START WITH SCRIPTURE:
John 20:19-31
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OBSERVE:
This passage provides a framework for the transition from the very first eyewitnesses to those whose witness will only be with the eyes of faith.
Jesus appears the very evening of his resurrection, when the disciples are huddled together in fear in a locked room. This illustrates his ability to appear and to disappear at will with this transformed and glorified resurrection body.
Nevertheless, he demonstrates that his is a bodily resurrection, and that he is the same Jesus who was crucified, as he shows them his scarred hands and side.
He greets them with the traditional “Shalom” of the ancient Jewish culture:
Peace be to you.
However, in this context it certainly has a deeper meaning for these frightened followers. They greet these words and signs with joy.
Next, there is the Johannine version of a kind of Pentecost, as Jesus commissions them to be sent in his name, and then empowers them for ministry as he breathes the Holy Spirit into them. And to them is entrusted the awesome authority to forgive sins in his name, much as Peter was given that authority in the Synoptic Gospels after his insight that Jesus was the Christ. The difference of course is that in the Synoptic Gospels, Peter has this realization before the resurrection. (Matthew, Mark and Luke are called Synoptic because they can often be “seen together” with frequent parallels and similarities.)
The disciples immediately begin to fulfill the commission of Jesus. Some of the disciples reach out to Thomas, who wasn’t present in the Upper Room that evening. They bear witness to what they have experienced:
We have seen the Lord!
And here is where Thomas (his Aramaic name), aka Didymus (the Greek version of his name) gets his unfortunate nickname — Doubting Thomas. He cannot believe unless he sees the scars on Jesus’ hands and side for himself.
We don’t really know for sure why Thomas is called “The Twin,” other than the obvious fact that he may have had a twin brother or sister. Is it an oblique reference to being “double-minded” perhaps?
Nor do we know why he isn’t with the other disciples on that first night. Is he absent because he is grieving alone?
We do know that Thomas is no coward. Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, when the sisters of Lazarus summon Jesus to the bedside of their dying brother, Jesus declares he will go to Bethany. The other disciples attempt to deter Jesus, declaring that his enemies seek his life in Judea. But it is Thomas who says:
Let’s go also, that we may die with him. (John 11:16).
But we also have a foreshadowing of his questioning nature in John 14:1-7. Jesus has promised his disciples that he will not leave them orphaned, that he is going to prepare a place for them, and that they know the way to the place where he is going. Thomas, who is empirically minded and prone to thinking in very concrete, literal terms, says:
Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way? (John 14:5).
And this question sets up one of the most profound statements in all of Scripture. Jesus answers:
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him (John 14:6-7).
Now Thomas is singled out for a unique, if dubious, honor. Jesus appears yet again among the disciples a week after the resurrection. This time Thomas is among them. And Jesus offers to show Thomas his hands and his side to provide proof that he is the crucified and risen Lord. And Jesus commands him:
Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.
Thomas is among the very first in this post resurrection appearance to acknowledge the divinity of Jesus in his short but powerful declaration of faith:
My Lord and my God!
There seems no doubt to Thomas now that Jesus is not only risen from the dead, but that this event discloses his true nature as God and man.
Jesus gently reproaches Thomas for his lack of faith that required such dramatic proof, and praises those who will not have that luxury:
Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.
John adds his own editorial comment — that the purpose of this account in the Gospel is to provide witness to those who have not seen and yet have believed. He is making it quite clear that this is the purpose of his writing. He notes that Jesus did many more deeds than he can possibly record, but that the purpose of the Gospel is so that those who read it:
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
APPLY:
This account of “doubting Thomas” isn’t meant to cast aspersions on this questioning disciple. In a sense, Thomas may speak for many in our skeptical age who are seeking proof.
Ultimately, however, the response that brings true blessing is faith that is imparted by the Holy Spirit — the very Holy Spirit that Jesus himself imparts to the disciples and to us. We are reminded from the Scriptures that the righteous will live by faith, and also that:
Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6).
We don’t believe because we see; we see because we believe. That is the gift which the Holy Spirit imparts.
RESPOND:
I identify closely with Thomas, not only as my namesake, but also simply because of my own questions and occasional “dark nights of the soul.”
There are significant moments in my own faith development — the traditions I’ve been taught, reinforced by the certainty that existence and creation itself is impossible without a Mind that brought order to chaos.
In that thought I find the beauty of the Prologue to John 1:1-3:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
And I can rationally draw the conclusion that only something as dramatic as the resurrection could possibly have transformed those craven, cowering disciples into the bold missionaries willing to stand up to the persecutions of the Sanhedrin and the Roman authorities.
But the mystery of faith in the Risen Christ comes only through the experience of an inner witness from the Holy Spirit. In that sense, like all who have not seen and yet have believed, I count myself among those who are blessed with the gift of faith, knowing that even when my faith is weak, Jesus Christ is strong.
Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief! Though I cannot place my fingers in the scars on your hands, nor my hand in your side, I nevertheless am convinced in my heart that the only thing that explains the existence of hope and meaning and love in my life is your Presence. Thank you for that life that begins now and continues forever! Amen.
PHOTOS: Background photo for “We don't believe because we see...”: "Fog" by Josh*m is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
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