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Lift up our souls, O Lord, to the glory of your presence.

Lift up our minds to the beauty of your being;

and lift up our hearts to the purity of your love,

through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.

Edward Bouverie Pusey

As St Thomas’ Day doesn’t come round very often on a Sunday, I thought we’d simply spend a few moments looking at Thomas in Scripture and tradition, and then reflecting on seeing and believing.

In Matthew, Mark, Luke and Acts, Thomas is mentioned once in each book – in the lists of the 12 Apostles.  So, that leaves the Gospel of John, where Thomas has a much more prominent position.

In chapter 11 [:1-16], there is a conversation about the illness of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary.  Jesus receives the message from the sisters, tells those around him that this illness will not lead to death, but rather to God’s glory; then he waits two days, and then says to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again’ [11:7].  The Disciples are a bit flabbergasted by this, as the last time they were there, those who are described in John’s Gospel as ‘The Jews’ tried to stone him.  The conversation develops, and Jesus ends by saying about Lazarus, ‘Let us go to him’ [11:15].  It is at this point that Thomas, described here and in chapter 20 as ‘The Twin’, ‘Didymus’, says, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’.  Jesus makes no comment on this, and in the next sentence they arrive in Bethany.

So, what do we make of that? Kenneth Stevenson, former Bishop of Portsmouth, [All the Company of Heaven, p.72] thinks that this shows that Thomas is ‘impulsive.  He wants to go with Jesus on the journey, but he thinks it will end in his death’.  I’m not sure – it’s a matter of interpretation, after all – I wonder whether he doesn’t come across as more steadfast in his purpose than that – you’ll have to have a look at chapter 11 and see what you think.

In the Upper Room, in chapter 14 [:1-7], Jesus says to the Disciples, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in me’, and tells them that he is going to prepare a place for them, and that they know the way to the place where he is going.  ‘Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?’’  Jesus’ famous reply is ‘I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me’.  Thomas is not afraid to question, to try to understand what Jesus means – and I think it is this seeking understanding which is key to the most famous passage in John’s Gospel about Thomas [John 20:24-29].

On the evening of the first Easter Day, Thomas is absent when Jesus appears to the Disciples – I wonder where he was?  When they tell him what has happened, he utters the remark which has given him the nickname, ‘Doubting Thomas’: ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails…in his hands,…in his side, I will not believe’.

A week later, Jesus appears again, and this time, Thomas is there.  Jesus invites him to touch his hands and his side, and says, ‘Do not doubt but believe’.  Thomas’ reply, for which he ought to get more credit, is, ‘My Lord and my God’, the climax of Johannine Christology, the highest title which could be given to Jesus.  ‘Thomas should have believed without seeing the marks, [but] still his clear confession is an act of faith’.

Finally, in John’s Gospel, Thomas is with the other Disciples who go fishing with Peter, and who share breakfast with Jesus on the beach.

Thomas is shown as a model disciple, one who questions, who determines to go with Jesus to his death, and as one who has made the journey through doubt to faith.  The words of Jesus to him in reply to his ‘My Lord and my God’ are ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe’ [Jn 20:29].  Jesus, and the writer of John’s Gospel, are clearly pointing those words at us, and Thomas is the one who elicits that blessing.  Rather than calling him ‘Doubting Thomas’, we would be much better to join the Slavonic Orthodox Churches who talk of ‘Believing Thomas’.

When we turn from the Gospel records to the tradition of the Church, things get even more interesting.

In December, 1945, in Nag Hammadi in Egypt, on the West Bank of the Nile, just north of the famous Temple at Luxor, some ‘local farmers found a sealed earthenware jar containing thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices, together with pages torn from another book…  The mother of the farmers burned one of the books and parts of a second (including its cover).  Thus twelve of these books (one missing its cover) and the loose pages survive. This is the famous ‘Library of Nag Hammadi’, dating back to the 2nd Century – a truly remarkable find, on a par with the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in a similar way a few years later.  One of the Books was the ‘Gospel of Thomas’, a collection of sayings of Jesus, about half of which are similar to those in the New Testament, and others of which are not recorded elsewhere.  So, by the 2^nd Century AD, Thomas was well-known enough to have either written a Gospel, or to have one named after him.

According to early tradition, Thomas was the only Disciple to have witnessed the Assumption of Mary, and many early images of Thomas showing him receiving the Virgin’s girdle as she disappears into heaven.  Make of that tradition what you will!

A stronger, and much more enduring, tradition is that Thomas was the only Apostle to leave the Roman Empire and to preach the Gospel in India.

Once a year in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, we pray for the ‘Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar’, an ancient branch of the Church which traces its roots back to the preaching of St Thomas, which claims to have been founded by him in AD52, and which, remarkably, since the early 20^th Century, has been in full Communion with the Anglican Church.  The Church says that it defines itself as ‘Apostolic in origin, Universal in nature, Biblical in faith, Evangelical in principle, Ecumenical in outlook, Oriental in worship, Democratic in function, and Episcopal in character.  Headquartered at Thiruvalla in Kerala, in India, the Church has about one million followers across the globe’ [http://marthoma.in].  There are two Mar Thomas Parishes in England, and the Mar Thoma Bishops will be attending the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops from across the world at the end of this month.

The Church is a branch of the Eastern Church, and of that part of the Orthodox Church which is now usually called ‘Oriental Orthodox’, as opposed to ‘Eastern Orthodox’, and its liturgy and traditions derive from the Syrian Orthodox Church.

It is a fascinating thought that Thomas, witness to the Resurrection, travelled across Asia and through India, preaching the Gospel of the Resurrection life of Jesus, proclaiming his Lord and his God, and that there are Christians in India and around the world who still very much see themselves as in the direct line of that tradition.  Truly, the Church has a remarkable history.

Finally, some reflection on seeing and believing.

In the New Testament Reading set for Evensong tomorrow, from the First Letter of Peter, we find the words: ‘Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him you, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls’ [I Pet 1:8-9].

That seems to be to be in the direct line of thought from Thomas’ conversation with Jesus, and Jesus’ words, ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe’.

Like the Christians of the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar, like those to whom Peter was writing in his Letters, like the whole Church throughout the world, we stand in the line of St Thomas – those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.

Let’s rejoice in that faith, stand firmly in it, and share it with those who have not yet come to believe.  AMEN.