A Passage, Preacher, Poem, and Prayer:
Touching the Risen Savior

A Passage...

Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into His side, I will not believe.”

And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:24-29

A Preacher…

St Thomas told no lies. He believed some things, but he did not, at that time, believe Christ’s resurrection. Then Christ gave him his body to be the proof: and he gives us his body to be the proof. Christ’s body is still in the world, his body is his faithful people. It was not every part of Christ’s body that equally convinced St Thomas, it was the parts that carried the prints of the crucifixion. And it is not every part of Christ’s body now that convinces us, it is the crucified parts: not every common Christian, but the saints who are marked with the signs of Christ’s sacrifice. There are such men in the world, and we have known them: men whose words are like their faces and their faces like their hearts, and their hearts printed with the cross of Jesus.

Jesus made them what they are, his death and resurrection is manifest in them. We have known them, let us not forget them: and may he who taught St Thomas take hold of our groping hands, and guide them to the prints of his saving wounds, where they can be seen and felt in the lives of Christ’s true servants and saints; that in them we may acknowledge and glorify him who alone is worthy of all glory; to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be ascribed as is most justly due all might, dominion, majesty and power, henceforth and for ever.

Austin Farrer, First preached at St Thomas’s, Regent Street, London, on that saint’s day. Reprinted by permission from
The End of Man (SPCK, 1973)

A Poem …

Spring comes with silent rush of leaf
    Across the earth, and cries,
“Lo, Love is risen!” But doubting Grief
    Returns, “If with my eyes

“I may not see the marks, nor reach
    My hand into His side,
I will not hear your lips that preach
    Love raised and glorified.

“Except by all the wounds that brake
    His heart, and marred His brow
Most grievously for sorrow’s sake,
    How shall I know Him now?”

Love came, and said, “Reach hither, Grief,
    Thy hand into My side.
Oh, slow of heart to win belief,
    Seeing that for grief I died!

“Lo, all the griefs of which I died
    Rise with Me from the dead!”
Then Grief drew near, and touched the side
    And touched the wounds that bled,

And cried, “My God, O blessed sign,
    O Body raised, made whole,
Now do I know that Thou art mine,
    Upholder of my soul!”

From “Rue”, Part III,
by Laurence Housman

A Prayer …

With Thee, O Christ, I would arise indeed to newness of life. I beseech Thee, make all things new to me. Let the old duties, the old work, the old burdens, the old friendships be transfigured as Thou dost touch them. Let Easter joy lift me from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness. I would fain live the risen life, my Jesus. Help me by Thy call, by Thy message, by Thy beauty, by Thy goodness, to be Thy true Child, looking to Thee and serving Thee, until at last I see Thee face to face.

Floyd W. Tomkins
19th century Episcopalian