Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Then [Jesus] said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at my hands… . Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’” (John 20:27-29).
“Seeing is believing; believing is seeing”: an idiom as old as time itself, quoted by philosophers, physicists, and perhaps most importantly, … Judy the Elf in Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause. “Seeing is believing.” So much of our epistemological confidence is wrapped up in our sensory experiences. To parody Descartes, “I see… I feel… I smell… I hear; therefore, I know.” In one sense, this philosophy seems to run contrary to the (all too) common Christian epistemological ethic: faith is a virtue. And we define the subject, i.e., “faith,” as an “ascent to knowledge” despite evidence, despite experience, despite reason. “Just believe,” we say. “But there are… wars, … infants dying, … disease, … famine, … where is God?” “Just believe.” “But there are so many other religions, with so many other truth claims. How am I to know which is, well, true?” “Just believe!” (we say with *slight* irritation). “I like what Jesus said and did, but what of his Church? Where are the prophets, the miracles, the healing, the aid, the love?” “JUST BELIEVE!”
It is important to note, brethren, that in today’s Gospel Reading, Christ does not take such an approach with poor Thomas the “Doubter.” St. Thomas says, “Unless I see his hands, … and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). And what does Christ say in response? “Ingrate, doubter, faithless disciple!” No, he says none of these things. But Jesus appears in the midst of his small flock and says, “Peace to you! [And to you, Thomas], reach your finger here, … and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27). Christ honors Thomas’ doubt. That is to say: he takes it seriously. Christ had died. The crucifixion and burial of our Lord is no parlor trick! He has truly died! In a way, St. Thomas is more faithful than what he first appears to be. Thomas truly believes that Christ has died. And that is more than we can say for the Gnostics! Thomas truly believes in the saving death of our Lord. Moreover, Thomas also seems to believe in the necessity of our Lord’s bodily resurrection unto salvation. Thomas truly believes in the incarnation of our Lord. “Unless I see his hands… and put my hand in his side… .” To Thomas, Jesus was truly man. If a man—even a God-Man, even the Messiah of Israel—were to truly resurrect, he would then need to be experienced, observed, testified to, believed in bodily.
You see, brethren, everything we do in Orthodoxy—our prayer, our worship, our fasting—is psycho-somatic, is “mind/body,” “soul/body.” Our faith is exercised spiritually and bodily, simultaneously, because we are spirit and body. Our Lord has died and resurrected to save us as spiritual and corporeal beings. He has become incarnate to redeem that which is carnal—in the most literal semantic sense—that which is “flesh.” He has become flesh to redeem flesh. And his glorious, resurrected state testifies to our future, glorious estate. So it would seem, despite his hesitation, his apprehension, St. Thomas believed this. This is not articulated in St. John’s Gospel, but do not doubt yourselves: St. Thomas knew that for the resurrection to be true, Jesus would need to be embodied. And Jesus honors the truth in St. Thomas’ doubt. How? By allowing him to touch his glorious risen hands, his glorious risen side.
But in doing so, Jesus adds an important caveat to Thomas’ dogmatic exclamation: “My Lord and my God!”: “… Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” “Ah-ha!” you will say. “Now Jesus got to the point. Now Jesus got to the, as you say Deacon, ‘common Christian epistemological ethic’”: faith despite proof. And I say, “No! NO! NO! NO!” Beloved, that is not what today’s Gospel Reading is about; that is not the emphasis of today’s Gospel Reading, that is, “believe, just believe!” And we need only to look to the Epistle Reading (actually, an excerpt from the Acts of the Apostles) that accompanies it to understand why:
“And through the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solmon’s Porch. … The people esteemed them highly. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women” (Acts 5:12-14).
“Unless I see his hands… I will not believe” (John 20:25). “And through the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people, … and believers were increasingly added to the Lord” (Acts 5:12, 14). Our Lord Jesus, brethren, never expected his disciples, his Church, or the world to believe in him without good reason, to believe in him without tangible proof, without cause. Where are the hands of our Lord? Where is the Body of Christ, to which the unbelieving may come, and touch, and see? It is us! We are the proof of our Lord’s resurrection in the flesh! We are the evidence of a life transfigured through the grace of the Holy Spirit! We are the reason to believe! Yes, there are formal proofs; Eastern Orthodoxy in her two millennia history has never gravitated as strongly to these as did the Western fathers, and later, the Scholastics. Yes, there is the evidence of history, and textual studies, and archaeology. Yes, there is the work of comparative religion and apologetics. But let us never forget the words of Christ earlier in the Acts, as he stood with his disciples on the Mount of Olives,
“And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1: 8).
And the Apostle Paul echoes his words, saying,
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you [Corinthians], on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20).
How sad it is, brethren, that there are those in the world who see us and do not see Christ, that there are those in the world who see us—the hands of Christ and the Body of Christ—and do not step back and say, “My God!” For there is “… one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism…” (Eph 4:4-6). The same Spirit which filled the Apostles on Pentecost and enabled them with great power to proclaim the gospel of our Lord also fills us, and sanctifies us, and empowers us! It is, therefore, our duty to live up to such a high calling as this: to be the proof of Christ’s resurrection to the world. In our Paschal joy, in our celebration, in our greeting of one another, “Christ is Risen!” (Indeed, He is Risen!), we testify as did the angel to the myrrh-bearing women, “Behold! The clothes in the grave! … He is risen as he said!” and “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me!” (Gal 2:20).
Through the prayers of our holy fathers and mothers, O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is Risen!