For Sunday, April 7, 2013

Reading:  John 20:19-31

 

The story of Doubting Thomas – what a wonderfully human and universal disciple.  

 

This story is written about Jesus and his disciples in the days immediately following his crucifixion and resurrection, as they slowly come to understand what the resurrection of Jesus means for them, and where it leads them.  The story is written by and for the church a generation or more later, by and for people who never knew Jesus or the first disciples, as they try to come to terms with what the resurrection of Jesus means for them, and where it leads them in their time.  

 

The first disciples are trying to come to terms with a messiah whose way seems so right, but who allowed himself to be killed; they are wondering if his way of self-sacrificial love is still worth following or not.  The later church is struggling with their expulsion from the Jewish community (which is the context within which we should probably understand the statement that the disciples were hiding “for fear of the Jews”) and continued marginalization within the Empire; they are wondering if the way of Jesus will ever triumph in the world.

 

Do we ever doubt or have questions about the way of Jesus?  Do we sometimes wonder if it’s realistic to live as he tells us?  Are there situations where we doubt that it makes sense to make his ethic our way of life?

 

And – in light of what the risen Jesus gives his disciples (peace and the power to forgive people, and free the world from its sins) do our doubts and questions make us less at peace than we need to be?  When we doubt and question the way of Jesus as the way to live, do we limit the good effect – the liberating effect, we are meant to have on the world?

 

We come to worship this Sunday with these and other questions in our hearts.