Sermon Tone Analysis

*JOHN 20:24-29*

 

#.

*THE ABSENCE OF THOMAS *

*1.        **Thomas *

Thomas was one of the twelve: “/but Thomas, one of the twelve/…” [20:24].

§         Θωμᾶς - “/Thomas/” [20:24, meaning ‘twin’;

§         Δίδυμος - “/Didymus/” [20:24], ‘double’;

*a.        **Judea** *

Jesus said to the disciples: “/Let is go into Judea again/” [11:7] to the home of Lazarus.

§         The danger of going to Judea: “/Master, the Jews of late sought to stone you; and are you going to go there again/?” [11:8].

§         Jesus insisted on the need to go to Judea: “/are there not twelve hours in the day/…” [11:9-10].

§         Thomas understood the dangers of going south to Judea but was willing to take risks for Jesus: “/Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow-disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him/” [11:16].

§         For Thomas, not following Jesus obviously did not occur to him as an option; but his willingness to join Jesus was a matter of accepting the inevitable, clearly without understanding anything of the joy of which Jesus had spoken, to say nothing of being able to share in it.

*b.        **The Upper Room  *

Jesus in the upper room with the disciples: “/supper being ended/…” [13:1].

§         Jesus teaches the disciples with regard to his departure: “/I got to prepare a place for you/” [14:2].

§         Jesus introduces the idea of the way: “/whither o go you know, and the way you know/” [14:5].

§         Thomas’ words convey the uncertainty of the disciples; he wanted more than words in order to follow Jesus to the place of preparation: “/Thomas says unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way/?” [14:5].

§         The response of Jesus: “/I am the way, and the truth, and the life/…” [14:6].

*Application*

Throughout this Gospel Thomas has been presented as a realist, a person who evaluated situations on the basis of what he could perceive.

§         Thomas is consistently the one who points out what is unintelligible and unacceptable to the human mind in what Jesus testified of himself and demanded of his disciples.

§         Thomas is slow to comprehend and always ready to say so.

*2.

**The Absence *

*a.        **Absent *

On this occasion Thomas was absent: “/was not with them/…” [20:24].

§         οὐκ ἦν - “/was/ /not/” [20:24], imperfect, ‘to exist, be’; ‘to be in a place’;

§         μετʼ αὐτῶν - “/with/ /them/” [20:24],

*b.        **The Testimony *

The disciples’ evidence: “/we have seen the Lord/…” [20:24].

§         ἑωράκαμεν - “/seen/” [20:24], perfect active indicative, ‘to see’; ‘to pay attention to’;

§         τὸν κύριον - “/Lord/” [20:24],

*Application*

Thomas again comes onto the scene in a way that can be called characteristic of him, as the disciple who, though, evidently genuinely loyal to Jesus, repeatedly gives evidence of his resistance to Jesus’ departure to the Father and his lack of understanding of that departure.

[11:16; 14:5];

§         That he, though one of the “twelve”, was for that very reason not in their company “when Jesus came” is an obvious inference, though not said in so any words.

*3.

**The Response *

*a.        **Seeing is Believing *

Thomas demands the most concrete evidence: “/except I shall see in his hands/...” [20:24].

§         μὴ ἴδω - “/except I see/” [20:24], aorist subjunctive, ‘perception by sight’;

*b.        **The Evidence *

*i.        **The Hands *

The evidence required: “/except I see in his hands the print of the nails/…” [2:25].

§         ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτοῦ - “/his/ /hands/” [20:24], both the Hebrew and Greek words for hand can include the wrist and forearm;

§         when the victim was nailed to the cross, they drove the nails through the wrists; the hands would not have supported the weight; nails were commonly driven through the feet, one foot placed on top of the other;

§         τύπον - “/print/” [20:24], ‘mark, image, impression’; ‘visible scar’;

*ii.

**The Touch *

The touch: “/and put my finger into the print of the nails/…” [20:24].

§         ἥλων - “/nails/” [20:24],

§         βάλω - “/put/” [20:24], aorist active, ‘throw, cast, place’;

§         δάκτυλόν μου - “/finger/” [20:24],

§         τύπον - “/print/” [20:24], ‘mark, image, impression’; ‘visible scar’;

*iii.

**The Side *

With regard to the side of Jesus: “/thrust my hand into his side/…” [20:24].

§         βάλω - “/thrust/” [20:24], aorist active, ‘throw, cast, place’;

§         μου τὴν χεῖρα - “/my/ /hand/” [20:24], “/they pierced my hands and feet/” [Psa.22];

§         εἰς τὴν πλευρὰν αὐτοῦ - “/his/ /side/” [20:24], ‘side of the human body’; “/the soldiers with a spear pierced his side/” [19:34].

*c.        **Unbelief *

The emphatic denial: “/I will not believe/” [20:24].

§         οὐ μὴ πιστεύσω - “/not/ /believe/” [20:24], ‘trust’; ‘knowledge, conviction, trust’;

*d.        **The Continuity *

*i.        **The Self-Identification  *

The self-identification marks the continuity of the resurrected Jesus with the Crucified Jesus: 

§         They needed to be sure that he was the same Jesus who was attached to the cross by nails through his hands and that he was precisely the same Jesus who was pierced in the side by one of the soldiers: “/But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water/” [19:34].

§         To prove who he is, Jesus shows them the scars of his suffering and violent death: “/showed unto them his hands and his side/” [20:20].

*ii.

**The Victory >>> The Easter Greeting *

Jesus shows them the scars of his suffering and violent death, not just as signs to recognize him but also as signs of victory.

§         He shows himself to be the triumphant one, the one “/whom they have pierced/” [19:37], in keeping with what [19:37] about the prophetic-messianic significance of his pierced side: “/a bone of him shall not be broken/” [19:36].

*Application*

Thomas refuses to believe unless he has all the evidence the other disciples received.

§         Thomas wants more than that: “/except I put my finger into the print of the nails/…” [20:25].

§         The reply of St Thomas reveals how he had dwelt upon the terrible details of the Passion.

The wounds of the Lord are for him still gaping, as he had seen them.

He must be able to reconcile that reality of death with life before he can believe.

§         His demand was for some assurance to connect in a reliable manner the physical Jesus of the crucifixion (his hands and his side) with the experience of the other disciples.

§         These were his nonnegotiable bases for accepting the reversing of his mind on that event.

Unless he had such physical proof, he stated, “I will not believe [what you are saying].”

*Thomas’s faith, or lack of it, was determined by what he had experienced; beyond that he could not go unless his demands were met.

*

 

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*THE APPEARANCE OF JESUS *

*1.        **The Appearance *

*a.        **The Timing *

Jesus appeared again a week later: “/after eight days/…” [20:26].

§         By the Jewish method of counting, with the current day as day one, the “/eight days/” would be a week later.

§         Hence again on the “/first day of the week/…” [20;19].

*b.        **The Entrance *

A week later the disciples were again gathered indoors: “/came Jesus, the doors being shut/…” [20:26].

§         ἔρχεται - “/came/” [20:26], present middle or passive, ‘to come, go’; ‘to move up towards’;

§         θυρῶν - “/doors/” [20:26], ‘entrance, gate’;

§         κεκλεισμένων - “/being/ /shut/” [20:26], perfect passive participle, ‘closed and in some cases locked’;

§         ἔστη - “/stood/” [20:26], ‘to put’; ‘to be in a place’;

§         εἰς τὸ μέσον - “/in/ /the/ /midst/” [20:26],

*c.        **The Greeting *

The greeting: “/peace be unto you/…” [20:26].

§         εἰρήνη - “/peace/” [20:26], ‘absence of hostility’; the Old Testament Shalom, ‘wholesomeness’; ‘wellbeing’;

§         ὑμῖν - “/be unto/ /you/” [20:26],

*i.        **The Angel of the Lord *

In most theophonic reports in the Old Testament the fear is engendered by an appearance of the divine.

§         The context of a theophany, the divine appearance, was expected to strike terror in the life of a human because of the common Semitic belief that to see God would mean that one would die.

§         Gideon: “/when Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord God!