John 20:19-31

Gospel according to John 20:19-31

It was evening on the day Jesus rose from the dead, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 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.” But Thomas, who was called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “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.” After eight days his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Reflections

It was the first day of Easter, Easter Sunday, the first day of the week, according to the Jewish calendar. That morning, the disciples received news from Mary Magdalene that Jesus was alive. Peter and John ran to the tomb and verified that the soldiers were nowhere to be seen, the stone had been rolled away, and Jesus body was missing. They saw the linens that used to cover his body neatly folded and the cloth that covered his face, being also left there at some distance away from the rest. They recalled that on the way to Jerusalem, and whenever Jesus predicted his death, he also told them that he will be raised on the third day. They started to think, to ponder, and to discuss, that this is what must have happened.

Still, they were greatly disturbed from the events of the previous couple of days, from having seen Jesus suffer and die on the cross. They disappointed with themselves for having promised to Jesus to remain faithful but have run away when he was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were immensely remorseful about how much Jesus had suffered and how powerless they were to protect him. They feared the authorities. They perplexed by the possibility of Jesus being alive. –They experienced a whirlwind of emotions that made them paralyzed and sought refuge in each other’s company behind locked doors to try to make sense of these events. Yes, Jesus told them that he will be raised from the dead, but beyond his word, and the disturbing news that his body was missing, and he may be alive, what evidence did they have?

The very same day, in the evening, Jesus stood among them in his resurrected body. He showed them the mark of the nails in his hands and the place where his side had been pierced with a spear (John 19:34). His words to the disciples were words of consolation and encouragement: “Peace be with you!” After this, he breathed the Holy Spirit onto the disciples to restore their strength for the mission that he was bestowing on them. They were to go and announce the Good News of the resurrection and help people live according to the Gospel Values of love, kindness, mercy, humility, and charity.

However, one of the disciples, Thomas, was missing from this meeting and did not see Jesus resurrected from the dead. When the disciples told him that they have seen Jesus, he declared that he will not believe it until he touches Jesus’ wounded hands and side. A week later, when Thomas was present with the disciples, Jesus appeared to them in a similar way as the first time, and invited Thomas to step forward to touch his wounds. In faith, he fell to the ground, declaring, “My Lord and my God!” as he saw, and he believed.

Saint John recorded this event for us, since Thomas, who needed to have palpable evidence of the truth, is so much in line with how we humans accept verification based on sensory proof. What we do not see, what we can’t touch, or measure, is easily dismissed as “illusory”, “fairy-tale,” or “made-up.” Nonetheless, in the sphere of human experience, there are countless examples of phenomena that are hard to explain according to their size, properties, or location. Such phenomena, for example is the dimension of spirit. Love, forgiveness, kindness, faith, all spring from the human spirit, and cannot be deduced from physiological reactions or mental processes, even though they have their correlates in the body and the mind. Yet, their impact is evident. We are more than our finite, fallible, and vulnerable bodies, and minds, which we have. According to Viktor E. Frankl’s wholistic anthropological view of the person, our very essence, who we are, is a dynamic spirit, an incorruptible core, not limited by time and space. (1)

The body, mind, and spirit are three dimensions which, although connected at each point during our lives, afford the possibility of transcending the here and now and coordinate our purpose with values that are place, person, and situation specific. Through the dimension of the spirit, we can gain distance from ourselves and observe ourselves from the outside; compare ourselves against the truth that we recognize in our conscience, and self-transcend ourselves, mold ourselves according to what we know to be true, good, and beautiful, to forge a worthwhile path and legacy.

It is through the spirit that the realm of meaning and Ultimate Meaning opens, and beckons (2). The human spirit precedes the mind and the body’s faculties in relating to the realm of the Spirit-- The Holy Spirit bearing the properties of omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, and eternality (3). While we may not be able to mentally conceptualize this fact, we can only intuit it and draw near it in our spirit.

Jesus, now in his resurrected body, reached and touched the disciples when they were afraid, and where they were, behind closed doors. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he beckoned them, and empowered them, to open their eyes; open their mouths; open their hearts, so that, guided by the Spirit, they can proclaim the Good News to all the world.

“Peace be with you!” said Jesus. --The same greeting with which he welcomes us when we turn to Him and pray for strength to face our fears, shortcomings, and obstacles to be faithful witnesses of His goodness, mercy, and everlasting love in our present circumstances. --The same encouragement which nourishes our spirit as it points to a meaningful path ahead. –The same source of strength which kindles a spark into a flame of love for all creation.

Resources:

Frankl, V. E. (2014). The will to meaning. New York, NY: Penguin Books.

Frankl, V. E. (2000). Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Moody Bible Institute (2024). Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. www.moodybible.org