We are used to hearing about the gift of faith and the gift of new life, that are given to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
This idea of “gift” is one of the many metaphors that Paul and others use to express how things are different following Jesus’ time on earth. It draws on much imagery in the Old Testament, which talks of God giving gifts to His people. This was the common behavior of kings and rulers in that time.
In ancient times, and more recently, the most important gift a king could give was the gift of his favor. This favor was often “sealed” i.e. indicated in a formal way by a physical object. But the object was not really the gift – the object was a proof that the gift had been given, that the King would favor you, give you special treatment. The same idea is found in the old-fashioned way of speaking of “the favor of a lady” – as Shakespeare and many others were fond of doing. The gift was a relationship, not an object.
For us, gifts are typically physical things we give and receive, whether golf clubs, cakes, or theater tickets. But faith and new life are not “things” like that. We need to step back from our materialist view of life and think more in terms of “gifts” such as liberty or good health. These are more like opportunities – they have their value because of what we make of them. We can’t just receive them, say thank you and move on. If something isn’t different as a result of the gift then the gift is meaningless or pointless.
This is even more striking when we consider the “gift” of faith. Faith is not something that comes to us from outside – it is a choice, an act of will, we choose to believe – it comes from inside us. John chooses to finish his Gospel with a story that demonstrates exactly this point. Thomas sets out clearly and precisely what he requires in order to believe, and when he is satisfied then he does believe. Now you could say Jesus makes it easy for him. That is why Jesus all commends all those who follow later, who haven’t had the proof given them on a plate, as it were (that’s us, by the way…). But Thomas still has to make the decision. And as John then summarizes, the whole point of his gospel is to give those who read it a foundation for making that choice, the choice to believe.
The gift of faith, the gift of baptism, the gift of new life – these are all opportunities. Opportunities that we can take or refuse. And sometimes we go back and forth, we waver in our belief or in our commitment – which is OK because the gift doesn’t evaporate or get taken away, it’s always there for us when we are able to accept it.
We can also think about how these gifts are related. Faith itself isn’t really the gift. Faith, the choice to believe, is a means to an end. That end, the goal, the result, is “life”, “life in his name”, or “new life” as Paul often refers to it:
that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
So having chosen to believe, what is this life, the new life that we have?
Life is clearly not something that is given like an object can be given. Life has to be lived, life is a process, life is a whole series of actions. So how is it different, how is it new after we chose to believe?
That’s actually very simple, if also hard to get our heads around. The new life is a life lived differently, a life where we make different choices. This is illustrated in the life of the early followers of Jesus described in the Acts of the Apostles. Their lives were radically different – they changed from their individualistic lives, previously focused on self-sufficiency, and chose to pool all their assets and live communally. I suspect this was just as extreme in the time of the Roman Empire as it would be now. And it doesn’t mean that the way of living differently that they were called to is the same one as would be right for us – otherwise we would all go and join monasteries or communes.
However it does require us to answer the question, how is my life different as a result of my choice to believe? If we don’t have a good, clear answer then we need to look harder at how we are living.
The fortunate thing is that we are not expected to make this change, or figure this all out, overnight. Believing and receiving the opportunity of a new life is a beginning, not an end. The stories of life immediately after Jesus’ resurrection show how even those closest to Jesus came to an understanding of what it meant in their own way and own time, as Thomas did. Jesus is endlessly patient. Just as he did what was necessary for Thomas to reach his decision, and for the disciples in general to stop cowering, locked away in fear, so he will help us to make our new life choices.
Once we believe we have the challenge of how that changes our lives. What is our new life? How do we use the freedom from fear that we have been given? Everyone will find their own answer, but the one thing we all know is that it will be different from what came before.