2nd Sunday of Easter 2026
Acts 2:42-47 1 Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31
The name ‘Doubting Thomas’ certainly caught on! And for the past two thousand years Thomas has been known for all the wrong reasons – or has he?
Thomas was a very serious man, even intense. When Jesus decided to go up to Jerusalem to face his fate, it was Thomas who suggested that he would go to die with him. At the time when Jesus was explaining his return to the Father and the used the wonderful analogy of ‘the way, the truth and the Life’ it was Thomas who asked the pertinent question; ‘we do not know where you are going, so, how can we know the way?’
Thomas had invested a great deal in the Lord and now. after Jesus had died, he was distraught and the ‘rumours’ and gossip about the Resurrection must have aggravated him greatly. Another report of a sighting was too much for him and dramatically he retorts that he needs concrete, physical proof.
Thomas was no worse than many of the disciples who had heard the promises and intentions of Jesus. Why did Peter not believe until he had examined the scene? Mary Magdalene should have been expecting the Resurrection! The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were going home in despair! It was only when John saw the empty tomb that he ‘believed’!
Jesus invited Thomas to probe his wounds, to examine the ‘evidence’, to investigate, as Peter had done at the tomb.There is no evidence that Thomas took up the invitation, but like John, ‘he saw and he believed.’
The irony of this incident is that the disciple, who doubted the most, gives expression to the highest recognition of who Jesus was; “My Lord and My God”.
Thomas has been remembered in Christian imagery as ‘the doubter’; yet, the last words of Jesus to him in response to his confession of faith serve as a wonderful encouragement for us - “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”.
Thank God for this model of Christian Faith – Thomas the Believer.