“When the disciples said: ‘We have seen the Lord’, Thomas answered: ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands…I refuse to believe.’…There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. They are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing this, you may have life through his name.” John 20, 19-31
Throughout the early weeks of Easter, more than a few of our gospel-readings are from John’s Gospel. To appreciate them, we need to bear in mind that what we now call John’s Gospel was not written until between 90 and 100 years after the birth of Jesus. What’s more, they were written for a reasonably well-established community of early Christians living in Ephesus, Asia Minor (roughly equivalent to modern-day Tũrkiye/Turkey). Moreover, Scripture Scholars agree that it was probably not written by one single author and is, in fact, a compilation of contributions written by members of John’s community who were in tune with the spirituality and theology of their leader.
That said, we can appreciate that the gospel-readings attributed to John throughout the Easter season are accounts of appearances the Risen Jesus made to his disciples shortly after God had raised him and were directed to the members of that community in Ephesus to remind them of what their mission as followers of the Risen Christ was all about: reflecting the love and forgiveness of the Risen Lord to everyone they encountered. That same message is directed at us modern-day disciples of Jesus.
It is also important for us to keep in mind what the writer, to whom we attribute authorship of the account of the resurrection of Jesus, stated as his intention: “…these things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in his name” (John 20: 31). That is the concluding sentence of John’s Gospel, to which an appendix was subsequently added.
Arguably, the New Testament Scripture Scholar with the most acute insight into John’s Gospel in the modern era was Raymond Brown (1928-98). His monumental works were The Birth of the Messiah (1977) and The Death of the Messiah (1994, 2 vols) all published by Yale University Press. When asked by his good friend and companion Scripture Scholar, Sandra Schneiders I.H.M., if he planned to write a book on the Resurrection of Jesus he replied cryptically: “I prefer to research that topic face to face”. He died suddenly within a few days of making that remark. There will be a little more from Sr Sandra Schneiders later in this reflection.
Today’s gospel-reading is an account of the Risen Jesus’ appearance to his bedraggled and frightened disciples late on the day of his resurrection. Most of those disciples had locked themselves in hiding out of their fear of being murdered as their Master had been. Jesus came into their presence through closed doors, blessed them with peace and forgiveness and commissioned them to extend to everyone they would encounter the same peace and forgiveness he had bestowed on them. Some of their number, who had gone their separate ways, had excluded themselves from the group. One of those was Thomas. He had chosen to disbelieve his enthusiastic colleagues when they told of their joyful experience of having been visited by the Risen Jesus. That reluctance was evident in his assertion: “Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe” (John 20: 25). The bestowal by Jesus of God’s Spirit and the blessings of peace and forgiveness together with a commission to do likewise had so energized the other disciples that they could not contain themselves. Their excessive enthusiasm was simply too much for Thomas, whose only response was to suspect their unusual extravagance. A week went by before Jesus appeared again to his disciples. That Jesus was among them was the Evangelist’s way of indicating that the group was intact once again. The note that the doors were once again closed is symbolic of the fact that it was not just the doors that were closed but the disciples’ minds and hearts as well. Therein is a message for us who can allow ourselves sometimes to be closed off from creatively reaching out to those around us by our closed off minds, by our adhering to rigid beliefs and rituals, by our reluctance to embrace life-offering change. Pope Francis echoed that in Evangelii Gaudium, his Apostolic Exhortation of November 2013 when he wrote: “More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving, and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat” (Mk 6:37).
Note that when Jesus commissioned his disciples in Thomas’ absence, he breathed into them the life of the Spirit, stating; “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven…” (John 20: 21-23). Now, back to Sandra Schneiders, who has argued convincingly that the following clause: ‘for those whose sins you retain, they are retained” is an incorrect translation from the Greek. Both Biblical Greek and vernacular Greek translate that clause as: “Whose ever sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; whomever you hold are held fast.” In the original Greek, there is no mention of the word “sins” in this clause. Moreover, the Greek word meaning “to hold” is nowhere used to mean “to retain”. It is used variously to mean “to hold”, “to grasp” and “to embrace”. In other words, Sandra Schneiders points out that Jesus instructed his disciples that they are to hold dear everyone who has heard the message of God’s forgiveness that they have proclaimed and, as a result, have come to them in faith seeking inclusion in community (Baptism) or forgiveness of their sins. Such requests should neither be denied nor delayed. If God were to hold firmly to our sins, the implication would be that God would still regard us as sinners. (Sandra M. Schneiders, I. H. M. The Resurrection of the Body in the Fourth Gospel in Life in Abundance: Studies of John’s Gospel in Tribute to Raymond E. Brown; John R. Donahue, Editor, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, U.S.A.)
The peace that the Risen Lord breathed into the disciples is contagious only when it is passed on to a world in need of peace through the love, compassion, mercy and forgiveness of those whose daily lives reflect those characteristics to everyone they encounter. To embody resurrection is to reflect those qualities to everyone we encounter in our day-to day living. Therein lies the challenge of allowing God’s Spirit to breathe new life into us and of accepting resurrection to be the hallmark of our lives.