Sunday Matinee #120 Presence
A 2025 post with a 2025 movie? #Relevant!
John 20:19-31 | EnterTheBible.org
Second Sunday of Easter | 04.27.2025
Context: Jesus has been resurrected after he was murdered by the state. The disciple men have heard tales from the disciple women but didn’t know what to think. Then, the resurrected Jesus appeared to them all. Well, not all of them. Thomas wasn’t present. Here’s his response to them, the set up for when he was present, and a note reminding us that we weren’t present, either. And yet…
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “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.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them…
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book…
Presence | 2025
IMDb | Letterboxd | RRMC
Context: The Payne family have moved into their new house and settle in. But something there unsettles Chloe (Callina Liang), something… following her? Watching her? While her mother, Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and brother Tyler (Eddy Maday) don’t seem particularly interested, her father, Chris (Chris Sullivan) leans in to learn more.
Chris: No, I– I haven’t– felt or sensed anything… unusual here. Do you mean like a…
Chloe: A presence.
Chris: …No. …Have you?!
Chloe: …Yes.
Chris: …Can you… elaborate?
Commentary:
I don’t call him “Doubting Thomas.”
Yes, it’s popular to call this text the story of Doubting Thomas, but that does at least two things wrong. First, it infantilizes Thomas. “Oh, silly Thomas! We know so much better than you!” I’m rolling my eyes at their knowing smirks and shaking heads. Second, it demonizes doubt. “Oh, sad Thomas! We are so much stronger than you!” I’m pursing my lips at their satisfied grins and shrugging shoulders. I’ve got to be honest: “Doubting Thomas” never sat well with me.
Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Nor is it something to fear or belittle or dismiss. Doubt is a companion along the faith journey. I’m not exactly sure where we picked up the idea that to have strong faith means to have absolute certainty (actually, I do have a pretty good idea where we picked up that idea, or at least where several conservative and/or prosperity-based theological writers and leaders picked up the idea that delivering that sort of “this is the only certain way” message with more than a bit of rizz will get them a fatter personal wallet [there, I said it, but in parenthesis, so it doesn’t really count {although it is very Gen X!}]). If you think faith means certainty, I think you’d better look up “faith” in the dictionary. Or your heart!
Okay, so if we don’t call Thomas “Doubting,” what do we call him? Over the last 15+ years, I’ve been redubbing this story as “Absent Thomas.” He was absent when the disciples first encounter the risen Christ. They’re all in the upper room when Jesus, resurrected, appeared to them - and we get all judgmental toward Thomas? What did they do, send him out for pizza and blame him for not believing them?
They didn’t blame him. They loved him. How do we know? Thomas was there the next week. He rejects their story; they don’t reject him. That’s love and hospitality and a welcoming community that values doubt as part of faith. And again, I’m not sure that it’s Thomas doubting so much as wanting to experience what they experienced while he was absent. Why wouldn’t he want what they had? Do the disciples blame Thomas for wanting that? No! Can we blame Thomas for wanting that? I don’t think so. He’s Absent Thomas. And when he’s present later, and he does experience the risen Jesus, he is moved.
Strange things are happening in the Payne home. Teenager Chloe senses there is a Presence with them there and while her father, Chris, wants to hear more, her brother Tyler does not and her mother Rebekah dismisses it entirely. At this dinner table scene, Chloe is brave enough to talk about what she’s encountered and we see three very different reactions. One gets the impression that Chris is much like “Doubting” Thomas, in that he only wants to experience what Chloe felt. Tyler’s doubt is more a certainty that the whole thing is nonsense. As for Rebekah, she’s closed off not only to the topic but the conversation entirely. In a world where it’s easy to be certain or closed off, including about theology, how does one be brave to share and/or open to listen?
This is not the only conversation about what spiritual happenings could be in the home. Various characters speak of it with different degrees of openness. In a topic so intimate and personal, risk is everything. Chloe does not have the reputation with Tyler that the disciples do with Thomas. Who listens to who… and why?
When someone tells you about their spiritual experience, what do you do? Do you believe them immediately? Or is that only for some people? Are there some stories you accept and embrace, or others you find to be a bridge too far? If someone told you they experienced something spiritual, what would you say?
I was charmed by the movie Presence. A quiet release in the cold of January, this 90-minute haunted house story from director Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight, Ocean’s Eleven, Traffic, and this year’s Black Bag) and writer David Koepp (Stir of Echoes, Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible, and this year’s Black Bag) really hit me the right way. At the time of this writing, it’s out of theaters but available to stream as a digital rental or purchase. Give yourself a gift of 90 minutes and $6. Do not doubt, but believe!
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