"Jesus Shows Up"

I love today's gospel. It is one of my absolute favorites. Poor Thomas. My memories of sermons related to this story centered on Thomas's failures to believe. They shame poor Thomas for his suspicions. I mean what do we normally call this story? The story of Doubting Thomas! Thomas has been labeled for millennia by his - quite rational, in my opinion - disbelief and need for reassurance. While Jesus's post-resurrection appearance is also recorded in Luke 24, there is no mention of Thomas in that story. Just John depicts Thomas as the one needing reproach thrusts Thomas into the not awesome kind of biblical significance that many of us have been taught. I learned that Jesus scolds Thomas's inferior faith with "Do you only believe because I'm here - think about everyone else who will believe without seeing me!" In other words, don't be like Thomas. In my mind, I see Thomas encountering the author of John in the great beyond and saying, "What'd I ever do to you?"

To me, the story of Thomas isn't about Thomas's shortcomings but about how Jesus shows up. If you remember, the gospel starts in the evening of Easter Sunday. The verses just preceding those read today tell of Jesus's tender appearance to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb and how she relays her experience to the apostles. Remember, Jesus came to her first. And the apostles, upon hearing her story, are overwhelmed with fear and lock the door because they are terrified that the authorities are coming for them next. (I always wondered what Mary Magdalene was doing that night ...) And Jesus shows up. Jesus comes to them in the midst of the darkness of their confusion, fear, and crushing grief. And he wishes them Shalom, Peace, echoing his message from earlier in John when he tells the disciples, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid" (John 14: 27). In today's gospel, Jesus offers peace for the disciples three times. He doesn't chastise them for being afraid. He instead equips them with the Holy Spirit.

Now, you may have noticed that John's version of the anointing with the Holy Spirit is quite different from the one in Acts 2 when a rushing, violent wind ushers in tongues of fire and everyone is filled with the Holy Spirit. That version of the story, largely believed to be authored by the gospel writer Luke, is what we celebrate on Pentecost. Today's first reading from Acts is Peter's declarations about Jesus's resurrection immediately following the tongues of fire scene. In the Acts story, Jesus has already ascended to heaven when the Holy Spirit comes. But in today's story, the Holy Spirit comes through Jesus's own breath. You may already know that the Greek word for the Holy Spirit is pneuma, which means breath, wind, and spirit. In today's gospel, the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles in a gentle, peaceful, breath. It comes from within Jesus himself, as he and God are one. It comes with the instruction to go out and show up for other people, forgive their sins, and carry Christ's peace with them wherever they go. Jesus shows up that day with a tremendous gift for all who believe.

But poor Thomas wasn't there that day. Don't you kind of wonder where he was? But he wasn't there. And he's skeptical of the story he hears about Jesus rising from the dead and visiting his friends. Because of course he is! Nothing like this had ever happened before. And, yes, Jesus performed many miracles presumably in his presence so maybe he might have been a little more receptive to the idea of the impossible becoming possible, but I don't think it's fair to vilify Thomas for being human. And neither does Jesus. What does Jesus do with Thomas's skepticism and doubt? He shows up. He just shows up. He offers Thomas the proof he needs to get unstuck from within his grief and despair and slide into joy. And despite all the sermons I've heard to the contrary, I don't see Jesus's response to Thomas's doubt as a scolding. I see it as a

truth-telling moment. Jesus knows that he will ascend to God soon and that Jesus has equipped his disciples with the Holy Spirit. He invites Thomas to consider how people will trust in the promise of the resurrection if they don't see the risen Jesus themselves.

The belief that Jesus is talking about isn't a cognitive acceptance of knowledge but it is relational action. It is about trust. My New Testament professor emphasized that, for our ancient Jewish ancestors, of whom both the gospel writer John and Jesus were part, belief was about living faithfully. It was a verb that reflected how one's actions and lifestyle manifested God's love and always pointed to right relationship within the community. My professor emphasized that the idea of belief being somehow separate from the entirety of a person's outward-facing life would have been ludicrous. And perhaps Jesus is asking Thomas to trust him, his community, and those who will yet join the community of Jesus-followers. Maybe Jesus is reminding Thomas of the expansiveness of God's kin-dom and reminding him to minister love as Jesus loves, inviting people to see Jesus through him. In other words, show up for people so that they may trust in Jesus just as Thomas now does.

And another thing that is especially notable is how Jesus shows up for the disciples that day. The resurrected Jesus is a wounded Jesus. He bears the scars of his trauma and doesn't hide them from the disciples (who are hiding in a locked room). The first thing he does is show them his mutilated hands and side. The resurrection doesn't erase the crucifixion. It doesn't "right what has been wronged". What was wrong was still wrong. But it was overcome. There's a difference. Jesus conquers death but doesn't come out unscathed. Jesus is hurt and forever changed.

Today's gospel has special significance for people living with disabilities because of this way that Jesus reveals himself in his woundedness. He invites Thomas to touch him as a way to understand the miracle of his risen life. Jesus's broken resurrected body bids us to consider how we interpret Imago Dei, or the idea that we are all made in the image of God. What does it mean that Jesus, in all his resurrected glory, bears the signs of physical disfigurement? Today's gospel offers a poignant reminder that being made in the image of God includes our brokenness, our scars, our wheelchairs and walkers. In her book, My Body is Not a Prayer Request, Dr. Amy Kenny writes, "I refuse to be ashamed of my disabled body because it displays the crucified Christ. It is twisted and twitchy and tired, but it is triumphant."1 It is precisely through witness of his debilitated body that endured tremendous suffering that Jesus's earliest disciples understand the magnitude of his triumph over death. Through his disabled body, Jesus ushers in a new era, a new kin-dom, a never-before-seen manifestation of God's overabundant love for humanity.

Now, please don't misunderstand me. I do not believe in redemptive suffering, meaning that suffering is a blessing because it brings us closer to Christ. I don't believe in a God who delights in suffering of any kind. I just don't. And I also don't mean to minimize or romanticize the substantial burden of living with a disability. Please forgive me if I've misspoken in that way. But I do think it is tremendously significant that Jesus shows up unashamed of his wounds and at peace with them. Even in his glorified, harmonious, fully divine state, Jesus's body is not perfect by earthly standards but it is entirely perfect by God's.

Today's gospel of "Doubting Thomas" could just as easily be called "Jesus Shows Up". And Jesus is still showing up for us today. I'm guessing that each one of you holds a personal story where Jesus showed up in the darkness of our locked hearts, grief, or despair. When Jesus showed up in unexpected places, invited us to touch the scars of the crucifixion, and nudged us out of our stuckness and into God's kin-dom. I'm sure each of you holds a story of a time when the Holy Spirit entered a community - either gently like a breath or fiercely like a hurricane - and enabled us to see past our limited imaginations and witness a new reality possible through the radical love of God through Jesus Christ.

And, our job, as I see it, is to share this good news with those who haven't yet noticed that Jesus shows up in all the ways he does. In his glorious, triumphant, wounded, trauma-scarred, Spirit-breathing, mysterious ways. It is not to chastise people for not believing the unbelievable but to express our faith through living in right relationship with all of creation - our communities we belong to and those we have yet to meet. It is to trust that Jesus will show up when we grow weary and bring us shalom, "the blessing that makes it possible to receive all other blessings in life"2 And it is to have the courage to show up for others in ways expected and unexpected. To show up, without shame for our scars and disabilities. To show up without judgement or disdain. But to show up as an ambassador by example of God's unfathomable love for the world demonstrated through Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

So go ahead and doubt. It's human nature, after all. But be sure to look around when you do it because Jesus is bound to show up and meet you there. Praise be to God!

¹ Kenny, Amy. My Body Is Not a Prayer Request: Disability Justice in the Church. Brazos Press, 2022.

² International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. "What Is Shalom?" Ifcj.org. Accessed April 8, 2026.

https://www.ifcj.org/learn/resource-library/what-is-shalom?