Easter 2 B 2009
Each year at summer camp I noticed a strange sociological phenomenon. There was always a kid who, for whatever the reason, bore the brunt of our jokes and pranks. I was in a different cabin each year, but each year the phenomenon was the same. Among a group of about a dozen boys one of them is always at the bottom of the totem pole.
Thankfully, I never had to be that boy, but I confess I did my part helping to torment that poor child whose open hand we carefully filled with tooth paste as he slept during the night and tickled his nose with a feather so that when he awoke his face was covered in Colgate. There was the poor boy who we startled awake in the middle of the night by shining the brightest flashlight we had in his face and screaming “Train!” Or worse yet, the unfortunate young man whose hand we managed to dip in warm water as he slept.
Without fail there was a kid on whom we focused all our insecurity and fear. Because we ourselves didn’t want to be the oddball, we appointed one. It was usually the kid who came to camp without a friend, and whose social skills were a little lacking. It wouldn’t take long for this child to be on the defensive and to be skittish and suspicious of any kind gesture. He would not accept candy, gum, complements, or information from his cabin mates, because they were almost always tainted. Before going to bed he would be sure to check is sleeping bag for spiders, frogs, or snakes that had mysteriously found there way into his bunk.
I wonder if Thomas wasn’t this kid. I wonder if Thomas wasn’t the well meaning, earnest, and slightly gullible young man who bore the brunt of the disciples’ practical jokes and pranks. I wonder if that doesn’t explain his defensiveness, skepticism, and suspiciousness. I wonder if he didn’t think that the other disciples were trying to play a cruel practical joke on him. They reported to him that they had seen the Risen Lord. They witnessed the wounds in his hands and side. But Thomas replied, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails, and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
I sometimes wonder if this cruel world hasn’t made us suspicious of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I wonder if we haven’t become suspicious because we have learned if something seems too good to be true it probably is. It is for good reason that we have become so cautious. Internet schemes try to use our fear to get us to give our account information to parties posing as our own banks. Television ads promise debt relief, protection from creditors and the IRS, and agencies that can prevent foreclosure or identity theft, but many of these agencies are scam artists. And then there are the televangelists who promise miraculous hundred fold gains in prosperity and health for what they call a seed-faith offering.
There are so many scammers out there trying to pull the wool over our eyes. There are so many forces trying to deceive and misdirect us. How do we know who to believe? How do we know who to believe in? Thomas’ response to the resurrection news is understandable. The world hardens our hearts. The world puts us on the defensive. Then it becomes normal to be cynical, skeptical, cautious, suspicious, and doubtful. Thomas doesn’t want to be taken in as a fool, and neither do we. But we know who to believe in because he comes to us bearing his wounds. We know who to believe, because he comes to us bestowing his peace and showing us the great extent of His love.
He shows us the wounds and the pain that he bore for us. He does not come to stir up our anxiety and fear. He does not come to bargain with us saying, “if you do this or give up that I will help and save you.” He comes to us showing us the price he has paid for us: the priceless gift of his life that we could never in a million years repay. He comes demonstrating that he sets no conditions on this gift but rather, be bestows the gift of faith freely.
Jesus says to Thomas after offering up his wounds for Thomas to probe (thankfully, an an offer that Thomas declines) “Do not doubt, but believe.” This utterance, “do not doubt, but believe” is a performative utterance. It is like Jesus saying, “arise and walk, your faith has made you well.” These are words that not only say something, they do something. “Do not doubt, but believe!” And at last Thomas believes the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus’ resurrection!” In a way Jesus cures Thomas of his doubt. Jesus does this by taking away his fear, and by reaching beyond his pain.
In the same way Jesus comes to us reaching out beyond our tough exteriors of suspicion and skepticism. Jesus comes to us out of pure and holy love to take away our fear and remove our pain. He does this by showing us that he was able to bear that pain and overcome that fear once and for all. And he did so by becoming like that kid that we all used to pick on. He did this by becoming like Thomas and bearing the brunt of our jokes and the pain of our anxious cruelty. He became isolated on the cross and in the grave like the kid at camp who walks alone and without a friend. But in the end the prank was on us.
He bore our cruelty, our sufferings, our insecurities and our sin because he was the only one strong enough, secure enough, and sinless enough to do so. He bore our very death and rose again to give us faith, trust, and courage in a God whose love is for us is immeasurable, whose concern for us is ceaseless, and whose care is given freely, without conditions.
And the real practical joke is on the devil. The biggest prank is on the source of evil because by dying and rising, Jesus broke the bonds of death—the only power that the devil can lay claim to. By dying and rising Jesus overcame the sin of the world that leads to death. By dying and rising Jesus shows us that the devil cannot lay claim to Him, and because we are covered in Jesus righteousness, the devil cannot lay claim to me or you. The joke is on the devil who is like a bully on the playground who was stripped of his power and no longer intimidates anyone.
