How did Thomas and the other disciples get along during this past week? Last week Jesus pulls quite the surprise by appearing to various disciples – except Thomas. Those who saw Jesus must have been experiencing a gamut of feelings; delight, stunned, perplexity, eager, awed, calm, … They shared all that they could of their astounding experience with Thomas. And he did not believe them.
The disciples lived together for a full week with one of them not believing the essential experience that was transforming all the rest of them. And they did OK together. There seems to be a lesson in that. The eye witnesses did not take the rejection personally. Nor did they direct anything personally against Thomas for not believing them. There is no evidence they laid out for Thomas a creed he needed to recite. They did not turn him away from the communion table. Nor did they tell him he was not saved. What was it Thomas was asked to endure that week? Was it the same joy he experienced with them while Jesus was alive? Was it the same appreciation of his gifts? Was it the same prayerfulness, the same hospitality, the same devotion to service? Was it the same love, the same healing, the same peace?
What if Jesus had never made another post Resurrection appearance? What if Jesus never did appear personally to Thomas? What if Thomas would have come to believe that he had seen the Risen Christ, based on the Risen Christ he witnessed in those who had?
Prayer: Dear Rising Power, change me so that others see love flowing through me.
Question: Who has been as Christ for me?
April 27, 2014 Gospel John 20:19-31 First Sunday of Easter