Thought For The Week 16 April 2023

Even though our Lent reflections series have concluded, I’ve been looking at various paintings of this week’s reading from John’s Gospel, of the story of Thomas meeting the risen Jesus.

One painting that stuck out to me was Caravaggio’s “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas”, painted in 1601. In the painting (on the cover), Thomas is leaning toward Jesus to examine his wounds. In the text, Jesus invites Thomas to touch them. But here, Caravaggio depicts Jesus’ hand on top of Thomas’ spear-like hand, guiding or pulling it into his wounds. A reminder that it was because of our sin and rebellion that Christ was pierced. But also that Christ willingly drank the cup of suffering, and went to the cross for our sake.

Thomas does indeed have a look of incredulity on his face. Caravaggio’s painting emphasises the humanness of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. For Thomas and the other disciples, Jesus’ death had been like the closing of a door. A door that they knew no   person could open. Any expectations they had for Jesus’ ministry, for their fellow Jews, for how their world could be changed, now lay behind that closed door. Unreachable.  Untouchable. No wonder Thomas’ incredulity when prodding the risen Jesus, seeing he was the same Jesus.

Thomas’ other hand grasps his side as if he too has been pierced. In the text, he is about to be the first person in John’s Gospel to make the confession that Jesus is God, that Jesus is his God. That he believes. Perhaps, in the painting, he clutches his side as an indication of his confession, that as a believer in Christ, he participates in Christ’s death and resurrection, now, and in the future, when Christ comes again. That Christ can open the locked door of death, bringing the hope and promise of his life for all who confess with Thomas, “My Lord and my God”.

Luke