QUESTIONING THE STORY - How is this story transformative? How do
any characters enter the story, walk through to the other side of the story different than
when they began? What is the crisis? How does this story function? Could there be several
layers of teaching in this passage? What was at risk or perplexing among early Christians
that this story addresses? How does this story answer perplexing questions that early on
emerged concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ? What side does Jesus take in the
story?
FREDRICK BUECHNER & THOMAS DIDYMUS -
Imagination was not Thomas’s long suit. He called a spade a spade. He was a
realist. He didn’t believe in fairy tales, and if anything else came up that he
didn’t believe in or couldn’t understand, his questions could be pretty direct .
. . . . . Jesus was dead just as he’d said he’d be . . . Eight days later, when
Jesus did come back, Thomas was there and got his wish. Jesus let him see him and hear him
and touch him, and not even Thomas could hold out against evidence like that . . . All he
could say was, "My Lord and my God!", and Jesus seemed to consider that under
the circumstances that was enough. . . . "Have you believed because you have seen
me?" Jesus said and then added, addressing himself to all the generations that have
come since, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." [1]
We are sometimes scornful of
Thomas, giving him the nickname "doubting Thomas." But he is not unlike many of
us. He needs the data. He needs the visuals. He needs to touch Jesus’ wounds in order
for his faith to take root and grow. Jesus accepts that. He knows what we need. What do
you need from Jesus in order for your faith to bloom? Write it down. Say it aloud. Tell
another person perhaps. Tell Jesus. And wait, and watch and wonder.
Preaching themes in John 20:19-31:
(1) The Gospel’s Power - nothing can inhibit the progress of the gospel, not the
world’s disbelief, not skepticism, and not even doubt within the church!
(2) Faith - trust in another is not simply a matter of handing belief down like an
heirloom; faith, as this story implies, is personal - ("My Lord. . . my God," v.
28);
(3) Titles - the appropriation of different titles of Christ-"Lord,"
"God."
(3) Seeing and Believing - the notion of seeing and believing that appears throughout
John’s Gospel and culminates here in Christ’s resurrected state. (One may see
and not believe. And one may not see, yet believe.)
(4) Mission - For the Fourth Gospel, the gift of the Spirit and the articulation of the
community’s mission are intimately and inseparably tied to the resurrection and
ascension of Jesus. When the church celebrates Easter, it also celebrates the beginnings
of its mission . . . for John, the church’s ongoing life as a community of faith, as
the people who continue Jesus’ work in the world, derives from Jesus’ Easter
promises and gifts. [2]
(5) Hope - the NIB suggests a homiletic thought as well: The story of Thomas is one of
hope and possibilities, not judgment and reprimand. Later generations too, will experience
the grace of God in Jesus. As bold as Jesus’ gesture is to Thomas here, Jesus’
care for the faith of those who come after Thomas, who will not see, is equally without
limit and measure. [3]
(6) Community - "Only from the moment that it could be said of Thomas that he was
. . . ‘with them’ [i.e. in the company of the other disciples, where he
belonged, and should have been!], did he fully understand the mystery of Jesus’
identity. That is to say, it is only within the community of faith that one can encounter
the living Christ. Belonging precedes believing. [4]
_______________________________________________________
[1] Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publ,
1979), page 165-166.
[2] New Interpreter’s Bible IX (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), page 848.
[3] Ibid, page 853.
[4] C. W. Burger in Sermon Guides for Preaching in Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publ., 1988), page 221.
