Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt but believe." (John 20:27)

This is a part of the gospel text many of us will hear this coming Sunday.  It introduces us, in the common parlance, to Doubting Thomas.  (I wish I could include some music here that would give us a melodramatic "duh duh duh" to indicate the tone with which the name should be read).  You probably already know the gist of the story:  on Easter Eve, the risen Christ showed up in a closed room and offered the disciples shalom and gave them the Holy Spirit.  But Thomas wasn't there.  He'd gone out. Maybe he needed to be alone.  Maybe this was his week to shop.  Maybe he was working on his resume'.  Whatever the reason, he wasn't there and it's not fair! 

As you can probably tell, I like Thomas and furthermore, I think he has been tagged unfairly with a name that bears 2000+ years of baggage and judgment.  And John's gospel doesn't help things much.  After Jesus comes back and lets Thomas touch his hands and his side, and Thomas announces "My Lord and my God", John goes on to quote Jesus, "Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe". 

Now we can do all sorts of word study and exegesis on this passage and we can place it in context and recognize when John's gospel was written and to whom, but the simple fact of the matter is that in most of us (read: me) Jesus' words evoke guilt:  If I were a better disciple, I wouldn't have needed to touch and see.

Yet we do.  Sometimes we do need to touch ... and see ... and taste and smell and hear.  Sometimes it's just more than we can take simply on faith ... simply because someone told us.  Which is why we have bread (gluten AND gluten free) and wine (fermented and non) and water, lilies (with and without stamens) and incense, Handel and Brokering, Latin and German, Spanish and Tanzanian.  We are touching, tasting, seeing, smelling, hearing and believing disciples - sometimes simultaneously, sometimes serially. Which is a large part of why we gather together for worship. 

 

And it isn't about whether we are good or better disciples.  It is about being human - deliciously, foolishly, ponderously, wonderfully human disciples.  And sometimes we just need to go ahead and be ourselves.  Because you know what?  Jesus didn't just show up that one time in that one way for that one group.  And we can count on Jesus to continue that pattern and keeping that promise.  Alleluia!