Doubting Thomas

John 20:24-25

“Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.'”

April 19, 2022

Can you believe that guy, Thomas? Oh, doubting Thomas! Did he not see what Jesus did while He was living? Or, maybe he just believed that Jesus could do miracles on other people. Why could he not believe the other disciples when they told him that Jesus was alive?

I honestly think that Thomas gets a bad rap. If you think about how he approached life, it was not vastly different from our own. When we think of things, we overlay our experience, understanding, and reason on reports that other people provide to determine whether what is being said makes sense or is trustworthy. If it does not make sense, then we must be skeptical. Few, if any, have ever seen someone walk on water. Therefore, believing someone stating that they saw someone walking on turbulent water would be difficult. However, if the person whom the other individual was speaking was habitually doing the miraculous, it might be more easily believable.

Thomas had seen someone rise from the dead. He was with Jesus when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. In fact, he was the one who encouraged the other disciples to go with Jesus, even if it meant their own deaths. Yet, he had not seen someone die at the hands of the Roman soldiers and then be raised from the dead. Those whom Jesus had raised had died of sickness. From the biblical account, we do not know that Lazarus had lost any blood. Jesus had lost the majority of His blood. Jairus’ daughter had not been punctured. Jesus had nails pierce his hands and feet and a spear thrust through His side.

The point to all of this – I really think that if we had been in Thomas’ shoes, we would have been the same way. In fact, I think the other disciples had already been in his position . . . not believing the report that Jesus had been raised, simply based on their own grid of understanding. But still, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed.” Will you be a doubting Thomas?  Will you be found believing or disbelieving?