Advent Midweek Sermon: Saint Thomas the Apostle
St. Thomas, Apostle
John 20:24-29
December 21, 2022
“We have seen the Lord.” Thomas doesn’t believe it.
It’s hard to blame him. The dead remain in their tombs.
Jesus heard Thomas’ words: “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Jesus repeats Thomas’ words back to him: “Put out your finger, and see the wounds; thrust your hand into My side.” And Thomas confesses: “My Lord and my God!”
That confession is Christianity: God is in the manger; God is on the cross. God was made man in Mary’s womb. The God-man died and was laid in a tomb.
Thomas’ confession is the climax of John’s Gospel. Immediately after, John tells us why he wrote it: “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.”
God became man to bring man back to God. God in flesh died to restore life to your flesh.
This is what the carols confess:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail, the’incarnate deity!
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die.
It’s all a package, the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The confusion and then confession of St. Thomas presents us with the meaning and destiny of Christmas.
The Christmas Gospel anticipates this moment with Thomas: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The unblemished flesh of the infant Jesus was born for the purpose of obtaining those scars. In the wounds and scars of Jesus, Thomas beholds the glory of God. In Thomas the Scriptures were fulfilled, “They shall look on Him Whom they pierced.” With what rapture gazes he on those glorious scars.
Yesterday my mom and I were on our way back from visiting my sister. We were sitting at the airport having dinner and a replay of the most recent Vikings game was playing on the tv. We knew how it ended, but still watched; it was, after all, the greatest comeback in NFL history. We reveled in the details.
But that’s just a game. These details of Thomas and Jesus are our life.
And we’re still in the game. We’re moving towards the Day of Judgment. Our full attention is needed. Because part of us, like Thomas, still stubbornly refuses to believe, to confess, to follow Jesus all the way to the end.
Part of us remains doubting. We are also scandalized by the bad behavior of others; and if we ever seriously examine our own behavior, that too scandalizes us. Other people make us doubt they are Christians. We ourselves make us wonder if we are. How can any of this be real?
The entire Christmas story is filled with doubt, fear, and failure. John’s father Zacharias doesn’t believe the angel. Joseph doubts Mary’s chastity. Herod fears the loss of his power. We stand in a long line of disbelieving sinners. How can we get out of this cycle of doubt?
It ends not with a heroic effort of faith on our part, but with the heroic act of Jesus who still comes to us Himself, with words and flesh. Jesus still eats with tax collectors and sinners every sacred liturgy.
Thomas gazed into Christ’s opened side. This echoes the flood that destroyed the primitive world.
The opened side of the ark was closed from the outside, shutting Noah in, preserving him from the deluge.
The opened side of Jesus is our refuge, the only shelter in the storm being prepared for the world in the coming judgment, which is now very near.
“He comes to us not to applaud our faith, but to remedy our doubt. He comes to us not because we believe, but because we do not believe. He comes to us as God and man, body and soul, in flesh and blood, as the sacrificial Lamb of God with bones unbroken to signify that the One who is dead is alive forevermore” [David P. Scaer].
“My Lord and my God” is the ultimate confession of Christmas. God forgive our doubts and lead us to keep Thomas’ good confession this Christmas. +INJ+