Embodied Believing

“Embodied Believing”

April 27, 2025- Cobleskill United Methodist Church, Pastor Anna Blinn Cole

John 20:19-31

Second Sunday of Easter

Jesus Appears to the Disciples

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Jesus and Thomas

24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 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.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue[b] to believe that Jesus is the Messiah,[c] the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

It's very common for pastors to take the Sunday after Easter off.  You may have even been surprised to see me this morning.  It can be a nice week to take a break from preaching after the business of Holy Week and Lent.  This year my family didn’t head off on vacation this week because the school district thought it would be fun to put spring break at the same time as Holy Week this year, instead of the week after Easter.  Clearly, they did not consult the pastors when they made this plan.  Nevertheless, I have found one enormous perk to not being on vacation this Sunday- a Sunday I think I’ve probably taken off every other year of my ministry.  The perk is that I get to preach on Thomas!!!  

Thomas, Thomas!  Yeah, you could call me something of a theology nerd.  But I hope by the end of this I’m going to make all of you into nerdy fans of Thomas, too. 

So here’s the thing about Thomas.  He gets a bad rap.  We call this Sunday after Easter the “Doubting Thomas” story.  Why?  Because Thomas asks the question we would all probably ask if we were in his shoes.  You see, the disciples had all seen Jesus the week before. It was the evening of Easter and Jesus appeared to them while they were hunkered down in a locked room.  Pretty amazing.  An experience I would be sad to miss.  Well, that was Thomas.  For whatever reason he wasn’t with the disciples when this extraordinary thing happened.  So, when they all told Thomas about it he famously said he would need to see it for himself. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”  This is not only to see Jesus, but touch the wounds.  To feel the impressions the nails had main and the cut in his side.  To experience his suffering and new life in a tangible way.

For this desire to see and touch, Thomas has forever become known as “doubting.”  Word must have gotten out fast.  When, eight days later, Jesus returned to the group, he went right to Thomas.  Jesus held out his scarred hands where the nails had been.  Jesus told him to touch the wound. To poke his side where he had been stabbed.  If it was tangible proof that Thomas needed, it was his body that Jesus offered. Jesus said: “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 

This experience moved Thomas. “My Lord and my God.”  The wounds were so real.  The body was so alive.  Jesus was there before him, in the flesh, scars and all.  

It’s true that Thomas did doubt, but the story is less about his doubt, than it is about the faith he found when Jesus empowered him to experience the truth of his suffering.  It wasn’t enough to see him, even.  It was when Jesus let him touch his wounds.  That’s when it became clear.  Thomas needed to feel with his own body where it had hurt Jesus to know that it was true. 

Thomas is all of us.  Thomas is all of us.  How many times have you been able to see the truth differently when you put yourself into someone else’s story.  When you let yourself feel their pain and feel their joy.  Why do you think the most compelling news stories are the ones that take us onto the ground where the news is breaking.  The interview with the woman who’s just lost her house in a tornado, or the footage of a river spilling over its banks or the story of the children that have survived war in places like Gaza.  It’s only possible to know suffering when we expose ourselves to the pain.  When we let ourselves not only see the wounds but touch them, too.  This is why immersing ourselves in the life and struggle of someone else changes us.  Not just hearing news stories, but visiting those who suffer.  Getting close to the wounds.  It’s then that there’s no need to guess or presume or doubt, you’re there in it with those who are living through the hard thing.  

This is a struggle for us.  Not because we have difficulty believing once we see it and touch it, but because we’ve siloed ourselves off in our world today such that we don’t get to see and touch one another’s pain, let alone even hear about it.  Much of the country watches news stations that only tell them the stories they want to hear.  It’s easier to write off someone else’s suffering if you never get close enough to it to see its truth.  We shield ourselves from the discomfort of hearing stories of the pain from people we’d rather ignore. We live in bubbles of isolation exposing ourselves only to the truth we imagine to be true, not the truth that is actually true.  

Though we call him doubting, at least Thomas sought out the truth.  At least he was willing to expose himself to the wounds of his beloved teacher.  He knew that it was only in putting himself, his body, into that terribly painful place that he would believe.  

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again.  One of the pieces of our worship service that I find critically important is the sharing of our joys and concerns.  There are some weeks when I know this part of our service will make the whole worship go long.  But it’s too critical to ever leave out.  And here’s why.  When we share what’s on our heart, it’s like showing a piece of ourselves.  Sometimes it’s an open wound. Sometimes it’s a scar.  Sometimes it’s a healed place.  But it’s only when we show those vulnerable parts of ourselves and our lives that the people around us – this beloved community—can be empowered to enter our story and believe what we say to be true.  There are not many spaces right now in our divided society where we can speak to each other from our humanity and share our vulnerability.  Spaces where we can speak across our siloes. And it’s true.  What we share when we share ourselves will always be undeniably true.  No one can doubt that.  

Instead of Doubting Thomas, we should perhaps call him Reaching Thomas.  Reaching for the truth.  Longing to put himself into Jesus’s experience with embodied believing. 

I love Thomas for this.  I love the way this passage models for us how to establish trust and belief when our core has been shaken.  Someday we hope to be the kind of people that don’t have to see to believe, but for now, this is the first step to truth.  Reaching for relationship.  Longing to be close enough to the pain and joy that we can actually touch it and know that it is true. 

I hear wisdom for us in this scripture to reach out and be present to the painful experiences around us.  To let ourselves be open to the experiences of others, even when you may not be inclined to listen.  To put your fingers on their wounds.  Listen to their struggles firsthand.  These are the practices that teach us empathy.  And it’s our empathy that will always guide us toward what is good and what is true.  

There’s something else to be said about Thomas.

The Bible is a collection of books that tell the story of our faith journey, collectively as people over time.  The books of the bible that make up our canon were selected and ordered by the early Christian church in the 3rd century.  People sat around tables and decided which books were the best and most central to include in what we know today as the Bible.  This was, no doubt, a hard decision because there were many other important writings – some even about Jesus.  

One of those writings was the Gospel of Thomas.  A book that largely consists of sayings that Jesus said- some of them echo what Luke and Matthew and Mark write- but others are different and only found in Thomas’s gospel.  They are sometimes difficult to understand, more advanced than Jesus would have shared with his disciples in private.

The Gospel of Thomas had been referenced by early Christians, but it wasn’t until 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, that a collection of ancient texts was discovered and among them- a copy of the Gospel of Thomas.  Fascinating, right? 

The Gospel of Thomas is relatively short and its translation is widely available online.  But after reading through it I can understand why it didn’t make the short list for the Bible.  It leaves its readers with more questions than answers.  Jesus’ teachings in the Gospel of Thomas are invitations to lean in and experience the mystery yourself.  They ask you to discover the kingdom of God not as a distant realm or even a hoped for future on earth, but as an awakening to the divine that lives within you.  A oneness with God.  It’s about discovering that the divine is within and that God’s pain and God’s joy are pain and your joy.  

It's incredibly mystical stuff.  But the connection is there with our scripture passage from today.  

Thomas knew the truth could only be found by leaning into the pain and joy of Jesus.  By experiencing what he experiences in putting his fingers into the wounds.   In a way, Thomas wanted to become one with Jesus in this way.  

I hope there’s a little bit of Thomas in each of us.  When our core has been shaken, it’s the practice of leaning in and reaching for the truth in one another’s pain that will ground us.  When the world swirls around us and everyone claims to have a different version of the truth, let’s find our inner Thomas and say no: I want to see it for myself.  Let us ask each other directly: where does it hurt?  Let us listen to the reply and learn from that which is true.  Let us be a community that bears its pain and its joy in vulnerable ways.  Let us teach one another what is true in this practice.  And let us not be afraid of our doubt, because it is our doubt that causes us to ask bigger questions and reach further in toward Jesus. 

Let us pray. 

Maker, Healer, Gatherer God,You formed our bodies from the dust and called them good.You made all creation to be in fellowship with one another.

Remind us of our calling to maintain this world;Guide us in our pursuit of justice for every body that calls this place home;Enliven us and energize us with the glow of your love.May we show that love to every being that comes near to us.

Ever near God, draw us in to see the wounds of the world.Give us the strength to bear witness.Grant us the courage to proclaim what we have seen.Open the ears of all that are there to hear.

God, gather us together in your love;Strengthen our resolve to collaborate;Open our hearts to your possibilities.May it be so. Amen.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Anna