Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Second Sunday of Easter

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:19–31)

But when Thomas had heard from his fellow disciples that they had seen the Lord, he responded: Unless I see the nail-marks and put my hand into his side, I shall not believe (v. 25). Why does Thomas seek this kind of basis for faith? Why is he so harsh in his investigation of the Resurrection of One who suffered with such loving devotion? Why does the hand of a faithful disciple in this fashion retrace those wounds which an unholy hand inflicted? Why does the hand of a dutiful follower strive to reopen the side which the lance of an unholy soldier pierced? Why does the harsh curiosity of a servant repeat the tortures imposed by the rage of persecutors? Why is a disciple so inquisitive about proving from his torments that He is the Lord, from his pains that He is God, and from His wounds that He is the heavenly Physician?

The power of the devil has crumbled, the prison of hell has been thrown open, the shackles of the dead have been broken, the graves of those who have risen have been torn asunder, on account of the Lord’s Resurrection the whole condition of death has been rendered insignificant, the stone has been rolled back from that most sacred tomb of the Lord, the linen cloths have been taken off, and death has fled before the glory of the Risen One, life has returned, and flesh has arisen incapable of further harm.

So why, Thomas, do you alone, a little too clever a sleuth for your own good, insist that only the wounds be brought forward in testimony to faith? What if these wounds had been made to disappear with the other things? What a peril to your faith would that curiosity have produced? Do you think that no signs of his devotion and no evidence of the Lord’s Resurrection could be found unless you probed with your hands his inner organs which had been laid bare in such a way by the cruelty of the Jews?

Brothers, his devotion sought these things, his dedication demanded them, so that in the future not even godlessness itself would doubt that the Lord had risen. But Thomas was curing not only the uncertainty of his own heart, but also that of all human beings; and since he was going to preach this message to the gentiles, this conscientious investigator was examining carefully how he might provide a foundation for the faith needed for such a mystery. Certainly at issue is prophecy more than hesitation; for why would he be seeking such things unless he had come to know by the prophetic Spirit that the only reason that the Lord had kept His wounds was as evidence of his Resurrection? And so, the request that he made because he was late was something that in the end he provided spontaneously for others.

Peter Chrysologus, Selected Sermons 84. 8