Second Sunday of Easter, John 20:19-31

April 7, 2024 

Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman

I recently read an article in the New York Times entitled, “Working with Your Hands is Good for Your Brain” (March 28, 2024 by Markhan Heid). It cited research that suggested that complex hands-on activities like gardening and knitting and woodworking and even picking up a pen or pencil and writing improves both cognitive function and one’s mood. 

If you think about it, this makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective. The author of the article observed that no other animal, not even our closest primate relatives, have hands capable of such intricate activities as the human hand. There are huge numbers of bones, muscles and nerves in our hands, and a lot of our brain capacity is connected to and devoted to how we use our hands. 

We’ve evolved to be a hands-on species. But, the newspaper article author suggests that these days, we’re essentially losing touch with touch. Writing something by hand involves much more intricate activity than typing or scrolling on our screens. But how many people write by hand these days vs. typing? And how many people really cook anymore in such a way that involves the intricacies of cutting up vegetables by hand? Making hand-crafted art or household items is well, largely a lost art for most people. We go out and buy what we need that’s already been assembled, or mostly so (items from IKEA not included…). 

The bottom-line result of losing touch with touch is that our mental faculties diminish and we’re more prone to depression and anxiety – at least according to conclusions drawn in the article. But our own experience confirms the points of the article.

Think of babies and the extent to which they explore the world by touching things with their hands. Well, we don’t lose that capacity or need when we get older. 

I see this in myself. I don’t do a lot manual labor working with my hands, but when I do, I notice significant satisfaction, a greater sense of well-being and even alertness. 

Thus, it was wise that St. Benedict, when he wrote his rule for the monastic life, required that all members of the community would be given manual labor to do, working with their hands, alongside the life of prayer and reading. St. Benedict knew intuitively and from experience the importance of hands-on activity for human well-being and health and flourishing.

All of this invites us to consider today’s gospel story of so-called doubting Thomas. I think Thomas gets bad press, because all he was asking for is precisely what his colleague disciples got, namely, the possibility of seeing and touching Jesus. Moreover, his request to touch Jesus lies at the heart of what it means to be human. It’s what we do. It’s what we need – to reach out and touch someone in healthy ways.

So, if I were to give a title to this sermon, it would not be “seeing is believing,” but “touching is believing.” Touching is believing. 

Yes, Jesus makes a point about the virtue of believing without the benefit of seeing or touching when John reports that Jesus said, “Have you believed, [Thomas], because you have seen [and touched] me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 

But think about it. Do any of us believe without having seen and, in fact, touched or been touched in some form or another? Some kind of encounter that results in seeing calls forth our faith, our belief. And often, the seeing involves touching. It could be sitting on the lap of a parent or grandparent and being read bible stories. It could be being taken by the hand to church when we were kids. Or all those Sunday School songs that involve hand motions. Coming to faith involves some kind of hands-on activity for us all, not just Thomas.

The apostles bear witness to this fact in what we heard in today’s second reading from First John. They state, “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life,” who is the resurrected Lord Jesus, the son and the source of “our communion… with the Father” (cf. 1 John 1:1-4a).

So, there’s something crucial going on when Thomas makes the completely natural and understandable request, if not to say, demand: “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.” 

And when he reappears to his disciples, Jesus offers the invitation to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Or, a more literal translation of the Greek is, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 

It’s the hands-on experience that makes all the difference in believing for Thomas when upon touching Jesus, he immediately exclaims, “My Lord and my God!” – that’s an expression of his faith, his belief.

And again, hands-on experience was central to the faith of the other apostles, too, who, as I said, made the point of including “touching with their own hands” as a source of belief in God revealed in the risen Christ. 

Moreover, hands-on experience is central to the whole of John’s Gospel who in chapter one proclaims that Jesus is the very word of God made flesh to dwell among us full of grace and truth. Jesus had hands and he used them to advance his proclamation of God’s dominion not just in words but also in deeds of using his hands, for example, to heal people. 

Thus, it’s completely natural for Jesus, upon appearing alive, to make the invitation: “See my wounded hands and wounded side – see and touch for yourselves.” 

Because that’s how we’re wired – we come to understanding and more fully experience the world through hands-on activities. It’s how best we learn.

And we who are not eyewitnesses to the original Christ event when Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth also come to faith through hands-on activity. Think about it.

At baptism, children are cradled in our arms with our loving hands. The pastor uses hands to baptize, also laying their hands on the baptized to pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and to anoint them with oil, marking them with the cross of Christ forever. 

When you come forward for Holy Communion, you offer your outstretched hands, and I use my hands to place the consecrated bread that conveys the real presence of the resurrected Christ onto your upturned palms. You then use your hands to bring Christ into your body, your very being. Same with the cup – receiving the body and blood of Christ is a hands-on experience!

Moreover, you share the peace of Christ often by offering your hands in a handshake or a hug – alas, the pandemic has put a crimp in our hands-on style that persists….

During the forum time today, we’ll have a service of the word for healing which includes laying on of hands and anointing with oil to convey the healing presence of Christ in the power of the Spirit.

All of these grace-filled hands-on experiences are what call into being our faith, our trust, when we, too, confess our belief with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”

And look at the effects, the fruit of such hands-on experience as evidenced in today’s reading from Acts: “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.” (Acts 4:32-35)

God’s grace known in the resurrected Christ, who showed his hands and wounded side, generated the kind of radical trust and faith that provoked those early followers to use their hands to carry their possessions, laying them at the feet of the apostles, so that this abundance could be given away to those in need. 

What an amazing account of the effects, the fruit of hands-on experiences that radically change lives and inspire profound generosity and build egalitarian communities. 

And we approximate this in our own ways as we walk in the way of communion with Christ in the Trinitarian Godhead and live the life of forgiveness (cf. 1 John 1:6-10), when we generously share our resources with those in need, all the while doing God’s work, with, what? Our hands! God’s work, our hands. All of this so that our world can be healed and reconciled such that many also may come to confess of Christ and to Christ, “My Lord and my God!”

Oh, that the whole world would be touched by our ministry as a congregation in connection with the mission of the whole global church.

For “alleluia! Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed, alleluia! For we’ve seen it with our own hands! Amen.