John 20:26Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

At the very time when Thomas was speaking in this spirit with the Apostles, Jesus again appeared among the disciples, the doors being shut. Through closed doors the Door of life passed.

How He passed through is known to God the Word Himself alone. As at His birth He did not harm the doors of virginity, so He appeared inside the house without breaking the bolts.

Again, as He came forth from the closed and sealed tomb, so here also He entered through closed doors. He entered in the flesh where He already was by the Godhead, and He did not open the doors.

He willed, and nothing held Him back. He willed, and all things submitted to Him. He willed, and creation obeyed. Everything submitted to the single will of Him who was and is true God.

Thus His birth conquers every mind. His rising from the tomb surpasses every thought. His appearance to the disciples remains inexplicable and incomprehensible.

That He appeared to the disciples, this I have been taught. But how He appeared, this I do not know. And what I do not know, I do not dare to speak about.

I hymn Him who appeared, but I do not interrogate the manner of His appearance. I preach the mystery, but I do not explain the inexplicable.

I marvel at the miracle that occurred, but I do not pry into how it occurred. I believe what is written without wavering, and I am saved.

I have received only by hearing the miracles of the Lord. I myself have not inherited His divine operations. But if one of the Jews should say to me, “What you preach is exceedingly strange and simply unbelievable.

How indeed could a tangible body pass through closed doors?” then I too will ask him: how could an angel bring Habakkuk down into the lions’ den and bring him back out again, leaving whole and unharmed the seals placed upon the entrance (Dan 14:33-38)?

The servant did what he wished. Could the Master not do what He was pleased to do? Certainly, as the one was accomplished by the will of God, so this was done by the will of God the Word become man.

Therefore the Savior appeared, as He was pleased, to His disciples and stood in their midst, so that He might be equally visible to all. And He said to them: “Peace be to you.”

I Myself am Peace, and I give you peace. What I am, that I also give. This peace will bow all enemies beneath your feet.

This peace will make the principles and powers your servants. This peace will give you victory over the world.

The disciples rejoiced, again seeing the Lord with delight and hearing His words. They began to nudge Thomas and show him with their glances.

Their eyes all but said to him: did we not assure you before, “We have seen the Lord,” and you did not believe our words?

Behold, He Himself is here, the One whom you desire. Do whatever you please. Approach Him who has come to us for your salvation, and try to find the answer to your questions.

Thomas himself stood there, examining with his eyes all the members of the Savior and carefully inspecting each one separately. He wished to be convinced whether, in the One who appeared and rose, he truly saw Him who had died.

One may justly marvel here also at the precision of the words quoted. So great was the care of the author of the book, and so diligently did he attend to accuracy, that he did not merely say that Christ showed Himself to His disciples.

He says that it was “after eight days” and when they were gathered together. For what else could this have been except that all had come together into one house?

Therefore, because of this careful and wondrous precision, let us say that through this also Christ clearly indicated to us the time of assemblies for His sake.

For He comes, without doubt, and in some manner dwells with those gathered for His sake especially on the eighth day, that is, on Sunday. Let us prove this, if you wish.

Once He appeared to the other disciples, and then again He appears to them in Thomas’s presence. Thus it is written shortly before: “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were shut, He stood in the midst” (Jn 20:19).

Understand from this that on the first day of the week, that is, on the Lord’s Day, He appeared to the assembled disciples. Again, in exactly the same way, He appears shining forth to them on the next eighth day.

From the Evangelist’s words “after eight days,” one must not think that he indicates the ninth day. He speaks in this way while including in the number the eighth day itself, on which He appeared.

Therefore we have very good reason for holding holy assemblies in the churches on the eighth day. And if something mystical must also be said, because the mind is compelled to it, then let us say this.

Though we shut the doors, Christ comes and appears to all of us, both invisibly and visibly. He appears invisibly as God, and visibly again in the body.

He also permits and grants us to touch His holy Flesh when, by the grace of God, we approach communion in the mystical Blessing, the Eucharist, receiving Christ in our hands.

This is so that we too may firmly believe that He truly raised His own temple. Indeed, that communion in the mystical Eucharist is a confession of Christ’s Resurrection can become quite clear from the words He spoke when He Himself performed the form of the mystery.

Having broken the bread, as it is written, He began to distribute it, saying: “This is My Body, given for you for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of Me” (Lk 22:19; Mt 26:28).

Thus communion in the Holy Mysteries is a remembrance of both the death and the resurrection of the Lord for us and on our behalf. Through it we are filled with the divine blessing.

Let us therefore renounce unbelief as a destructive thing. After touching Christ, let us instead prove most faithful and possess a firm mind.

But here let the inquiring mind remember again that He kept Mary Magdalene from touching Him, saying clearly to her: “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (Jn 20:17).

It is easier for us to believe what we see. Thomas had reason to marvel. He saw that the Lord passed through closed doors, through barriers impassable for flesh, without wounding or maiming His body. It was truly worthy of amazement that a solid body allowed bodily nature to pass through. His passage could not be detected, yet His appearance was visible. His touch could be felt, yet the understanding could not grasp it.

I ask, through what part of that locked room did the Lord's body enter? The Evangelist carefully recorded this, saying: "Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in their midst." Did He pass through the walls, or through the solidity of the beams, overcoming the very natural impossibility of their being crossed? For He was present there bodily, and no one thought it deception.

Let the eyes of your mind follow Him as He enters. Let the gaze of your understanding accompany Him as He comes into this locked room. There are no openings in the walls, and the doors are locked. Yet behold, He stands in the midst, He whom nothing can restrain.

You are critical about what is invisible, but I ask you to explain what is visible. Everything remains solid as it was. There is no body that can seep through fissures in wood and stone. Nor does the Lord's body dissolve and then arise from nothing. Whence, then, comes the One who stands in the midst?

Neither senses nor words can explain this, and the truth of the event remains beyond human interpretation. If you think we speak falsely concerning His Nativity, then explain how the account of His appearing is a fiction. If we take as our starting point that something did not happen because we cannot understand how it happened, then we turn the limits of our understanding into the limits of the event itself.

Yet the manifest event proves our error. The Lord stood in the midst of the disciples when the doors were shut. The Son is begotten of the Father. Therefore do not deny that He stood there because the weakness of your mind cannot explain how He entered. Stop disregarding that from the unbegotten and perfect God the Father there was begotten the Only-begotten, perfect God the Son, merely because the power of the senses and thoughts of human nature is insufficient to understand this Nativity.

For the supreme mercy wondrously brought it about that this doubting disciple, by touching the wounds of flesh in his Teacher, should heal in us the wounds of unbelief. The unbelief of Thomas was more useful for our faith than the faith of the believing disciples. When he is brought back to faith through touch, our mind is strengthened in faith and placed beyond all doubt.

After His Resurrection, the Lord allowed His disciple to doubt, yet He did not leave him in doubt. So also, before His birth, He willed that Mary should have a betrothed, who nevertheless did not enter into marriage with Her. The disciple who doubted and touched became a witness of the true Resurrection, just as the Mother's betrothed was the guardian of Her most pure virginity.

8. "Behold, I too labored in silence, just as Jesus did at His trial. But the sight of my brethren rejoicing moved me to speak. I was wounded by the words of those crying with joy, 'We clearly see alive Him who willingly died.' Now I see Peter rejoicing, though he once denied Him. I see those who afterward fled with him again in joy. I became jealous of them, for I wished to rejoice with them. Therefore, being jealous, I said what I said before. Let me not be condemned, my Jesus. Rather, let me receive boldness to cry to Thee: 'Thou art our Lord and our God.'"

9. "Night was upon me, and deep darkness. Such were the words of my fellow servants. They did not illumine me or kindle in my soul the wondrous lamp that I now behold beyond my hope. For I again see Christ, though the doors are shut. If I had known before that He would come in this way, I would not have been unbelieving. I could have understood His entrance and His coming forth from Mary. Therefore, being jealous, I said what I said before. Let me not be condemned, my Jesus. Rather, let me receive boldness to cry to Thee: 'Thou art our Lord and our God.'"

10. Speaking thus with himself, the Twin also spoke thus to our God Himself.

But perhaps this appearance after eight days also contains another, more mystical meaning. Does not the number eight signify the eighth and final age? And does not Thomas signify that portion of mankind which has not submitted to Christ through unbelief? "At present," says the divine Apostle, "we do not yet see all things subjected to Him" (Heb 2:8). But afterward all will believe, and there will be one flock and one shepherd (Jn 10:16). Therefore, after eight days, the Savior of the world again appeared and said, "Peace be to you."

Only Luke speaks of this appearance of the Lord to Simon Peter. He speaks as though the Lord appeared to Peter before His appearance to the ten Apostles, but he does not say when or where. Judging by the order in which Luke narrates Christ's appearance to the two disciples going to Emmaus, one may conclude that the Apostles themselves told those two disciples of Christ's appearance to Simon when the disciples were telling them that they had seen the Lord.

Yet when the Lord appeared to the ten Apostles, Peter not only failed to strengthen their faith in Christ's Resurrection, but together with them took the Lord who appeared for a phantom, a spirit. To dispel his own perplexity, he touched Him with his own hands (1 Jn 1:1). This gives grounds for asking whether Christ truly appeared to Peter on the first day after His Resurrection, and before His appearance to the ten Apostles.

If He had appeared to Peter before the two disciples returned from Emmaus and came to the ten Apostles, and if Peter, seeing Jesus appear to him, had believed that He had truly risen. Then Mark, who wrote his Gospel from Peter's words, would not have written that the two disciples returned and announced it to the rest, "but they did not believe them" (Mk 16:13). Since, according to Peter's own testimony through Mark, he did not believe the two disciples that Christ had risen, we must suppose that Jesus' appearance to Peter alone occurred after His appearance to the ten Apostles. But when and where is unknown. We already know that although Luke tried to write everything in order, he did not always preserve strict sequence in his narrative.

According to tradition, after His Resurrection Jesus Christ appeared first of all to the Theotokos. Although the Evangelists say nothing about such an appearance, it is difficult, even impossible, to suppose that Christ did not gladden the Theotokos by His appearance. He had shown such care for Her amid His deathly sufferings. It is also impossible to think that Christ did not appear to Her first. The Evangelists were probably silent about this appearance of Christ at the desire of the Theotokos Herself, who always thanked the Lord that He had regarded the low estate of His handmaiden (Lk 1:48).

The appearance of Jesus to the eleven Apostles

Eight days after Christ's Resurrection, the Apostles again gathered, probably in the same house, and Thomas was with them. Again the doors were locked as a precaution. Nevertheless, Christ instantly appeared in their midst and said, "Peace be to you!"

Only one final ray was needed to illumine completely the darkness that had covered his soul. Then the lamp of faith and hope would again burn brightly within him. "Jesus came," and so forth. See the note on Jn 20:19.