Key Verse: "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands ... I will not believe."
We call him Doubting Thomas.
When Jesus appears to his disciples on the day of his resurrection, Thomas is not with the others. When they tell him they have seen the Lord, he famously says, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and can touch the mark of the nails in his hands and side, I will not believe."
Is this doubt?
Or is it rather a firm commitment not to give himself now, after all that he has come to see, to anything but the real Jesus? The Jesus who was crucified. The lord who lived and died for love of others, love of all humanity, love of all Earth. The son of God who so immersed himself in the holy work of caring for and healing the life of Earth, that his hands got dirty, his body got broken, and his life got spent.
If that is the Jesus who the others saw raised from the dead, he would be all in. But if the Jesus they saw was all clean and healed and sparkly white, Thomas probably then would have doubted. Because that wasn't his Jesus. And he probably would have walked.
The fact that he stayed, tells us what the risen Jesus is like and what he's still about. And blessed is the world when this is the Jesus we still see and follow today.
What is our image of the risen Jesus? How do we picture him?
Do we see, hear or feel Jesus in the world today? If so, where? Or when?
How do we follow him, and share his presence with others?
Sunday is also Earth Sunday. Is there any connection between it being both Earth Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter?
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