St. James' Episcopal Church

Hurray for St. Thomas. I really like folks who say wait a minute. Let’s not get stampeded into mass hysteria. What is really going on. Thomas heard that Mary Magdalene thought she had seen and talked with the risen Jesus, he also heard about the two fellows walking toward Emmaus who recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread and from the ten apostles that they had seen the risen Jesus the evening after the resurrection. But Thomas was not convinced and would not be moved to any quick totally illogical conclusions; he would not believe in the resurrection unless he saw and touched the risen body of Jesus of Nazareth.

And then the next week the Apostles including Thomas were gathered in a room with the door shut and Jesus appeared. Jesus told Thomas look see for yourself. Touch the wound in my side, the proof of my death. Touch, see, and believe.

Thomas was willing to question, to doubt what others had told him. Mary Magdalene was obliviously in great grief and hysterical about the apparent theft of the dead body of Jesus. We do not know who the two fellows were on the road to Emmaus, and Thomas was not willing to believe those strangers, and the ten apostles were talking nonsense and trying to pull one-upmanship on him. Thomas needed some real proof And he got it. See and touch Now believe, and through believing you may have life in his name.

Thomas, the doubter, the one who questioned, is the first to acknowledge that Jesus is My Lord and My God.

Thanks be to God.