Eastertide #12:

When they had finished breakfast,

Jesus said…

(John 21:15)

There is much lingering after that barbecue breakfast on the shore of Galilee. Jesus and Peter discuss love and caring for the sheep and lambs; that’s the church—that’s us. Peter discovers he will grow old and die before Christ returns. When Peter asked about John and if the Lord will return before John dies, Jesus replies, “What is that to you? Follow me!” And so it goes.

Before John concludes his Gospel, he reminds the reader that “this was the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples.” Let’s see, I hadn’t bothered to count:

1.      Appearance to the ten when the Emmaus couple dropped in on them.

2.      Appearance to the eleven when Thomas, who missed the first, joins them.

3.      Appearance on the shore of Galilee.

Luke calls these appearances “convincing proofs” (Ac 1:3). Is that so? The appearances became proof enough for the disciples. Otherwise, they would never have become Apostles. When “ordered not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus,” they answered, “We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Ac 4:18-21). For us who have never seen the Crucified’s nail scared hands or touched his wounded side; we need an extra blessing: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (Jn 20:31). We need Pentecost. We wait to see what Thomas saw—those five man made things that survive into eternity.

There is a hymn, from my youth, that’s been sneaking back into my soul as hymns tend to do. It’s the refrain: “I shall know Him by the nail prints in His hand.” Precious, but odd. As if when we get to glory we’ll have to check out his hands to make sure it is Jesus. But precious nonetheless. The hymn speaks of our longing to see what Thomas saw. That will settle it.