iThomas
There was Easter Day of course, with baskets and bunnies, eggs, chocolate, glorious hymns, lilies, greetings and acclamations. Χριστός ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! Christ is risen! Truly risen!!
But Easter is not just early dawn and a fragrant garden, an angel, an empty tomb, and an elusive spiritual body (I Corinthians 15:44) who goes to Galilee; joins folks on an afternoon walk and vanishes at supper as Bread is taken, blessed, broken and given; comes present to friends in a room locked up tight as a jail cell; cooks breakfast for them on a Galilean seashore.
If in theological retrospect, Easter dawn is the love of God returning to us after what we did to him, the evening of that same day is a desolate gathering of crushed followers with dashed hopes.
Easter embraces both joyful celebration and scoffing doubt.
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. (Matthew 28:16,17. NRSV)
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin*), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So 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.’ (John 20:24,25. NRSV)
“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” is the sole voice of reason. And “some doubted” indeed. For Thomas, seeing was believing. For fhe rest of us down through the Christian ages, faith is not absence of doubt, faith is letting it be so anyway and pressing on with New Commandment (love one another) and New Covenant (this do).
The faith community foolishly tries to make doubt unadmittable (don’t ask don’t tell), but doubt is scriptural, natural, human. It’s no good shushing the innerThomas. iThomas is as subtle as Dobby banging around in Harry’s bedroom upstairs while downstairs Uncle Vernon insists, “That’s just the cat,”
iThomas bangs on the door shouting, “Let me out.”
Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη? Easter faith is welcoming iThomas and pressing on. Come on downstairs, Dobby.
Thomas+