Doubt and Belief

The Sunday night message given in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on March 31, 2024.  The Bible verses used are John 20:19-29.

            The phrase “Doubting Thomas” is part of our culture.  Even people who have no idea who Thomas was and have no idea where the phrase comes from are still familiar with it.  If someone is a skeptic, if they never want to believe anything, if they always demand more proof, we refer to them as a Doubting Thomas.

            When I read our Bible verses for tonight, though, it always seems to me that Thomas has gotten a bum rap.  Yes, he had doubts, but no more doubts than any of the other disciples.  And yet, we’ve come to read this story as Jesus criticizing Thomas for his lack of faith.  I think when we read the story that way, not only are we unfair to poor Thomas, but we miss a valuable lesson that comes from that story.

            These Bible verses take place on the night of the first Easter Sunday.  In the morning, Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene.  She then told the disciples that she had seen the Lord.

            Now, it’s evening.  The disciples are in a locked room, out of fear of being arrested.  Jesus appears to them, says peace be with you, shows them his hands where the nails had been pounded through and his side that was pierced by a sword, the disciples are overjoyed.  Jesus breathes on them and says “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

            So all the disciples believe Jesus is alive.  Except Thomas.  He was not there when Jesus came.  We don’t know why not, but he was not there.  The disciples tell him about Jesus being alive, but he says “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

            A week passes.  The disciples are all back in the same locked room.  This time Thomas is there.  Jesus again appears to them, says peace be with you, shows Thomas his hands where the nails had been pounded through and his side that was pierced by a sword.  And Thomas is overjoyed.  

            Do you see why I say Thomas got a bum rap?  What Jesus showed Thomas was exactly the same thing he had shown the other disciples a week earlier.  When Thomas was not there, Jesus had shown the other disciples his hands where the nails had been and his side that was pierced.  None of them believed he was alive before they saw that.  Thomas did not ask for any more proof than any of the others had, and he did not get any more proof than any of the others got.  

And yet, poor old Thomas is the one who gets criticized.  Thomas is the one whose faith is said to be weaker than the others.  Thomas is the one who for two thousand years has been called the doubter, whose very name has been turned into a negative.  It just does not seem fair.

But of course, you know why we look at it that way.  It’s because of what Jesus said.  After Jesus shows Thomas his hands and his side, Jesus says to Thomas, “Stop doubting and believe.”  And then he says, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  It seems like Jesus himself singled Thomas out for criticism.

            But I was thinking about this.  That first time, when Jesus appeared to the other disciples without Thomas--why do you suppose Jesus did that?  I mean, I assume Jesus would’ve known that Thomas was not there.  Why would Jesus choose to appear then?  I would think that there surely must’ve been some other time Jesus could’ve appeared to the disciples, sometime when they’d all be there.  It’s almost like, that first time, Jesus deliberately excluded Thomas.  Why would Jesus do that?

            It could’ve been a coincidence, I suppose.  Maybe this was simply the time Jesus needed to appear to the disciples, and whoever was there was there and whoever was not was not.  I doubt that, though.  It’s possible, but it’s just hard for me to believe that Jesus would leave something like this to chance.  It seems like there must’ve been some reason why Jesus appeared to the others without Thomas being there.

            I wonder if, perhaps, Jesus thought Thomas might have enough faith to not need to see for himself.  I wonder if, maybe, the reason Jesus appeared to the disciples without Thomas there is that Jesus thought that, out of all the disciples, Thomas might be the only one who had enough faith to not need to see for himself.  Out of all the disciples, Thomas might be the one who could believe without seeing.  When we look at it that way, it looks like Jesus thought Thomas was the disciple who had the most faith, not the least.  And Jesus’ words to Thomas are not so much a criticism as they are an expression of disappointment.  Not that it was wrong for Thomas to want to see for himself, really.  It was just that Jesus was hoping Thomas had enough faith to not need to.

            But here’s what I think is the real point.  Jesus appears to the disciples without Thomas.  They all believe.  Thomas does not.  So what does Jesus do?  Jesus comes back.  He comes back specifically for Thomas.  Jesus comes back specifically so that Thomas can see and believe.

            Think about that.  The twelve disciples were down to eleven, of course, because Judas had betrayed Jesus.  Ten out of the eleven believed.  That’s ninety-one percent.  Pretty good.  But Jesus was not going to settle for that.  Jesus wanted each and every one of his disciples to believe.  He was not going to give up until each and every one of his disciples believed.  As long as there was even one who did not, he was going to do whatever it took to make that one believe.  Each and every one of his disciples was that important to Jesus.

            And each and every one of us is that important to Jesus, too.  Because most of us have doubts at one time or another.  We may try to hide them from others, we may try not to think about them ourselves.  But we still have them.  It may seem like everyone around us believes, and we’re the only one who doubts.  But we still have those doubts.  We might wish we did not have them--for all we know, Thomas may have wished he did not have them.  But the doubts are still there.

            Jesus does not want us to go on with our doubts.  Jesus wants us to believe.  And Jesus is not going to give up until we do.  It does not matter if everyone around us believes and we’re the only one who has doubts.  Even if we were the only person on earth who had doubts, that would not matter to Jesus.  As long as there’s just one of us who does not believe, Jesus is going to do whatever it takes to make that one believe.  Each and every one of us is that important to Jesus.

But the thing is, you’re not the only one who has doubts.  Lots of us do.  Some of the greatest Christians in the world have confessed to having doubts at one time or another.  Mother Teresa said she had doubts.  Billy Graham said he had doubts.  A lot of us are in the position of the man Jesus talked to in Mark Chapter Nine.  A man asked Jesus if he could heal his son.  Jesus says what do you mean, if I can?  He says, “Everything is possible for one who believes.”  And the man responds, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

            We believe, and yet we don’t.  We believe, and yet we have doubts.  And Jesus understands that.  He understood the disciples’ unbelief.  He understood Thomas’ doubts.  But Jesus did not want them to stay in unbelief and doubt.  Jesus wanted them to believe.  And Jesus did everything he could to help them believe.

            It would be nice if Jesus would appear right before us, just as he did with Thomas and the other disciples.  And of course, Jesus could do that.  But for most of us, it probably won’t happen.  That does not mean, though, that the Lord has abandoned us.  If we look around us, we can see God at work in all kinds of ways.  And if we look at our own lives, we can see God at work in all kinds of ways, too.

            I don’t know what those ways are for you.  Here are just a few of them for me.  God was at work when, coming out of law school, I took a job in Pierre rather than one in Laurens, Iowa.  God was at work when, without us even knowing each other, Wanda took an apartment directly across from mine.  God was at work when, out of the blue, we got a call offering us the chance to move to Wessington Springs.  God was at work when, through a series of events that would take too long to go into now, we felt God calling us into the ministry.  And I believe that God was at work when the Dakotas Conference sent Wanda and me to this parish.

            If you think about your life, I suspect you can think of those moments, too.  Those moments when God was at work in your life.  Those “coincidences” that just all lined up perfectly for things to happen the way they did.  That’s God at work.  That’s Jesus doing whatever it takes to make each one of us believe.  That’s Jesus saying to us what he said to Thomas.  “Stop doubting, and believe.”

            So, it’s okay if we have doubts.  But let’s not stay stuck in our doubts.  Let’s look for all the times in our lives when God has shown up.  Let’s look for the times when God is showing up now, leading us and guiding us.  Let’s look for all the ways Jesus is saying to us “Stop doubting, and believe.”

            Our doubts are real.  But God is more real.  If we trust God, and if we look for the ways that God is at work. God will give us the faith to overcome our doubts.