When did the Resurrection happen?
That’s not too hard – on Easter Sunday!
But if I wanted to be irritatingly pedantic and ask: “Yes, but exactly when, please be more precise?” – then there isn’t a clear answer. We don’t know. But we also can recognize that it doesn’t really matter. The reality of the Resurrection isn’t tied to exactly when it happened. Its significance doesn’t lie in us being able to say exactly when, or even how, it happened.
Today’s story about Thomas takes us further into the mystery of the Resurrection and what it means for us (John 20:19-31). As Paul points out (in the reading we heard at the Easter Vigil: Romans 6:3-11), the Resurrection isn’t just about Jesus, it’s about us. We join Jesus in his resurrection, it becomes our resurrection also. If it were just something that happened to Jesus then it might be interesting in the way of other great events in history, but it wouldn’t really have a big impact for each of us in our own lives, day to day.
But when we accept that we die with Jesus and then also rise with him – then our resurrection is very different. And we see that demonstrated so clearly for Thomas. His resurrection occurred not on the morning of Easter Sunday, not when it happened to the rest of the disciples some days later, but when he met the risen Lord, for himself, in his own time.
The real story about the Resurrection isn’t something that happened to Jesus, it’s something that happened to his followers, each in their own time, in their own way. That’s why we don’t hear one common story about events after that Easter Sunday when the tomb was empty. Mary Magdalene in the garden, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Thomas in that locked room – they each experienced their own resurrection, in their own way.
The Resurrection is something that sits outside of time. It isn’t linked to a single event, a single person, a single life. It’s about a life that continues for ever, water that wells up constantly to refresh us, food that is always there to sustain us, a love so great it never dies. We can be part of that resurrection.
No matter how we come to it, whatever we may have done before, however late we arrive, even when we put ridiculous conditions on signing up (as Thomas did), then Jesus is there for us, saying “come to me, no longer doubt but believe.”