when Jesus again appears to the disciples, Thomas is now with them. So, here is Thomas’ chance to stand his ground and reiterate what he so pridefully and confidently said before? No! The risen Lord has preempted him to bring him—and us—to greater faith.
Again, the doors are shut. There is no way in. Yet, Jesus appears in their midst—not as a spirit, but in flesh and blood. The question of whether Jesus Christ was physically raised from the dead is not some minor detail here. This is THE question on which all else turns. If Christ is merely a spirit, a ghostly presence, then there is no victory over death. Death is physical and so, the proof of Christ God’s victory over death IS the resurrection of the body.
There are some denominations of Christianity today that even now publicly say this—so much has Scholasticism infiltrated their thinking that the very basis of Christianity is now thrown out the window. I myself have heard such heresy. Nor is this just a modern “post-Christian” problem, but not many years after these historic events took place, the Gnostic heresies began in earnest, denying and castigating the bodily resurrection of Christ.
So yes, Jesus preempts Thomas, revealing that He knows what Thomas has said even though He was not there. Another miracle. It is then, after again granting them His peace, the peace that He can only give, that He has Thomas put His finger in His life-giving side from which on the cross flowed both blood and water.
The Lord’s admonishment, “Do not be unbelieving but believing,” is almost redundant because no sooner does the Lord say these words, that Thomas, now convinced beyond any shred of doubt, exclaims with great faith, “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28).
Thomas’ exclamation is stronger than were his doubts. As with everything with Christ God, no opportunity is wasted with idle words, but all serves to challenge and strengthen the faint-hearted. As one Church Father puts it, “The conversion of Thomas’ doubt into faith led him to the clearest confession of Christ’s divinity, addressing Jesus as “My Lord and my God.” For this reason, in the Slavonic tradition, the icon of Thomas’ encounter here in John 20 with the risen God-man, Jesus Christ, is called, “The Belief of Thomas.”
The hymnody for this weekend of Thomas Sunday develops this theme of Thomas’ faith-stretching doubt and subsequent proclamation of the truth of Christ God: “Your doubt will teach my Passion and Resurrection to all.”
Indeed, this is exactly what Thomas did. He traveled far and wide to preach the Gospel of Good News to all that Christ God is risen, trampling down death by His death, defeating sin and making a way for all mankind to likewise become victors with Him over the same. Thomas preached as far as India where the so-called “Thomas Christians,” our Oriental Orthodox brethren, continue to trace their spiritual heritage to this great man of faith going back 2,000 years.
Our own trails, doubts, fears, can become opportunities from growth in faith and trust in the living God, the One who has won the victory over sin and death on our behalf and called us through new birth by water and the spirit, Baptism and Chrismation, into Him who is the Life of all. If we are willing to struggle and strive to put our trust in Him rather than in ourselves or in other idols, God will reveal Himself to us.
Thomas’ doubts were not resistance to the Truth that is Christ, but rather a yearning for a deeper understanding, a true answer. Christ God does not leave us alone, lonely, but provides to us His Body the Church which is enlivened by His ever-abiding presence through the Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Spirit of Truth. Christ God, Emanuel, God with us, is never far from any of us if we are willing to cry out to Him, to avail ourselves of the tools of His Church. Greater faith is here for the taking. On this day, beseech St. Thomas to pray for the peace of your soul and the furtherance of your faith and trust in the risen Lord, our God and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be praise, honor and glory together with His unoriginate Father and the Ever-Processing Holy Spirit now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Thomas Sunday—15 April 2018
Epistle: Acts 5:12-20
Gospel: John 20:19-31
