Posted by Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Today is the Octave of Easter, also called Low Sunday because on this day those who had been baptised at Easter took off their baptismal garments (which they had worn during the Octave). During the past week we have heard each day from one of the narratives of the resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples. It was these appearances that convinced the disciples that the resurrection which they awaited at the end of time had come to pass in Jesus in the midst of time. Hence, they were already living in the new order, even though the old order of sin and death was still very much in evidence. But since Christ had now risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept, they could now look forward in joyful expectation. They now knew that the sufferings of this present time were not worthy to be compared to the future glory that shall be revealed in the new heaven and the new earth, when God will finally be all in all.
But Thomas had not been with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them on the first Easter Day. He not unreasonably concluded that it all sounded rather too good to be true, a happy ending added on to what was otherwise an unrelieved tragedy. He naturally wished his faith to be based on evidence. Faith could hardly be distinguished from fantasy if it was not based on evidence. He said that he would not believe unless he saw in his hands the print of the nails, and put his finger into the place of the nails, and put his hands into his side. Eight days later the disciples were gathered again on the first day of the week and Jesus stood in the midst of them, the doors being shut. He said to Thomas, “Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless but believing.” We are not told whether or not Thomas actually did this, but we are told that this led him to make the great confession of faith, “My Lord and my God”. Jesus said to him, “Because thou hast seen me Thomas, thou hadst believed; blessed are they that have not seen and have believed.”
Thomas’ initial scepticism about Jesus’ bodily resurrection in many ways anticipates the protest of post- Enlightenment western man against the miraculous and against revealed religion. The Enlightenment sought to subject all claims to truth to the bar of reason and empirical evidence. How else was it possible to separate faith from fantasy? Whereas previous ages of faith had seen man as fallen and in need of redemption, the claim of the Enlightenment was that man had now come of age and could only uphold any belief on the basis of reason alone. The universe was now seen as a closed continuum of cause and effect. This rendered belief in the miraculous impossible and separated facts from value. The contingent facts of history and the eternal truths of reason were now separated by an ugly ditch, as Lessing had said. Human history was now seen as having come to a climax, not in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, but in the eighteenth century Enlightenment itself. Now that the human race had finally learned to separate fact from fiction, the old superstitions fostered by religion would wither away.
In more recent times this earlier confidence in reason and science has evaporated. We are now said to be living in a post- modern rather than a modern age in which all claims to truth are now suspect, not only of religion, but also of reason and science as well. Rather than being based on evidence, the truth (although to speak of truth is heavily ironic because for this post- modern age there is no objective truth) is something we create for ourselves and is whatever we “feel” at any given time. People are actively encouraged to create their own values and anyone who tries to question the objectivity of what we “feel” must be cancelled and shut down. For to question our feelings is to question our “self- worth” and “self- esteem” and people are now taught to believe not in any kind of objective standard but only in themselves. It is a strange paradox that the Enlightenment discarded the miraculous and revealed religion in the name of reason and science, only for the post-modern world to discard not only religion but also reason and science as well.
How are we to preach the Gospel of Jesus’ resurrection to an age that no longer (like Thomas and the Enlightenment) asks for rational evidence before the venture of faith can be made, but now believes anything that fits with what we feel at any given time? It must firstly be said that the protest of the post- modernist has some validity, for belief is never solely based on evidence, for how we interpret the evidence depends on our presuppositions and the worldview that we hold. There are more things in heaven and earth than post- Enlightenment rationalism can accommodate. But the problem with this post- modern age is that it tries to base everything on feelings and not on evidence at all. If we rely only on our transient feelings we will end up believing not in any objective truth but only in ourselves. Faith can never be based simply on evidence, but it is not based on no evidence at all. We usually have to rely on the testimony of others. Thus, the belief that Great Britain is an island is not something we hold solely on the basis of evidence, for few of us have actually travelled round the whole country to independently verify that Britain is an island for ourselves. Rather we base our belief that Britain is an island on the testimony of others, a testimony that is so strong that it is unreasonable to doubt it.
Now belief in the resurrection of Jesus is rather like this as well. We rely not on having independently verified the matter for ourselves, but on the testimony of others. This cumulative testimony from the apostolic age to the present is so strong that it is unreasonable to doubt it. We can base our faith on the testimony of those who saw the Word made flesh in the days of his life on this earth in first century Palestine, whose eyes have seen and hands have touched the Word of Life, that was with the Father and then manifested to us. They saw and believed, like St. John, and we can rest our faith on their testimony and the testimony of subsequent martyrs (and the word martyr means witness) and saints down the ages. Blessed are they that have not seen, but have believed.
Jesus, these eyes have never seen
That radiant form of thine;
The veil of sense hangs dark between
They blessed face and mine.
I see thee not, I hear thee not,
Yet art thou oft with me,
And earth has ne’er so dear a spot
As where I met with thee.
Yet, though I have not seen and still
Must rest in faith alone,
I love thee, dearest Lord, and will,
Unseen, but not unknown.
When death these mortal eyes shall seal,
And still this throbbing heart,
The rending veil shall thee reveal
All glorious as thou art.