According to the Easter Sunday reading from the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene got up early in the morning to visit the tomb where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid Jesus’ body after his death on the cross. When she arrived at the tomb, to her horror, she discovered that the stone sealing the tomb had been rolled away and the body missing. Of course, Mary will end up encountering the risen Jesus who commissioned her to tell his followers the good news that he had risen from the dead. This morning, we pick up John’s story a few hours after Mary’s encounter with Jesus. While Mary had told Jesus’ disciples that he was alive, it doesn’t appear that everyone believed her story. That’s because they had hidden themselves behind locked doors out of fear of the authorities. Then suddenly Jesus appeared in the room, greeting them with a word of peace. After greeting his stunned followers, he showed them his wounds so they would know that he wasn’t a ghost. When the disciples saw him, wounds and all, they rejoiced.
Now, there was one conspicuous absence that evening. For some reason, Thomas was absent. While Thomas appears in the list of the twelve disciples in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts, it’s here in the Gospel of John that Thomas makes his mark. Earlier on, Thomas had told his fellow disciples that they should follow Jesus to Jerusalem and die with him (Jn. 11:16). Then, after Jesus had shared his final supper with the disciples, Thomas responded to Jesus’ words about the place that he would be preparing for them. When Jesus told them they would know the way, Thomas wasn’t so sure. He told Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:5-7).
In John’s Gospel, Thomas had a knack for asking pointed questions. But John doesn’t tell us why Thomas was absent that particular evening when Jesus appeared alive to the disciples. Nevertheless, when they gathered a week later in that same room, Thomas was with them. He was filled with questions when he heard the report about Jesus’ resurrection appearances first to Mary Magdalene and later to the entire community. So, Thomas demanded proof that Jesus was alive before he was going to embrace the message of the resurrection.
Before we get to the rest of Thomas’ story, we need to step back to that first evening when Jesus revealed himself alive to his followers. Not only did he show them his wounds, but he gave them a commission. Jesus told his disciples: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then, he breathed on them, imparting to them the Holy Spirit. He then told them that the sins they forgave, God would forgive, and if they retained sins, God would retain them. In other words, when Jesus gave his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, he was empowering them to carry the good news of salvation to the world.
Now, getting back to Thomas, we need to address the unfortunate moniker of “Doubting Thomas” that tradition gave him. This nickname is unfortunate because it not only casts Thomas in a bad light, but it does the same for anyone who has doubts about the things of faith. The fact is, we all have questions when it comes to matters of faith. That’s okay! What Thomas does is give us permission to express our doubts and concerns.
When Thomas asked for proof that Jesus had risen from the dead, he wanted more than simply seeing Jesus. If he was going to believe their report, he wanted to put his finger in the mark of the nails and touch the side where the spear had pierced Jesus’ body. Thomas got his wish.
When the community gathered on the evening of the Second Sunday of Easter, Jesus once again appeared to the community. When he appeared, Jesus invited Thomas to touch his wounds so he could believe. When Thomas saw Jesus for himself and touched the wounds, he believed. Not only did he believe, but he responded with a strong confession of faith, declaring to Jesus: “My Lord and My God!”
Thomas had his questions answered when he saw Jesus and then touched his wounds. He responded with a powerful declaration of faith. But perhaps there is more to the story than meets the eye. The Czech Catholic theologian Tomáš Halík writes that in revealing himself, wounds and all:
Jesus identified with all who are small and suffering. In other words, all painful wounds and all the human misery in the world are ‘Christ’s wounds.’ I can only believe in Christ and have the right to exclaim, “My Lord and my God!” if I touch his wounds, of which the world is full. Otherwise, I say, “Lord, Lord!” simply in vain and to no effect. [Halík, Touch the Wounds, p. 7].
As we gather this morning, we get to join Thomas in making our confession of faith in Jesus, by declaring to him: “My Lord and My God!” When it comes to our confession of faith, we differ from Thomas in that we must believe even though we can’t see the risen Jesus or touch his wounds. Nevertheless, Jesus told Thomas that those who believe but do not see will be blessed. While we may receive divine blessings because we join Thomas in confessing our faith in the risen Christ, perhaps, as Tomáš Halík reminds us, we should not lose sight of Thomas’ demand to touch Jesus’ wounds. We may not encounter Jesus in the same way as Thomas and his companions, but maybe we do see and touch his wounds in the woundedness of our world. This is the message Jesus shared in the parable of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus told his followers the nations would be judged on the basis of how they treated him by caring for the “the least of these who are members of my family” (Matt. 25:31-46).
So, even though we might not see Jesus’ physical presence, we can minister to him by ministering to those who suffer, whether they are members of this community of faith, strangers we encounter along the way of life, or by joining together in praying for peace and justice for those caught in the wars taking place in Ukraine, Lebanon, Iran, and elsewhere. As we join with Thomas in touching the wounds of Jesus by touching the wounds of those around us, we can also rejoice that when Jesus broke free from the tomb, he also set us free from the sting of death.
Our reading concludes with what seems to be the ending of the Gospel, even though there is another chapter in the Gospel. In this closing word, John tells us that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his followers that didn’t get written down in this account. However, “these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:30-31).
This reminder hearkens back to Jesus’ statement about God’s love for the world in John 3:16. In both that passage and this one we are reminded that we serve the “Sending God” who first sent to Jesus into the world to reveal to us God’s love and then sends us into the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus breathed upon the disciples and then on us, so that we might carry into the world the good news of God’s realm.
As I ponder John’s Easter story, I find myself encouraged by the way John tells us about Thomas’ role in the story, including his questions and doubts. So, when it comes to Thomas’s role in this story, biblical scholar Jaime Clark-Soles writes:
In the end, it’s not Thomas’s doubting that matters; it’s his believing. Everybody doubts; not everyone believes. Be a believing Thomas; be awestruck and proclaim him “My Lord and my God.” [Reading John for Dear Life, p. 145].
Although the Scriptures don’t tell us what happened to Thomas after this exchange, except that he appears in the list of disciples who witnessed the ascension of Jesus in the book of Acts (Acts 1:12-13), however, according to tradition, he took the message of Jesus eastward, ending up in India, where it is said that he planted churches and was later martyred. If you go to India today, you will find a very ancient Christian community that traces its origins to Thomas’ ministry. While we don’t have direct proof of Thomas’ mission to India, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that he did carry the gospel eastward to India, planting churches along the way. If this is true, it is a powerful affirmation of the transforming nature of encountering the risen Christ. So, like Mary Magdalene, Peter, and Thomas, we have received our commission to go into a world that is wounded with good news of God’s love and forgiveness. Not only is God sending us into the world, even as God sent Jesus into the world that God loves (John 3:16), but we have been gifted by Jesus with the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Troy, MI
April 12, 2026
Easter 2A
Image Attribution: Miller, Mary Jane. Doubting Thomas, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59684 [retrieved April 11, 2026]. Original source: Mary Jane Miller, https://www.millericons.com/.
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