A Companion to Faith
Study on John 20:19-31
The Gospel of John includes several appearances of the resurrected Jesus - two of those appearances are in today’s reading. Our reading begins with many of the disciples, we don’t know how many but we know the group at least lacked Thomas, locked away in a house and it is the day of the resurrection. Jesus comes to them and says, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (v. 21). As the encounter continues, Jesus breathes the Spirit upon them and gives them the authority to forgive and retain sins. When Thomas returns and the others tell him what they have experienced, he says he will not believe until he sees Jesus and touches the wounds for himself. A week later, on the next Sunday, Jesus appears again to the group which now includes Thomas.
The materials of this story raise numerous questions and possibilities including the nature of resurrection, the beginning and the nature of the church, and Thomas as a disciple.
Let’s begin with resurrection. The locked-away disciples encounter Jesus and they know it is him. But this is no ordinary physical body that they see. He’s walking through walls and he still has the crucifixion’s physical marks in his hands, feet, and side (and maybe other marks as well). The combination of walking into a locked room and the physical prevents us from adopting purely spiritual understanding of resurrection; yet the combination also prevents a purely physical understanding of resurrection. This appearance makes clear that resurrection is not the same as resuscitation. It is transformation in some way that still connects with all that has happened before.
When Jesus breathes the Spirit onto the disciples, gives them the authority to forgive sins, and commissions them to go make disciples, the church begins from John’s perspective. This episode parallels Luke’s account of Pentecost (Acts 2) in many ways. But it goes further particularly with the description of the authority to forgive. As one commentator puts it, “if members of the community forgive one another their sins, those sins are forgiven and the community is living from and in the Spirit of Jesus; but if members of the community harbor grudges and resentment toward other members who have sinned against them, then those sins remain to spoil the bond of unity, and the Spirit of Jesus is no longer resident in the community” (Williamson, John 283.) From John’s perspective this issue is an essential component of the Christian community.
Thomas’ skepticism is understandable and it is striking that Jesus neither condemns or commends it. Jesus invites him instead to move beyond it. He invites Thomas to do what he needs to do in order to believe. In turn, I believe, that he invites each of us to do whatever it is we need to do in order to move forward in faith. In this sense, doubt isn’t particularly opposite faith but is rather a part of the process of coming to faith. Perhaps another way to say this same thing is to say that doubt and faith are companions.
Reflection Questions:
What makes us, as followers of Jesus, "hide out" today?
How do you understand the nature of resurrection?
Have you ever experienced resurrection in your own life?
What would you have done, in Thomas' place?
Do you think that "seeing is better than hearing" for the life of faith?
Where do you see the risen Jesus alive, today?