John 20:19-31
Lead in: The disciples remembered Jesus when he was with them walking the dusty roads of
Galilee. In John 20:19, the Risen Christ appears to the disciples through locked doors and breathes on them the Holy Spirit. We might think them the lucky ones because they had firsthand experience of Jesus. Generations later, the people of faith are not second-class disciples because we weren’t there when Jesus was on earth walking the dusty roads of Galilee. Like all disciples down through the ages, we came to believe through faith. Faith comes to us through our encounter with God experienced in our lives.
Prompt: Reflect on the experiences that helped you come to faith in the living God among us.
Lead in: Our natural tendency is to hide our wounds. Yet, in showing His wounds to His disciples (John 20:20), Jesus modeled what can happen when we have the courage and vulnerability to share our wounds with one another. As Jesus did with Thomas, when we are willing to be vulnerable enough to show our wounds, we connect empathically with one another in a way that is much deeper than if we had tried to hide our wounds.
Prompt: Reflect on a time when risking the vulnerability of sharing your wounds with another opened the way for a whole new relationship with someone that you previously had not been that close to.
Lead in: Best-selling author Rachel Held Evans distinguishes between doubting God and doubting what we believe about God. The former has the potential to destroy faith. The latter has the power to enrich faith. Understood this way, doubt is sometimes the necessary questioning that helps us embrace the faith as our own.
Prompt: Have you had “doubting Thomas” moments? Have these struggles brought you to deeper faith, or are you still searching for something more?
Lead in: When Thomas placed his hands in the wounds of Jesus he says, “My Lord and my God.” This is Thomas’ confession of faith. He comes to believe. He now recognizes Jesus as the Risen Lord, the revelation of God among us.
Prompt: Reflect on a time when you felt God’s presence and faith become all the more real.
Lead in: It’s assuring that even saints like the apostle Thomas have had periods of doubt. As spiritual writer Jay Connier suggests, for some, faith is a list of beliefs that we adhere to, believing (hoping) that God will answer our prayers if we cling faithfully to these propositions. Yet is that the faith that martyrs throughout the centuries have given their lives for?
Prompt: What would faith have to mean to you to lay your life down for it?
