These Things Did Thomas Count as Real
I’m not preaching this week — I’ll be gone on a Presbytery youth retreat — but something in the John lectionary text piques my interest. It’s the “doubting Thomas” text that always comes after Easter. For an old sermon of mine, go here. But here’s my question: Why does Jesus have scars from the crucifixion?
I’m sure there’s lots of fancy theological reasons for Jesus’ scars — the suffering servant, the crucified one always even as the resurrected one — but, for me at least, it’s a conundrum. I mean, I figure if God raised Jesus from the dead, if he was dead, not breathing, kaput for three days and then again alive. Not sleeping — DEAD — and then alive again: Why couldn’t God have healed the scars on his hands and side. Jesus heart was beating again, he didn’t seem to have a limp, but Jesus still had the marks of his nails. What? I don’t get it.
One of my favorite hymn text of Thomas Troeger’s in on this very passage. According to Troeger’s take on Thomas, at least, the scars are essential. The line with the phrase “bitter certainties” is the one that sticks with me the most, since true faith is really less about certainty than a continuing seeking understanding. So I’ll continue to wrestle with the scars. Maybe, in time, they’ll make sense. Maybe not, too. And that’s ok.
These things did Thomas count as real
These things did Thomas count as real:
The warmth of blood, the chill of steel,
The grain of wood, the heft of stone,
The last frail twitch of blood and bone.
His brittle certainties denied
That one could live when one had died,
Until his fingers read like Braille
The markings of the spear and nail.
May we, O God, by grace believe
And, in believing, still receive
The Christ Who held His raw palms out
And beckoned Thomas from his doubt.
-Thomas H. Troeger, 1984 Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church
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This was one of my most intense aha moments of being in seminary – in theology class.
The resurrection, with nail holes, is how God works. God works with what is – what has happened – and makes it something new and good out of it – even suffering and death. The nail holes (not scars) are not something that God has to erase before being able to move forward. The nail holes are not a barrier to God’s work toward the good. The nail holes are picked up and used – as is – because nothing _nothing_ is beyond God’s ability to use for goodness and wholeness.
So all the stuff that happens in our life: losses, deaths, griefs, divorces, whatever – that wounds us so deep are not wiped away as if it had not happened. Instead, they are picked up and woven into the new life in ways we can’t see until it is done. Homes lost to earthquakes or economics or divorce are not magically restored, but its possible that the loss becomes woven into how we live more strongly afterwards – an awkward example.
When great losses occur, we don’t get them magically erased no matter how deeply we desire it. The holes in the hands are there not just to convince Thomas that its the same guy but are there to say: Nothing Stops God.
God doesn’t send us suffering, that’s not God’s choice. But there is nothing that can happen to us that our every creating and eve loving God can’t use, can’t heal, can’t make whole in new ways beyond our imagination.
To limit this story to strictly a shaming (you don’t have enough faith) sermon is to miss a very important life giving point, the same message we’d miss if the hands had been made whole. What happens, happens. There are consequences to actions that can not be undone. But God can and does use it all. There are no barriers, there is nothing that lies beyond God’s ability to be at work on our behalf.
and I am preaching this Sunday – might be time to start writing it…
Thanks so much, Anitra. That is good, very good. Definitely will preach.
I had another comment come in via email, so we’ll say anonymously:
“….I think part of the issue is continuity – the Risen Jesus is still also the Jesus we wept, and laughed, and taught, and fed – the one the disciples new and loved. ….. the issue, as Tom Troeger gets at, is continuity between this life and the next, God’s ability to redeem, not just start over.”
I suppose, perhaps, Anitra, another related thought is from some of the texts that deal with creation and its final culmination in Christ’s return. Different writers have different takes, but most are pretty clear that the NEW creation is actually a REMAKE or RECYCLED old creation. If that’s true, it has huge stewardship implications for us today.
Thanks so much for the comment. Blessings on the sermon writing.
Not so sure about nail “holes”. Thomas wants the same deal the other disciples got – Jesus showed them his hands and side. When Jesus appears he invites Thomas to inspect. Bring your finger here and “see” the hands/wrists. Doesn’t mean a person can see through the hands, but does mean Thomas may inspect the evidence. Thomas wants to see the marks, the place, as indicated by the root topos, from which we get topography.
Jesus says for Thomas to put his hand “eis” his side. “Into is one translation. Of the five main groups of understanding of this preposition in BDAG, the first is the most likely: “extension involving a goal or place, into, in, toward, to”. Realize this area was likely under clothing, a more intimate area, so the invitation also once again for closer inspection for evidence that this was indeed Jesus.
For Easter I took a look at all of John 20, and concentrated on the fears present: Fear of what happened to the body, Fear of the Jews, Fear of trusting anyone. Whether there were holes, scars, bandages, or something else, we don’t really know without reading into the text – so I didn’t go there – it’s a miracle and a mystery.
We’ve got a few people with terminal cancer, and assorted other ailments. And we had the usual folks who come out occasionally – so thought it good to go into more detail regarding fear, as found in the NT.