This Week: Easter 2B
Gospel: John 20:19-31
Jesus walks through the door. Literally. Happy Easter.
Resurrection What?
This week’s gospel from John is perhaps the most famous of the resurrection stories because it seems to have the most conflict. It gives a kind of juice we don’t see in the others.
Jesus shows up and the people are scared and Thomas is doubting. What more could you want?
Well…probably a bunch of smart disciples helping us do the right thing. But given that is not an option, let’s go for second best: confusion!
1. Walking through the door?
The passage starts with a fascinating, and somewhat disturbing sequence. We learn that the disciples are hiding in fear, they’ve locked the door, and Jesus walks through it—literally through it.
There are two types of people who hear this: the ones who think of magical Jesus coming to the rescue and the ones who think of horror movies (Here’s Johnny!).
The vibe really is creepy, though. The stage is set for fright because that’s what the disciples have. They are scared. And now they’re seeing a ghost!
Not a ghost.
Because we need to prove Jesus is real. So we have to get you to understand he is real. And can still walk through a door. This feels like an impossible task for anyone in the 21st Century. Because his being real and magical leads to the strange confluence that we really only see in horror or fantasy.
This is the logistical challenge many of us face with this passage.
But it is also terribly literal.
Literalism isn’t just for people who try to work dinosaurs into the world flooded for 40 days. It is for us when we encounter a story with a locked room and an intangible Jesus, making his best Kitty Pride impression.
But the image of the locked door and a Jesus who reaches the disciples anyway is important. And says as much about them as it does about Jesus.
2. Seeing, Doubt, Thomas
After wrestling with a Jesus who walks through the door, we deal with the disciples who experience it—and one who doesn’t.
All of the disciples get to see Jesus and believe. This is important, given the statement Jesus makes at the end. [hint!]
But when Thomas hears about it, he gets defensive. Nah! I’ll believe it when I see it—and feel it, too! Clearly he wants what the rest got—proof. Experience. An opportunity to be with Jesus again in the flesh.
We jump to the conclusion that Thomas is the doubter here. And that, for some reason, the other disciples aren’t. Like there is something substantially different about Thomas here—likely because of the famous line:
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
The irony of this statement, of course, is that applies to all of them. Not just Thomas. None of them believed without seeing.
Elaine Pagels, in Beyond Belief suggests that this is a Johnine community dig on the Thomas community. Which it very well may be. But then its the kind of hypocritical nonsense that I would expect from middle school bullies rather than a genuine problem with Thomas.
In other words, there is no dig on doubt here, or on Thomas, that is worth anything—precisely because none of them believed without seeing.
Which is why the traditional response to the statement is to focus on communicating the gospel to the succeeding generations is the point. Because just as much as they all saw Jesus and believed, nobody else did. And yet we believe.
3. What about Judas?
There are a couple of other little bits about the story that strike me, but they deal with what isn’t there just as much as what is. Which means it is all pure speculation on my part. But they are worthy of at least a moment’s thought.
One is the question of who all is in the room. In John, there is one reference after the crucifixion to “the twelve”. This is a point of interest in the synoptics, because it was the phrasing for the primary disciples of Jesus. In one, it becomes “the eleven” and in Acts, they have to scramble to find someone to get twelve again.
Isn’t it curious, then, to refer to all of them being there—in a gospel that never disposes of Judas? Is it possible that Judas is there? While I wouldn’t bet on it, I also can’t shake the idea that he has to be. Primarily because of what Jesus talked about the last time they were in the Upper Room. Forgiveness, the Way.
This is pure speculation, of course. And tradition doesn’t support the theory. But tradition also works really hard to get rid of Judas—and Jesus commends Judas’s part in John.
While it is an unorthodox suggestion, it does make for a great preaching exercise. Particularly when it comes to questioning how easily we condemn Judas—at the exact time we’re speaking of forgiveness and Jesus redeeming the whole world.
4. Where did Thomas go?
The last tidbit (which also isn’t in the text) deals with the question: why wasn’t Thomas with the other disciples in the Upper Room? And why would Jesus show up when Thomas wasn’t there? Of all the times, right?
For me, the question hinges on what it tells us about why the disciples were there: they were in hiding.
So, if the disciples are hiding, then it is extra strange that Thomas isn’t with them. Is he out on a food run? Perhaps. But that seems pretty random, given the context. Is the coincidence more likely than, say, that Thomas was far less likely to actually be there hiding with them?
Before the Passion, Thomas did express his desire to follow Jesus into death.
I love to imagine Thomas, not as the doubter or the jealous one or even the rational one, but as the zealot. The one who calls the other disciples wimps and proceeds to go out into the community in the name of Jesus while the rest stay in the room, waiting for Jesus to save them.
There’s a boldness to Thomas that isn’t represented in the traditional readings of the story, but is present throughout the gospel of John that supports this concept.
And it sets up an interesting dichotomy for the reader. What did you do after the Passion? Did you hide? Or did you go out and feed the hungry?
And much like the question of forgiving Judas, I suspect a zealous Thomas out serving the community fits the gospel a lot closer than the alternative.