Based on John’s Gospel 20: 19-end

“Unless I see (for myself) I will not believe.” So said Thomas the Apostle a week after Jesus’ resurrection. How often do we hear that sort of statement these days?  “What do you take me for - a complete idiot?” “You can’t pull the wool over my eyes!” It’s ironic that our 21^st Century society, secular, educated, rational and pragmatic, is so gullible that we are increasingly falling for a soaring number of scams.

Let’s remember it’s only a week since we “Easter People” stood up and sang (lustily with some little musicality) the great Easter hymn “Thine be the Glory” with its triumphant phrase “No more we doubt thee, Glorious Prince of Peace.” And here we are back, only a week later, with Doubt on the agenda.

For a moment, let’s just think what plants Doubt in our minds today and then let’s see what help we might get from the Thomas episode

There are two things bugging me at the moment:” Fake News” and “Follow the Science”  

We imperfect humans have to contend with Fake News. I am not sure Donald Trump invented the phrase but he certainly used it to throw doubt on what his opponents were saying. Conversely, it’s clear that the Russian Government is manufacturing Fake News in order to fool the ordinary Russian into believing the Putin story about the Ukraine. It’s no new thing either: go to the cinema this week and watch Colin Firth star in “Operation Mincemeat,” the film about the wool being pulled over the Hitler’s eyes in 1943.

Then try Following the Science

Science continuously sheds new light on society’s sacred beliefs. Galileo was persecuted for discovering that the earth was round and Darwin was ridiculed for his theory of evolution. Only last week, we got a new perspective on the creation story in Genesis when a star was discovered whose light reached us 12.9 billion years after it was created. So much for the Northern Irish politician and fundamentalist who recently proclaimed the Earth was created 4000 years ago.

It's funny. It’s only recently we got fed up being told what to do by “Experts” but then coronavirus swept the world and politicians urged us to “Follow the Science” as they desperately sought a response to the pandemic. So, we all sat each night avidly watching the Coronavirus Show on TV.  Experience was limited and scientific theories unlimited, about what would happen.

Back to the first Easter Sunday:  no one had experienced a Resurrection before. The science of the time had no comment and there was the question of was it Fake News or not.  Was it surprising that there was doubt, if not disbelief, surrounding the event? Mark noted at the end of his Gospel, that many erstwhile followers of Jesus just could not believe it.

Thomas had missed the meeting of the key disciples immediately after Resurrection Day. Why, we don’t know. He had been a stalwart amongst the Twelve, although we don’t know his background or the circumstances of his calling by Jesus. He has a cameo appearance earlier in John’s Gospel (Chapter 14).  In response to Jesus telling them he was going to prepare rooms for them in heaven, Thomas rather bluntly says “No, we don’t know where You are going; so how can we know the way?” The answer to the question was of course “Jesus - the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

Having missed the first meeting and spent a week disagreeing with the other 10 disciples, he’s there at the second gathering, behind locked doors again, and is equally blunt with his questions. Either the science didn’t fit or it could be fake news; let’s face it, the Temple leaders were desperate to cover it up. Without the evidence he would not believe. Judaism did have a belief in the Resurrection of the dead, although it was linked to a Messiah fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham, Moses and the Jewish nation: not to some fellow claiming to be the Son of God and bringing salvation to the world at large. 

The end result is well known. Jesus appears to the gathered disciples, once more offers them his Peace, and asks Thomas to intimately inspect the evidence; “Thomas, do not doubt, just believe.” And Thomas responds simply, “My Lord and my God”.

This turns the spotlight of the narrative onto us, if we think about it. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”

I saw a comment recently about Thomas from which I personally drew great hope. Rather than being seen as a vacillating, indeterminate sort of fellow, riddled with indecision, he set an example of Questioning Faith; amongst all the arguments and pressures against belief in Christ and his resurrection, he got there in the end and with an enduringly strong faith. So strong tradition has it that he travelled to India and established the Christian church there.  

I wish I could stand up here and recount the occasion when the blinding light of faith struck me. For me faith has been a journey of Questioning, so I have an empathy for Thomas’s position.

To share with you some milestones on that journey:

“Following the Science” and its rationalism always leads me to ask how to get from the How to the Why? In the beginning was the Big Bang; but what preceded the Big Bang?  My belief is that it is the Word (“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”). If we were writing the Bible today it would be with a different creation story, (and much else), in the light of current scientific knowledge but that would  not cancel God for me.

And thus similarly for me the Crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Obviously, none of us were there and none of us had the second chance like Thomas. Nevertheless Jesus’ offer of his Peace and his blessing for believing in Him - despite not witnessing his resurrection- is all the more welcome because it’s more difficult to hold to.

Hold to it I try, fallibly I regret; so often. The sheer depth of Jesus love for me is so astounding that I keep on trying to keep up. Trying to find some prime time to let him be with me in an attempt to get to know him a little bit better. Giving time to let God in through the so often locked doors of my mind. Still I know God is big enough to handle any doubts I may have.

A final point that always tugs at my mind; Humankind with all its brokenness needs the message that Jesus brings – forgiveness and salvation through His death and resurrection.  So much of human society is based on self; – self-interest, selfishness, self-importance, self-seeking, self-aggrandisement.

A revolutionary reversal is necessary if something of the Kingdom of God is to be seen on Earth and it’s all summed up in Jesus’ second great commandment - Love Thy Neighbour.

So despite the questions raised by Following the Science and the fogginess of Fake News, I would hope my questioning journey allows me to face Jesus on a daily basis and say like Thomas - “My Lord and my God”

Amen

Robert Avis.