Second Sunday of Easter; 16 April 2023; Easter 2A (RCL); Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31.
The Second Sunday of Easter is often called Thomas Sunday, as we always have this reading from John’s Gospel. However, I think this passage has less to do with Thomas (who provides a literary foil for John’s purpose) than with the wounds of Christ. Thomas doesn’t doubt; he refuses to believe, unless and until he sees and touches the wounds.
In fact, John is quite emphatic about Thomas’ refusal. When Thomas replies to the other disciples, he uses a doubled (and therefore intensified0 negative. We might translate, “Unless I see . . ., I will never, ever believe.” That’s not doubt. Jesus speaks “Peace” to his disciples three times in this passage. That suggests to me that John is aware of a conflict within the community that Jesus is addressing. And the fact that Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive holy breath; the sins of any you release are released to them; the sins of any you retain are retained,” suggests that there needs to be some reconciliation within the community.
Thomas perhaps serves as a kind of foil for a gnosticizing tendency within early Christianity (or at least an asceticizing trend — see the Gospel of Thomas, and its emphasis on the single Christian becoming a “passerby”). Thomas’ confession, “My Lord and my God,” echoes Domitian’s demand to be address as dominus et deus, the first Roman Emperor to insist on divine status in his own lifetime (ca 95 CE, which is consistent with when the Gospel is being brought into its final form).
Domitian sponsored a persecution of Christians, and for the gnosticizers, to claim that Christ only appeared to suffer and die, gave them permission to cross their fingers behind the backs and comply with Domitian. Thomas will have none of it. Show me the wounds, or I refuse to believe.
I think there is a strong gnostic tendency in American culture these days. The refusal to allow the teaching of slavery and racism in schools, the “spiritual, but not religious” trend, vaccine refusal — all of it speaks to an insistence that everything is ok. We need a good Thomas today, because things are not ok. Only by touching the wounds can we recognize the risen Christ as Lord and God, in direct opposition to Domitian, who claims that status for himself. Thomas’ refusal to believe is a profoundly political statement.
And, only in light of the wounds that Thomas insists we recognize, does Jesus’ grant of authority for releasing or retaining sin make any sense. Forgiveness is the only way to overcome the wounds that divide us. But forgiveness can’t happen until we acknowledge the wounds. As long as we pretend everything is ok, nothing will change. We need the courage of Thomas to refuse to believe.