Mystified

John 20:19-23(NRSV)

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So 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.”

Another reading we didn't hear at St. Paul's on Pentecost.

But a reading we heard recently. In Easter.

This is the beginning of the reading probably more known for the character introduced here: Thomas the Twin, also known as Doubting Thomas.

And when we talk about Thomas after Easter, we often talk about what his doubting means. I've heard some great sermons on that.

Big stuff happened while Thomas was out.

Big stuff he missed.

And he doubted.

But here's something I've never heard about and always wondered about:

The disciples tell Thomas that they've seen the Lord. That's what he doubts.

But what's missing in what they tell him?

"Oh, yeah, Thomas. And he breathed on us and gave us his Spirit."

There's that Spirit showing up again before Pentecost.

And it seems as if it is as mystifying to the disciples as it still is to many of us today.

How do we show God's Spirit in our lives? Maybe the Disciples were onto something by not bragging about it to Thomas. 

Maybe they had no understanding about what had just happened to them.

We forget sometimes that even post-resurrection, the Disciples weren't always quick to get it or believe or understand.

They weren't apparently ready to lead.

So we too sometimes are mystified, don't understand, slow to believe, quick to doubt.

Not too different from the disciples, huh?

And yet the Spirit comes anyway.

Not as something for us to brag about having.

But as something for us to use for living.

Come Holy Spirit, Come. Amen.