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.
As I read that story, though, it 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 pick up exactly where we left off last
week. In the morning, that first Easter morning, Jesus appeared to Mary
Magdalene. She has told the disciples that she’s 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.
If 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 mean, surely there
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 would 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 in
church 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 has said he’s 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.
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