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Jesus Appears to Thomas

John 20:19-31, NRSV

Reflections

It is not as a boy that I believe in Christ and confess him, but my hosanna has passed through a great furnace of doubts.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky
from an entry in his personal notebook

  • Competing realities:
  • Our own introspection vs outside world
  • New reality for disciples after Lent and Easter, but not snapping back on like a switch
  • But Mary was becoming student of Rabbi, after seeing Jesus suffer
  • When we see others suffering, it haunts us, stays with us in memory
  • Jesus’ resurrected body still has the scars, still has the mark of pain and torture
  • Peter, after denying Jesus three times, filled with guilt, but received Jesus’ first word “Peace be with you”
  • Holy Spirit – Jesus’ gift to the disciples
  • Doubting Thomas missing out the first time
  • Our spiritual experience might not be helpful to others, might even guilt others who have not had the similar experience yet
  • Can we be vulnerable and willing to show our wounds, like Jesus did?
  • Even though he missed out the first time, Thomas sticks around, with this resurrecting community, with an open mind, giving time and space
  • Radiolab episode “Are You Sure?” segment “Rocked by Doubt”, Jeff is not so sure about faith, not as much as his fiance Megan’s faith
  • Jeff might still not be a Christian without a doubt, but he has experienced God in one small way in the end of story
  • Our “diversity” of spiritual experience in Christ

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