Ephesians 4:7, 11-16; St John 20:24-29
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
They look nice, don’t they? The red paraments? They look nice with the red poinsettias and the green Christmas trees. I’m sure it’d look even better all light up. Very Christmasy. But its not Christmas. Not yet. It is still Advent. And just days before the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord, the Church remembers St Thomas an apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. So before we hear of the swaddled babe in the manger bed, the Church takes us to the Sunday after the Resurrection; to St Thomas’ great confession.
Unlike the other commemorations we’ve observed during Advent - St Nicholas and St Lucia - St Thomas is actually recorded in Sacred Scripture. He was an eye witness of the baptism and ministry, the Cross and passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus. Those are his qualifications. That is what it means to be an apostle; a sent one of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. But not unlike the other saints little is actually known of St Thomas beyond the pages of Holy Writ.
We don’t know where he was born. We don’t know where he died. We don’t know when he was called to be a disciple of Jesus, but all the Gospels list him among the Twelve. St John calls him, Didymus, like ditto, the Twin. Some suggest that he didn’t actually have a biological twin, but that he looked like Jesus, so he was nicknamed, the Twin. But that’s mere speculation. After Pentecost he may have traveled as far east as India. There are Christians in India who, to this day, refer to themselves as “Christians of St Thomas.” It is believed that St Thomas was martyred for Christ by being killed with a spear. Maybe. I suppose its hermeneutically fitting. The man who put his hand into the spear scar of our crucified and risen Lord Jesus, died for that same Jesus by the spear.
Here’s what we do know. Only St John’s Gospel records any words from him. In fact, the Evangelist seems to use his queries to reveal truths about Jesus. During our Lord’s farewell discourse Jesus announced that He was going to prepare a place for the disciples and would come again to take them to Himself. He told the disciples that they knew the way to the place He is going. But St Thomas replied, Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you have known the Father also” (Jn 14:4-6). Thus do we have the exclusive claim that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus Christ. He is the world’s only Savior and Redeemer.
When Lazarus died and Jesus proclaimed that He was going to Judea to awaken him, the Twelve tried to stop Him on account of the Jews who sought to kill Him. When Jesus seemed intent on going, St Thomas said to the other disciples, Let us go also, that we may die with Him (Jn 11:16). This shows that he heard and heeded our Lord’s predictions of His own Passion. St Thomas seemed to understand the divine necessity of the Cross and the death of Jesus.
By far his most famous remembrance is his doubting of our Lord’s resurrection account from the mouths of fellow disciples. St Thomas had not been with them in the Upper Room on Easter evening when the Lord appeared. He announced his stubborn unbelief: Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.” In great mercy, Christ appeared again a week later, and this time St Thomas was with them. He bid him do exactly what he proposed. Put your finer here and see My hands; and put out your hand and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas then confessed, My Lord and my God!
And here you behold the destiny of the Babe of Bethlehem, the Man of Nazareth. He was rejected by the innkeeper, scarred by the sins of selfish men, but alive by the power of the Most High. He is the Son of God and the Son of Mary. St Thomas may have looked like Jesus, but it is Jesus who looks like us, became one of us, except without the inherited corruption of Adam. God in our skin, born to die our death. As an infant He will be swaddled with our sin. He will know hardship, hunger, loneliness, sorrow, and pain. He will suffer the condemning wrath of the Father, lonely exile away from God, and the torture of our eternal death. In love He will rise and come through doors shut in fear to open St Thomas’ heart.
He was born to die our death. He who knew no sin was swaddled in our sin to die our death, to buried in the virgin tomb prepared for another man. The blood that issues from His wounds washes over us who should have died. Like Thomas, we should have died in our stubborn unbelief. But in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the gift of His grace, His blood marks us and cleanses us. The angel of death passes over us to kill Him and we are safe.
Yet death cannot hold Him. He is stronger than the strong one whom He defeated. He is our Lord and our God. He is also our Creator, Giver, Redeemer and Sustainer. He is true God and true Man, ascended to the right hand of His Father as our Priest and Advocate and Brother. St Thomas sees Him, exalted, in the upper, fearful room and by the grace of God working through the Word in the Holy Spirit, St Thomas believes and confesses, My Lord and my God!
At the command of Him who orders wind and wave, St Thomas places his doubting hand into the side from whence flowed the water and the blood. He retracts his hand - now cleansed, now pure, now believing - not unlike Moses removing his leprous hand cleansed from his breast. With God all things are possible. And St Thomas the doubter is ordained an apostle. He is sent to preach and he preaches to those who have not seen, and by that preaching they are blessed, that is, they hear the Word of God and believe.
He lays that once-doubting hand, which felt the life-giving scars of God in the flesh, upon the sick, the dying, the pertinent and forgiven. And he lays that hand on those to be placed into his office, the Office of the Holy Ministry, a gift of Christ to His Church. And they and you are blessed. Having not seen, but hearing the Word of God, you, by His grace, believe. And He who gave to His Church the blessed apostles and the holy prophets and evangelists, the pastors who teach doctrine, He by their Word, builds you up in Himself, uniting you in the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This is the work of the Office of the Holy Ministry, the Office instituted by our crucified and risen Lord Jesus, for the purpose of the proclamation of His Gospel which forgives all your sins.
In Him, by baptism, you are adopted children. Yet you are not to remain as infants in the faith who are susceptible to false doctrine and human cunning. Rather, you are to give concern for true doctrine and love for one another, which are not mutually exclusive. It is the truth, spoken in love, dear Christians, which builds you up, strengthens you in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, and by which you grow in every way - in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another - into Him who is the Head, even Jesus Christ.
This is our priority at all times and especially during Advent and Christmas - the pure and saving doctrine of Jesus Christ. The red which adorns the Altar and is the color of the flowers serves to remind us of this, of the Blood of Christ, in which we are covered, redeemed, and forgiven. Thanks be to God for St Thomas. His physical touch has confirmed for us what the prophets have taught - God came in the flesh to ransom us.
Thus do we go, by faith, with leprous hands and hearts, to be touched by Jesus in His Holy Communion. Here is the blood that issued from that pierced side, which cleanses our hearts and drives off doubt. Here is the body swaddled and laid in the animal’s wedding trough that we might eat better than kings. And that, dear friends, makes for a most piously merry and joyful Christmas.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
They look nice, don’t they? The red paraments? They look nice with the red poinsettias and the green Christmas trees. I’m sure it’d look even better all light up. Very Christmasy. But its not Christmas. Not yet. It is still Advent. And just days before the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord, the Church remembers St Thomas an apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ. So before we hear of the swaddled babe in the manger bed, the Church takes us to the Sunday after the Resurrection; to St Thomas’ great confession.
Unlike the other commemorations we’ve observed during Advent - St Nicholas and St Lucia - St Thomas is actually recorded in Sacred Scripture. He was an eye witness of the baptism and ministry, the Cross and passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus. Those are his qualifications. That is what it means to be an apostle; a sent one of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. But not unlike the other saints little is actually known of St Thomas beyond the pages of Holy Writ.
We don’t know where he was born. We don’t know where he died. We don’t know when he was called to be a disciple of Jesus, but all the Gospels list him among the Twelve. St John calls him, Didymus, like ditto, the Twin. Some suggest that he didn’t actually have a biological twin, but that he looked like Jesus, so he was nicknamed, the Twin. But that’s mere speculation. After Pentecost he may have traveled as far east as India. There are Christians in India who, to this day, refer to themselves as “Christians of St Thomas.” It is believed that St Thomas was martyred for Christ by being killed with a spear. Maybe. I suppose its hermeneutically fitting. The man who put his hand into the spear scar of our crucified and risen Lord Jesus, died for that same Jesus by the spear.
Here’s what we do know. Only St John’s Gospel records any words from him. In fact, the Evangelist seems to use his queries to reveal truths about Jesus. During our Lord’s farewell discourse Jesus announced that He was going to prepare a place for the disciples and would come again to take them to Himself. He told the disciples that they knew the way to the place He is going. But St Thomas replied, Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you have known the Father also” (Jn 14:4-6). Thus do we have the exclusive claim that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus Christ. He is the world’s only Savior and Redeemer.
When Lazarus died and Jesus proclaimed that He was going to Judea to awaken him, the Twelve tried to stop Him on account of the Jews who sought to kill Him. When Jesus seemed intent on going, St Thomas said to the other disciples, Let us go also, that we may die with Him (Jn 11:16). This shows that he heard and heeded our Lord’s predictions of His own Passion. St Thomas seemed to understand the divine necessity of the Cross and the death of Jesus.
By far his most famous remembrance is his doubting of our Lord’s resurrection account from the mouths of fellow disciples. St Thomas had not been with them in the Upper Room on Easter evening when the Lord appeared. He announced his stubborn unbelief: Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.” In great mercy, Christ appeared again a week later, and this time St Thomas was with them. He bid him do exactly what he proposed. Put your finer here and see My hands; and put out your hand and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas then confessed, My Lord and my God!
And here you behold the destiny of the Babe of Bethlehem, the Man of Nazareth. He was rejected by the innkeeper, scarred by the sins of selfish men, but alive by the power of the Most High. He is the Son of God and the Son of Mary. St Thomas may have looked like Jesus, but it is Jesus who looks like us, became one of us, except without the inherited corruption of Adam. God in our skin, born to die our death. As an infant He will be swaddled with our sin. He will know hardship, hunger, loneliness, sorrow, and pain. He will suffer the condemning wrath of the Father, lonely exile away from God, and the torture of our eternal death. In love He will rise and come through doors shut in fear to open St Thomas’ heart.
He was born to die our death. He who knew no sin was swaddled in our sin to die our death, to buried in the virgin tomb prepared for another man. The blood that issues from His wounds washes over us who should have died. Like Thomas, we should have died in our stubborn unbelief. But in the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the gift of His grace, His blood marks us and cleanses us. The angel of death passes over us to kill Him and we are safe.
Yet death cannot hold Him. He is stronger than the strong one whom He defeated. He is our Lord and our God. He is also our Creator, Giver, Redeemer and Sustainer. He is true God and true Man, ascended to the right hand of His Father as our Priest and Advocate and Brother. St Thomas sees Him, exalted, in the upper, fearful room and by the grace of God working through the Word in the Holy Spirit, St Thomas believes and confesses, My Lord and my God!
At the command of Him who orders wind and wave, St Thomas places his doubting hand into the side from whence flowed the water and the blood. He retracts his hand - now cleansed, now pure, now believing - not unlike Moses removing his leprous hand cleansed from his breast. With God all things are possible. And St Thomas the doubter is ordained an apostle. He is sent to preach and he preaches to those who have not seen, and by that preaching they are blessed, that is, they hear the Word of God and believe.
He lays that once-doubting hand, which felt the life-giving scars of God in the flesh, upon the sick, the dying, the pertinent and forgiven. And he lays that hand on those to be placed into his office, the Office of the Holy Ministry, a gift of Christ to His Church. And they and you are blessed. Having not seen, but hearing the Word of God, you, by His grace, believe. And He who gave to His Church the blessed apostles and the holy prophets and evangelists, the pastors who teach doctrine, He by their Word, builds you up in Himself, uniting you in the faith once for all delivered to the saints. This is the work of the Office of the Holy Ministry, the Office instituted by our crucified and risen Lord Jesus, for the purpose of the proclamation of His Gospel which forgives all your sins.
In Him, by baptism, you are adopted children. Yet you are not to remain as infants in the faith who are susceptible to false doctrine and human cunning. Rather, you are to give concern for true doctrine and love for one another, which are not mutually exclusive. It is the truth, spoken in love, dear Christians, which builds you up, strengthens you in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, and by which you grow in every way - in faith toward God and in fervent love toward one another - into Him who is the Head, even Jesus Christ.
This is our priority at all times and especially during Advent and Christmas - the pure and saving doctrine of Jesus Christ. The red which adorns the Altar and is the color of the flowers serves to remind us of this, of the Blood of Christ, in which we are covered, redeemed, and forgiven. Thanks be to God for St Thomas. His physical touch has confirmed for us what the prophets have taught - God came in the flesh to ransom us.
Thus do we go, by faith, with leprous hands and hearts, to be touched by Jesus in His Holy Communion. Here is the blood that issued from that pierced side, which cleanses our hearts and drives off doubt. Here is the body swaddled and laid in the animal’s wedding trough that we might eat better than kings. And that, dear friends, makes for a most piously merry and joyful Christmas.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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