One of the high points of St John’s Gospel comes near the end, in chapter 20, in the confrontation between Jesus and the disciple Thomas. Jesus, crucified but now risen from the dead, has already appeared to his disciples as a group, sending them out as the Father had sent him, and breathing out the Holy Spirit upon them (20: 19 — 23). But on that occasion Thomas was not there. When the others tell him: ‘We have seen the Lord’, he will not believe them. ‘Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe’ (v 25). Now, eight days later, Jesus appears to them all again, and this time Thomas is with them. Jesus takes up the challenge made by Thomas to the other disciples: ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing’. Thomas answers: ‘My Lord and my God’, and Jesus finishes the encounter with the words: ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe’ (vv 26-29).

One of the reasons, and perhaps the most obvious one, why St John tells this story is to provide some help for Christians who, living years after the events of Easter, and never having seen the risen Lord, have difficulty in believing that Jesus really did rise from the dead.