April 17, 2009
Sunday Scripture
Second Sunday of Easter
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
There are two days within this chapter, the day of the resurrection and the first day of the following week, or as John puts it, “eight days later.” The day of the resurrection in the Gospel of John is also the day of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. For this reason, the first part of today’s gospel reading is also the gospel of Pentecost Sunday. Commentary on this part of the gospel will be made in the column for Pentecost.
There are two other parts of today’s gospel. The first part is concerned with the apostle Thomas. The second part is the author’s comments on the contents of his gospel. Now to Thomas the doubter. The author notes that when Jesus appeared to his disciples on the evening of the resurrection, Thomas was absent. When he returned to where the disciples were hiding out of fear of the authorities, the other disciples told him that Jesus had stopped by for a visit, “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas did not believe them. He was quite aware of the death and burial of Jesus. As to a resurrection, Thomas would have accepted the teaching of a general resurrection on judgment day, but not now.
Thomas did not want to entirely reject what his colleagues were saying, so he set a few conditions for his belief in Jesus’ resurrection. He had to see the wounds where the nails had entered and put his hand into Jesus’ side which had been opened with the soldier’s lance. Eight days later Jesus returned. This time Thomas was present. After Jesus speaks his “Shalom” to the gathered disciples, he turns to Thomas with a complete quote of the conditions Thomas had set for belief. Thomas is overwhelmed not only at seeing the Lord but also at Jesus’ knowledge of the conditions he had set to accept that Jesus was alive.
Jesus invited Thomas to feel the wounds in his hands and side, and “Do not be unbelieving but believe.” Thomas has only one brief response, “My Lord and my God!” This is not to be understood as a surprise response of many, Christians or heathens, who frequently say in response to almost anything. “My God!” This is usually more irreligious than religious. Thomas words are the supreme act of faith recorded in this gospel. There are those, for example, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim to demonstrate from the Gospel of John that Jesus is not God. The Gospel of John is the wrong instrument for such an attempt. From beginning to end this gospel breathes the divinity of Jesus. Only a few statements can be used, if incorrectly interpreted, to claim the opposite. Jesus accepts Thomas’ act of faith, but blesses even more those (ourselves) “who have not seen (like Thomas did) and yet believe.”
As a conclusion the author of the gospel notes that “Jesus did many other signs that are not written in this book.” This statement can serve partly as a basis for the Church’s oral tradition. It also witnesses to the truth of the miracles not included in John’s gospel but in the other three gospels accepted by the Church. John mentions only once the Greek term for “miracles.” He chooses instead the word signs to describe Jesus’ phenomenal actions. These acts are signs of Jesus’ identity and mission. John chose only seven of many others. Then he states the purpose of having written the gospel, to demonstrate “that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” What is that name? In the words of Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”
Luke, author of Acts of Apostles, delighted his readers with stirring narratives about the enthusiasm of the apostles and the first Christian community in Jerusalem. Through the rose-colored glasses with which Luke is known to write he tells us that the Christian community “was of one heart and one mind.” But was that the real historical experience? Not for long! According to Luke, Christians in Jerusalem lived a kind of commune-life. Those who owned property or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles. What bishop or pastor wouldn’t give his eye-teeth for a resurrection of such an attitude among his people? Unfortunately, in the next chapter the picture of unanimity will change. People will become more like us. One couple reneged on their CPC and paid for it with their lives. Racial prejudice also made its appearance and led to the creation of the deaconate as a solution.
This reading picks up on a theme of today’s gospel, faith in Jesus Christ. The community from which the First Letter of John originates was a divided community. Therefore we see a great emphasis on love. As we read in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” “Methinks he protesteth too much!” True love, says John, begins with love of the Father and love of the Son in union with the Spirit of truth who testifies within us how to express our love of God. “For the love of God is this, that you keep his commandments.” Unlike Thomas the doubter, there were some in John’s community who did not accept Jesus as God. Therefore John writes, “Who is the victor who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”