A Doubter’s Faith

Sermon — April 12, 2026
The Rev. Greg Johnston
Lectionary Readings

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:28)

On this Sunday after Easter every year, we read the story of the Sunday after the first Easter two thousand years ago. In fact, the story starts on Easter Day itself. Mary Magdalene has seen the risen Jesus, and she goes and tells the disciples the good news of the resurrection. And “when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week… Jesus came and stood among them, and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” (John 20:19) He shows them his hands and his side; that even though he is risen, he still bears his wounds. The disciples are amazed, and Jesus says to them again, “Peace be with you.” And then he breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and the followers of Jesus are transformed from “disciples,” meaning “students,” into “apostles,” people who are sent out into the world to proclaim the good news.

And then Thomas comes back from his trip to buy snacks at the 7-11, and as he unpacks the bags he notices that they’re all acting pretty weird. And he says, “Hey guys—What’s up?” And they say to him, Thomas! Thomas! “We have seen the Lord.” (20:25) And he says… “What?”

Well, really he says, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Or, rather, “Unless I see it… I won’t believe.”

And then a week later, on the Sunday after Easter they’re all together again, and Thomas is actually there, and Jesus appears again, and again he says, “Peace be with you.” (20:26) And then, as if he already knows what Thomas said last time to the other disciples, he says, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” (20:27) And Thomas answers him, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28)

Now, poor Thomas got stuck with the label of “Doubting Thomas” for the rest of time. But that’s not entirely fair. When Thomas gets arrives with his bags full of Pringles, all he asks is to see what the other disciples have already seen. They hear the good news of the Resurrection from Mary Magdalene, and that same day they see Jesus and it confirms what they’ve been told. Thomas hears the good news from them, and he has to wait a week, but then he too sees Jesus and it confirms what he’s been told. And okay, maybe Thomas really does doubt what he’s told more than the other disciples. He’s the only one who explicitly says he won’t believe the good news of the Resurrection unless he sees the proof himself.

But it’s also true that he’s the only disciple who really sees what the Resurrection means. It’s “Doubting Thomas,” after all, who sees the risen Christ and says, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28) The other disciples see their friend, back from the dead. But Thomas sees his Lord and God. Thomas has the deepest doubt. Thomas has had the longest time to wait for proof. And Thomas has the deepest faith.

 This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, to any of us who have tried to live a life of faith. The Christian religion is not a set of easy answers to the big questions of life. It’s not a set of rules to follow in order to live a good life. It’s a constant struggle to make sense of the relationship between the promises of a loving God and the realities of an imperfect world. You might even say that faith itself is the source of most the doubt that many of us have: if we take seriously the idea that there is a good and loving God working in this world, and we’re honest about our world and our own lives, then we’re led continually to question what on earth God is doing, and maybe even whether God is there.

A life of faith is not a life without doubt. It’s a practice of re-committing yourself, day after day, to trust in the love of God; to trust, despite the uncertainty of the world, despite the long years of doubt when God seems far away, despite the decades of distraction when God seems irrelevant, that God has been there all along. We never see the vision of Jesus that the apostles see; we always walk by faith, and not by sight. And so it is that after Jesus asks Thomas, “Have you believed because you have seen me?” Jesus breaks the fourth wall and turns, with a wink to us: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29)

We celebrate two baptisms today; and in a sense, there is no better day for baptism than this “Doubting Thomas” Sunday. During the service of baptism, we make traditional vows: to turn away from all that is evil in the world, and to turn toward a God of love; to strive to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The words we say are deceptively simple: “I do,” “I do,” “I will, with God’s help.”

But the vows we make today are not a one-time thing. I can almost guarantee that Dominic and Emmie will go through many seasons of doubt in their spiritual lives; and maybe a few seasons of faith. I can almost guarantee there will be times when they draw nearer to God, and times when they feel far away. There will be times when they really live out the baptismal vows to resist evil and to seek and serve Christ in all people, loving their neighbors as themselves; and times when they fall short. And I know this because I, too, have made baptismal vows—and so has nearly everyone else in the room. And yet we find ourselves needing to reaffirm them, at every baptismal service, two or three or seven times a year.

Because baptism is not an act of certainty. It’s the first step in a life-long journey of faith. For the parents and godparents who present them, and for the families who support them, and for all of us who welcome them, it’s one more waypoint on our long voyage toward God. Every one of us who takes these promises seriously will struggle to live them out. Every one of us who takes our faith seriously will continue to doubt. But if the story of the Second Sunday of Easter tells us anything, it’s that life in Christ is not about one day of certainty—it’s about a life that’s full of doubt and faith, in which we wonder again and again whether God is even there, and we find again and again at the most surprising times the signs of God’s amazing love, markers left for us along the way “so that [we] may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing [we] may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)