St. Thomas Sunday, 2011: Homily (St. John 20: 19-31; Acts 5: 12-20)
Thomas and the Need for Signs
By this time, the resurrected Christ had already appeared to several of the apostles. Last Sunday, we heard how Christ came in to the locked house of the disciples, proclaimed His peace to them, and then commissioned them to go out and proclaim the good news; but for whatever reason, Thomas (called “The Twin”) was not there. When his fellow disciples told him what had happened – he refused to believe. He wanted a sign. He wanted his own proof, according to his terms.
Generally speaking, both Christ Himself and the Church He established and of which He remains the head, is strongly ambivalent about such “proof”. It is this ambivalence that I would like to speak to today, in hopes that this will help us deal with our own doubts, insecurities, and weakness when it comes to the truth of our faith. [about ambivalence – it’s not that Christ was confused, but rather that He was trying to teach us from two directions]
An Evil and Adulterous Generation Seeks a Sign
On the road to Jerusalem, the leaders of the people – the Pharisees and Sadducees – came to Christ and asked for a sign from heaven as proof of His calling. His reply was powerful;
“You know how to interpret [the weather based on how the sky looks], but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” (St. Matthew 16: 3b-4, ESV)
Christ rebukes these people (calling them “evil and adulterous”) not because they wanted evidence, but because they asked Him to put on a show for their amusement. God is not a circus clown (Aslan is not a tame lion). The comparison with reading the weather – something that everyone can do to some degree – is instructive: God is basically saying “if you want proof, just look at all the signs – only someone who is evil and adulterous would claim to need more than that.” But if you really need a sign, look to the Sign of Jonah. This is Powerful – right between the eyes.
The Sign of Jonah: “And on the third day He arose again, according to the Scriptures”
[How Jonah ended up in the “belly of the fish”, then the Hymn of Jonah – and remind them of all the fanfare made of this song in the Holy Saturday service that commemorates the harrowing of Hades]. Here are “The Scriptures” the Creed refers to:
Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, “I called to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and thou didst hear my voice. For thou didst cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood was round about me; all thy waves and thy billows passed over me. Then I said, ‘I am cast out from my presence; how shall I again look upon thy holy temple?’ The waters closed in over me, the deep was round about me; weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me for ever; yet thou didst bring up my life from the Pit, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to thee, into the holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of Thanksgiving will sacrifice to thee; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!” And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. (Jonah 1:16 – 2:10)
The Jews knew the scriptures Christ meant when He referred to “The Sign of Jonah”, just as they understood every other prophesy about the Messiah. So there He was, right there before them, fulfilling the scriptures that they had memorized – and they refused to recognize Him for who He was. The Messiah they had taught about and longed for was right there in their midst, but they wanted something else. For such a person, there is no miracle great enough to change their hearts. A person that can observe the ministry of Christ without seeing the glory of God within Him is irrational and blind. What could ever convert such a person to the truth? Only repentance – and for so many of them (and so many of us), the truth just isn’t worth the sacrifice.
Christ warned that such people exist in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man [St. Luke 16: 19-31; remind them of the story]. Now remember how Christ ends that parable; the Rich Man has asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to the Rich Man’s family as a sign that they need to repent. Abraham answers; “If they do not head Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (St. Luke 16: 31)
The “Sign of Johan” would not be enough, even when it was given in real time. People are too stubborn. Without repentance, without humility, one cannot see the truth.
Which Brings Us Back to Thomas
Thomas wanted a sign that Christ was really alive, but the signs were already there. He had the witness of His disciples. He had the witness of the Church, but he demanded more.
And Christ – the great “I am” who lowers Himself to become what we need – gave it to Him. Christ was truly before Him – Thomas had His body and blood right there to prove it. There could be no more doubt. And so he confessed Christ saying; “My Lord and my God”.
And as St. John Chysostom writes about him;
“Thomas, being once weaker in faith than the other apostles, toiled through the grace of God more bravely, more zealously and tirelessly than them all, so that he went preaching over nearly all the earth, not fearing to proclaim the Word of God to savage nations.”
Do we not have the same? Is it not the bread that is His body that we hold within our mouths? Is it not the wine that is His blood that we taste on our tongues? Did He not offer these things as living proof (“remembrances”) of His coming? (1 Corinthians 11:24-26).
And to You:
Do you believe in the Resurrection of Christ? You have to, because without that – everything in life is vanity (Ecclesiastes 1: 14). As St. Paul puts it (1 Corinthians 15: 17-18);
“And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”
We understand Thomas’ doubt – and many of us are tempted to ask for a special miracle, something specific that will prove once and for all that all this is true.
But all we have is the Sign of Jonah, fulfilled in the Christ; His passion, His death, His descent into Hades; His victory over death; His Resurrection on the third day. All we have is His abiding presence in His Church; the forgiveness of sins through repentance and absolution; the reconciliation of enemies with each other and all mankind with the unity and perfection that is God. All we have is His flesh and blood on our tongues and His Holy Spirit within our hearts.
An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign… my brothers and sisters; “Be not unbelieving, but believing… because you have seen Christ, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
