The scene where Thomas asks, "Are you sure this is sanitary?"

For those of us who doubt, we have it hard. We want to believe, but we also enjoy being skeptical and explorative. We don’t want to answers to come quickly, because we like discovering the beauty of the cracks and crevices.

James says that the doubter is “double-minded and unstable in every way,” “like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.”  Well, that describes me pretty well, so what do I do?

Enter the creative/literary beauty of John’s Gospel, a book that is boring if interpreted literally but wonderful if experienced as metaphor.

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

It’s necessary that we leave our privilege and safety to feel the wounds of those crucified by an unjust world. For me, I feel called to put my finger in the mark of the nails, because when Christ appears in the flesh, I am humbled and amazed. I see God anew.

In this Easter season, I hope that you ask to see the wounded body of Jesus, for if you do, whether it be in oppressed workers, or in immigrants threatened with deportation, or in marginalized glbtq folk, you will be struck by the presence of a living God who dwells in the struggling lives of the disinherited.

You will be given a resurrection in which to believe.