Jesus loves you.
Just as you are.
You may be someone with unwavering faith.
You could be someone who questions everything.
Jesus loves you.
Just as you are.
Today’s Gospel may be
that simple.
Jesus returns to the locked
room. That room where the disciples have
hidden themselves, afraid of ridicule or of potential imprisonment or of the
chance that they, too, would be crucified.
This room where they could talk about what they understood about
Jesus. And about what they didn’t
understand.
Can you imagine?
These were people who had
devoted a couple of years of their life, giving up their lifestyle, their work
to follow a man because he invited them to come with him, to learn from him, and
then, suddenly, he was dead. And not
just dead, but now his body was missing!
What did they make of that?
They questioned Mary Magdalene and the other women who had
gone to the tomb. They questioned
because they didn’t understand, because they wanted to believe, because nothing
seemed to make sense. They probably
doubted Mary when she told them that Jesus had walked with her and talked with
her at the tomb, and they probably wondered if Mary was making things up.
No one in this story was secure. Not a one of them was able to stand up for
Jesus. No. Instead, they hid in the upper room. So when Jesus showed up and they could hear
him tell the story, they could touch him and smell him and see him smile, their
sense of security changed and grew.
Whether they truly understood what was happening or not, Jesus had
provided them some proof that he was who he was and that what he had said was
true.
It was unfortunate that Thomas
was not in the room when any of this happened.
It was unfortunate because he became a scapegoat for all of them. He
became the scapegoat for all of us. His
need to experience what everyone else had experienced has made us call him
“Doubting Thomas” for years and years.
… I think he should be called
“Faithful Thomas.”
**********
I like to think of this
as one of the greatest lessons of faithfulness.
I like
to think of this as a great example of what it means to believe in Jesus.
To believe in Jesus does not
require a certain type of person. We can
come from anyplace, and at any time. We
come as we are and we sometimes change … and sometimes, we don’t. And there isn’t any special way any of us
looks or acts. We are who we are and we
come to Jesus as we are.
Jesus loves us as we are.
**********
For years I was a part of a
Bible study. This group of women would
read scripture and other books that would teach us and guide us to grow in
relationship…with each other, with the world, with God, with Jesus. We would study the Word and we would scratch
our heads and rub our chins and wonder out loud what on earth it meant. I can’t tell you how many times we would get
to the end of a lesson and someone would say, “When I die, I’m going to ask God
about that.”
I think that’s one of the ways to define what it means to
be faithful. It is to believe that God has the answers when we don’t. And that God welcomes our questions and our
doubts, and not only welcomes them, but encourages
us to enter into conversations in hopes of learning more, growing more and
becoming better people of faith
through the process.
Most of us have a little Thomas in us. The need to touch and see and perhaps taste
and smell in order to truly know something is part of the process toward
understanding and believing.
Jesus wasn’t angry with Thomas. At least, I don’t think he was. I think that Jesus came especially to Thomas
to remind him that he was loved so much that Jesus would make time for
Thomas. The story of Thomas that says he
needed to feel the wounds and see the scars—that
story is our permission to wonder out loud about who Jesus is to the world.
Jesus loves you.
Just as you are.
You may be someone with unwavering faith.
You could be someone who questions everything.
Jesus loves you.
Just as you are.
It really is that simple.
Let
us pray.
O God, you gave us the story of Thomas and his relationship with Jesus to remind us that it is okay to wonder, to question, to doubt because, in the end, you have the answers. Help us to be secure enough in our relationship with Jesus to be able to wonder, question and doubt—to be able to wrestle with the stories, honestly and hopefully and, even more, to be able to listen for the answers. Amen.
O God, you gave us the story of Thomas and his relationship with Jesus to remind us that it is okay to wonder, to question, to doubt because, in the end, you have the answers. Help us to be secure enough in our relationship with Jesus to be able to wonder, question and doubt—to be able to wrestle with the stories, honestly and hopefully and, even more, to be able to listen for the answers. Amen.