Loving God, you came to Thomas in the midst of his doubt and fear and gave him the gift of faith. Come to us also in our doubts and fears, bringing us life in all its fulness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

James Taylor, a Canadian Christian writer, has written a book of devotions entitled An Everyday God. One of those devotions focuses on Thomas from today’s gospel. Here is what Taylor has to say:

Poor old doubting Thomas. Of all the disciples and followers of Jesus mentioned in the Bible, only his name and Judas’ have become part of common speech. They’re both seen as having betrayed their master – Judas directly, and Thomas by doubting. By not having faith. By questioning the Resurrection.
Thomas got a bad deal from history. Except for that one incident, we would probably know him as “stout-hearted Thomas,” because the only other significant incident involving him came when Jesus heard that his friend Lazarus was dying in Bethany, near Jerusalem, and decided to return to that village.
The disciples just about went out of their minds. Jesus had to flee from that area not long before to avoid being stoned. When it became clear that he was going, it was Thomas who said, “Let us go along with the master, so that we can all die with him.”
Unlike many people today, who use honest doubt as an excuse for not trying (“I’d love to teach Sunday school, but I’m just not sure enough of my own faith”), Thomas stayed with the group of disciples. All he asked for was the same evidence that Jesus had already offered the others – the holes in his hands and his side.
They all had plenty of evidence for his death. They had been there. With their own ears, they heard him cry out. With their own eyes, they saw the spear lance up under his ribs. With their own hands, they carried his cold and stiffening body to the borrowed tomb.
They knew he was dead. Now Thomas wanted equally good evidence that he was risen.
Give Thomas some credit. He must have wished with all his heart that Jesus was not dead. Like most of us who, after the assassination of John Kennedy, kept hoping that somehow the whole thing had been a mistake, Thomas would have hoped that his master really was alive still. But Thomas was a realist. He wasn’t going to give in to wishful thinking.
Significantly, Thomas didn’t go looking for that evidence in the past. He didn’t say he would believe if a gynecologist could verify the virgin birth or if a genealogical expert could prove that Jesus was directly descended from David. He asked for his evidence in the here and now.
I suspect that as long as we use history and archaeology to test the foundations of our faith – however valid those pursuits may be – we will only come up with more questions, and maybe more doubts. Like Thomas, we need to look for our evidence in the here and now. We need to learn how to recognize the presence of God in this world.
When I first started looking for that presence, I admit I didn’t find too much.
Now that it has become more of a habit, I find so much evidence, in so many ways, that I wonder how I could have missed it before.
I don’t have to have all the evidence. Just as Thomas didn’t actually have to insert his hand into the wound in Jesus’ side.
But as one example of God’s continuing presence follows another, I find there’s enough evidence – more than enough – to satisfy my doubts.
And like Thomas, I can say, “My Lord and my God.”
(James Taylor, An Everyday God: Insights from the Ordinary, 2005: Wood Lake Books, Inc., Kelowna, BC, pp. 182-184)

I like Taylor’s emphasis on recognizing the presence of God in the world here and now. For me, this is ultimately what my faith is based on – the evidence I have seen personally of God’s power at work. Yet, many people find impediments to their faith in some of the very things that Taylor mentions – trying to prove things in the past. One such thing that seems to cause problems for people are the passages in Scripture that seem to imply that Jesus would be raised after 3 days. I get asked about this almost every year around Easter, and so I’d like to take a moment to address it.

First of all, if you were to take some time to search the Old Testament, you would discover that 3 days is a very common period of time. Jonah is said to have been in the belly of the whale for 3 days and 3 nights (Jon. 1:17). When thick darkness covers the land of Egypt, it is for 3 days (Ex. 10:22). During Moses’ time, a 3 days’ journey is often mentioned – most often into the wilderness (e.g. Num. 10:33). And when the Israelites finally reach the Jordan river, Joshua tells them that in 3 days they will cross over into the promised land (Josh. 1:11).

It is an expression that was often used to mean a short interval of time (Interpreter’s Bible re: Jn. 2:20). In the same way, often 40 days and 40 nights was used to mean a long period of time. It is a Hebrew way of thinking that messes us up in our modern quest for exact time periods. And so the passages that talk about Jesus being raised after three days simply mean, “after a short interval of time.” That particular expression would have been used in order to connect Jesus’ time in the grave with some of those Old Testament experiences of darkness and wilderness and waiting to enter the promised land. Meanwhile, the expression, “on the third day,” which is part of the creed, also comes from the Scriptures and counts Friday as the first day, Saturday as the second, and Sunday as the third (cf. Hos. 6:2; Mt. 16:21; 1 Cor. 15:4).

Ultimately, how to count the days would have been of little concern to the earliest Christians. What mattered to them was that Jesus had died and was risen and continued to work in the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. They had seen the risen Christ for themselves, and their lives were changed forever because of it.

Today’s gospel finishes with this thought: “These [things] are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31). How is it that we have come to believe? Is it through the Scriptures? Is it through the witness of others? Is it through hearing God’s Word? Is it through historical proofs? Is it through seeing in our lives and in the lives of others what the Holy Spirit can do? However it is that faith has been given to us, may we, too, experience life in all its fulness – life in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Easter 2(A) John 20:19-31
March 30, 2008
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore

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