16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Sometimes we are misled to believe that if we could just have been there to see it we would believe in the resurrection. Today's lesson makes plain that even if we had been there we might well have doubted it. In fact, when we put together all of the resurrection scenes together we can see that it was not just Thomas but all the other disciples also who doubted that Jesus had been raised -- even while looking right at him. They saw Jesus standing there in their midst, but they could not believe their own eyes. As today's lesson tells it, they saw him, and they even worshiped him, yet they still doubted what they were seeing and doing.
In each case, the doubt was overcome by an act of faithful obedience. The disciples came to believe by doing what they were told to do -- to go and tell, to teach, to baptize, to make disciples, and share with the world the kind of life Jesus taught them to live. As we see in another resurrection account -- the Road to Emmaus -- the disciples do not have eyes to behold that the stranger among them is Jesus until they have done what Jesus told them to do -- to invite the stranger in and break bread with him.
The way of faithful discipleship is then made clear. It is only in living out the Gospel that the followers of Jesus come to believe in the Gospel; it is only in the act of living faithfully that the truth of our faith is revealed. Thus the last words of Jesus to his disciples in their mixed state of belief and unbelief, joy and doubt, worship and wonder:
"Go therefore . . ."
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