A Divine Do-Over

(Scriptures: Acts 2:14a, 22-32
I Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31)

This morning’s Gospel reading tells of one of the most famous of Jesus’ appearances after the resurrection, namely, his appearance to Thomas. In a sense, though, today’s account of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance is sort of a two-fer: buy one, get one free – because Jesus actually appears to the disciples twice. We’re told that on the evening of the resurrection, the apostles were all locked away behind closed doors, for fear of the religious authorities. For some unspecified reason, Thomas was not with them. Jesus appeared to them, showing them his hands, which bore the print of the nails, and his side, where the soldier’s spear had pierced. After this appearance, when Jesus was no longer with them, Thomas showed up. The disciples are all bursting to tell him “we’ve seen the Lord we’ve seen the Lord oh my goodness we’ve seen the Lord.” It was then that Thomas told the disciples “Unless I feel the print of the nail and put my hand in his side, I will not believe.” It is from this story that the disciple gets his nickname “doubting Thomas”. A week later, the scene repeats: same disciples, hiding in the same room behind the same locked door for the same reason: fear of the religious authorities. The only difference is, this time Thomas is with them. And once again, Jesus appears, and shows his wounds to Thomas as he had to the other disciples. Jesus invites Thomas to touch them, but we’re not told that Thomas actually did. Thomas cries out, “My Lord and my God.” It was then that Jesus says, “Do you believe because you have seen? Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Thomas has the reputation for being a doubter, but I think it’s actually a bad rap. While the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke just name Thomas as one of the disciples, with no other information given, John’s Gospel fleshes out our picture of Thomas a bit. Thomas pops up two other times in John’s Gospel, once when Jesus was returning to Judea to visit Mary, Martha and Lazarus – Jesus had just escaped a crowd that wanted to stone him, and the disciples were questioning why Jesus would ever want to go back there, but Thomas bravely said, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” And at the Last Supper, Thomas’s question about the way to where Jesus was going led to Jesus’ declaration, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” So in John’s Gospel at least, Thomas wasn’t any kind of problem child disciple – he’s shown to have courage and to be theologically engaged with Jesus, willing to risk asking a question if Jesus is talking over his head. And in today’s reading, Thomas essentially had the same encounter with the risen Christ that the other disciples did – it just happened a week later. While this Scripture has a very explicit lesson for the readers of John’s Gospels – essentially, blessed are those who read this book and believe and are willing to stake your life on what’s written there – I think there’s also a subtle lesson about the nature of God’s love.

Jesus could very well have limited himself to just that first appearance to the disciples, the one when Thomas was absent. He could have left a message with the disciples for Thomas: hey, you had your chance, but you were out to lunch when I appeared. Or maybe you’d gone fishing. Or maybe you needed your beauty sleep. You snooze, you lose. But that’s not what Jesus did – instead, Jesus patiently waited a week and did a do-over of his earlier appearance, just for Thomas. The wording of the gospel is the same in both appearances, except for Jesus’ additional words to Thomas. In golf, if you take a really bad swing and your fellow golfers are forgiving, they may allow you to do the shot over, to take a mulligan. And in a sense, Jesus allowed Thomas a mulligan. God allowed a divine do-over of the appearance of Jesus just for Thomas’ sake. That’s how much Jesus loved Thomas, and that’s how important Thomas was to God’s plan for the disciples.

How about us? I think all of us need a do-over, a mulligan, now and then, not only in golf, but in life. Sometimes we’re not where we need to be when God is doing a great work. Sometimes we miss the boat. We don’t always understand immediately or get everything right the first time – far from it. But we worship a God of the second chance, a God who welcomes seekers whether they come early or late in life. We know so many stories: the parable of the prodigal son, coming home to ask his dad for another chance. Paul on the Damascus road, his life turned around to witness to the Christ whose church he had earlier tried to stamp out. God patiently waited for Paul to be in the place where God could reach him with a vision of the risen Christ. God seeks out the lost sheep and the lost coin, and when found brings them home rejoicing.

People come to Christ in different ways and at different times in their lives. Many – I suspect most of Emanuel’s long-time members, were raised in the church, were brought to Jesus as children and blessed. Fifty years ago, that was the norm. But not today. But not everyone finds Christ in that way. Some come to Jesus via a conversion experience, via a prayer for salvation that emerges out of some deep crisis. Some come to Jesus as a way to find deeper meaning to life or connection with others. Some come to Jesus early in life, and some come later. I’ve experienced that myself, as a fifty-year old answering a call after I’m already midway into a career in health care finance, well into middle age, sitting next to 20-somethings just out of college, responding to that same call. But nobody comes to Christ, whom Christ does not call first. At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” And when God chooses us, God waits for us, waits until we are ready for an encounter with Christ – be that in infancy, in childhood, in adulthood, in old age, or even on our deathbed. And we as Emanuel Church need to be ready to welcome those whom God chooses, no matter where they are on life’s journey when they find us.

Jesus told the disciples that he had chosen them so that the would go and bear much fruit. And, indeed, Thomas was more than faithful, more than diligent on this point. While we don’t read much more about Thomas in the Bible other than a brief mention in the book of Acts, there’s a very strong tradition that the Apostle Thomas brought the Gospel to India, specifically to a community of Jews living in a part of India called Kerela. Most Indian Christians trace their faith in some way through the Apostle Thomas. And we have two such congregations in Philadelphia affiliated with the United Church of Christ, including one whose members all came from Kerela, where Thomas was first said to have brought the Gospel. So the outcomes of Jesus’ calling Thomas to faith are not just long ago and far away, but are alive, to this day, in the UCC, in Philadelphia.

There’s one other point in our reading from John’s Gospel, a powerful point, but mentioned so briefly that we can miss it while we’re waiting to hear about Thomas. When Jesus appeared to the disciples, John tells us, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” In essence, these words, brief as they are, constitute John’s Pentecost story, John’s story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the conferral of apostolic authority on the eleven disciples. In contrast to Luke’s account of the sound of a mighty wind and tongues of flame and the disciples speaking in foreign tongues, John’s account of the conferring of the Holy Spirit is quiet, possible to miss if you’re not looking for it. In fact, this sentence “Receive the Holy Spirit” is part of the sacrament of baptism, but again, it can go by so quickly we can miss it.

Today we will be celebrating both Sacraments – baptism and holy communion. May we be attentive for God’s presence, during this holy moment in our church’s history.
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Feel the need for a do-over in your relationship with God? Join us for worship at Emanuel United Church of Christ on Sundays at 10 a.m. We're on Fillmore Street (between Thompson and Almond). www.emanuelphila.org