St Thomas 			July 3
Apostle, Martyr
Thomas is included as one of the Twelve in several lists of disciples in the New Testament (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:8; Luke 6:15). Thomas features at greater length at three significant points in the Fourth Gospel. There it is added that he is called “the twin”, though we never learn whose twin he is.
It was Thomas’s courage which led the disciples to follow Jesus to Judaea when they heard of Lazarus’ death. But it was the courage of a fatalist: “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). They rightly feared that the journey would cost Jesus his life. Thomas was wrong to think they would die with Jesus in Judaea, but die with him they all would. Then in Jerusalem if Thomas still knew Jesus must die, he did not know where Jesus was going and so could not know the way. This was the cue for Jesus’ announcement, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life!” (John 14:6). Thomas then heard that Jesus is the way to the Father, but he did not know the full truth about Jesus’ “life”. Told that the others have seen the Lord alive after his death, Thomas could not believe it. Only when himself confronted by the risen Jesus with his wounded hands and side did he make the definitive confession, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). The scene ends not on this note, but with Jesus’ benediction upon believers to come: Thomas believed because he had seen, but blessed are those who, without seeing, nevertheless believe (John 20:29). Thomas is also named among the disciples who meet the risen Jesus in Galilee (John 21:2), but he takes no significant part in the scene that follows.
So the figure of Thomas serves in John’s Gospel to enlighten by means of his own inadequate understanding. He articulates the notion of dying with Christ, but without comprehending it; his ignorance of the way evokes Jesus’ definitive statement of it; and his doubting the resurrection leads to a final understanding of how to believe, which is then consolidated in a summary of the Gospel’s purpose, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
There are later diverse unhistorical traditions about Thomas, from the Assyrian story of his birth as the twin of Jesus, to the tale that, commissioned to build a palace for an Indian king, he spent the money on evangelism and loving service and thereby built the king his palace in heaven.
For Liturgical Use
Thomas the apostle is mentioned only in the lists of apostles in the first three Gospels, but features more significantly at three points in the Fourth Gospel. He urges the disciples to go with Jesus to Judaea, “that we may die with him”. In Jerusalem he does not know Jesus’ way, and so provides the cue for the announcement that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. After doubting the resurrection, Thomas is convinced by seeing Jesus alive, and says, “My Lord and my God!” But the truly blessed are those who believe without seeing.
Sentence, Prayers and Readings as in A New Zealand Prayer Book - He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa, page 673-674