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 marks of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Why doesn’t Thomas believe?  This is a fascinating episode in the gospel accounts that shouldn’t be given short thrift.  It simply doesn’t do to call him “Doubting Thomas” and move on.  The danger of calling him a doubter is that it acts as a sort of pejorative and debases the man and his entire experience.  Thomas is, no doubt, fine with that considering that he’s in the Kingdom with the Lord.  It’s us, on the other hand, that lose out if we see this only as an episode of a man of little faith that’s restored and then read on, oblivious to the larger issues.  Let’s look at them.  

To start, one of the basic contentions from non-believers is that the “authorities” wrote the Bible and that claims of divine inspiration are nonsense.  But if you were to concoct a resurrection story you wouldn’t write it this way.  You wouldn’t include the confusion of the disciples, the fear, and certainly not Mary confusing the risen Lord of Glory for a gardener.  Oh, and you definitely don’t have Thomas act like this either.  If you’re laying down a myth that you want people to follow and you must follow the lead of these disciples…well, they certainly go out of their way to remind you, right from falling asleep in the garden, to Peter’s ignominious denials, to all this, that they’re anything but perfect.  You might even say that these guys are unfit to lead.  In all, if you’re going to make up a religion in order to control people (as the slander goes) you don’t write your leaders up this way.  

Let’s think about this soberly for a second.  We have troubles in our homes, our churches, our friendships, and vocations.  Many of these are because of other people, if we may be frank.  Just think of going for a drive, after all.  You can barely pull out of your driveway or cross the street before someone, somewhere will remind you that humanity is full of many daft and selfish people. This isn’t to mention that people close to us will let us down and frustrate us.  Our pastors, elders, deacons, fellow parishioners, family members, everyone…there are flaws aplenty.  

We point this out because Thomas’ intransigence is, though unexpected when reading the account of Jesus, rather unsurprising.  Moreover, to look at it from his perspective, he’s actually got a good point.  He’s wondering what’s changed?  If Jesus had really come back from the dead wouldn’t that be a monumental event?  Wouldn’t that change everything?  Why is life going on just as before if He is truly risen?  The Pharisees are still there.  So are the Romans and all their military/political power.  Thomas hears the accounts of His presence and takes a look around and says to himself, “Yeah, but…”

Thomas is, therefore, very human.  He’s scared and hurt.    

As Paul says, “who hopes for what he can see?”  The issue of Christian faith is ultimately one of philosophical continuity and logical consistency because nothing in the world makes sense unless the truths of the Bible are, in fact, real.  If God didn’t create the world and everything in it, why is there life?  Why do right and wrong exist?  Why does one human life have value if God isn’t the root of it all?  Yes, indeed, this is all true.  But in Thomas’ case, and in our individual lives in a sin-riddled world, we often fight against the reality of our eyes and the truth of our minds.  A man or woman can be saved on a Wednesday night, their inner world changing dramatically, yet on Thursday morning life’s duties still call; their bills are still due.  This is the great paradox of living in the gospel age where salvation has come to all who believe while at the same time history appears to march on unperturbed.  

The problem is cleared up when we have the eternal perspective to life rather than the worldly one.  

You see, our dilemma isn’t our events but our sin.  Christ was crucified for our sin and raised for our justification.  We’re set free from the bondage to sin and yet we continue to live in these bodies, these perishable tents, for now.  An eternal earthquake has struck the heart of every believer, fracturing all those old monuments of self that had risen on the shaky soil of pride, pulling them down, shattering them and causing sweet tears of repentance.  Upon that broken heart, which the Lord won’t despise, which now agrees with God instead of fighting Him, He builds a new man or woman and brings the Kingdom of Heaven to earth one soul at a time.  When this is understood, the confusion surrounding events disappears.  What’s happening next door is no longer our primary concern and we know that Washington and Wall Street are not the center of the universe…Calvary is.  

Okay, so that’s what’s wrong with Thomas’ perspective and, in many events, ours too.  Thomas loses sight of the reason for Jesus’ death and resurrection and that causes him to doubt that anything supernatural has, in fact, transpired.  To be told that “behold, the Kingdom of God is at hand…” and to forget that it’s sin that must be eradicated from man’s heart before we can see God is to lose sight of the power of the gospel and focus instead on the kingdom of man.  Those imperfections in everyone we see around us, when they shine most bright, and we can see nothing else through their glare, are the warning lights that we are looking at life from prideful eyes.  Thomas’ doubt isn’t so bad as many failings we’ve had, no doubt.  The difference is we get to read about his.  The issue, therefore, is to be careful when our hearts keep settling on the failings of others around us and/or the limits of our circumstances.  To focus on both of these is to give ground to the Devil, to let him move in, give him a warm bed and place to stay in our hearts.  No good will come from it.  

So, poor Thomas is confused…and probably reeling from hurt too.  He had to watch the whole charade – the arrest, the torture, the crucifixion.  He had to endure watching all of it and his heart is probably broken to a thousand pieces.  Maybe his reluctance to believe is really just his way of trying to protect himself after so much disappointment and pain.  We do well to consider how the Lord deals with him – with mercy and understanding – instead of anger and wrath.  How are we to know what a fellow believer is struggling with if they voice doubts, if they wrestle openly with the Lord.  It will happen.  Every church and household will have its Thomas moments of members who lose loved ones, suffer great tragedies, have horrible setbacks and try, in response to the searing pains, to protect themself by being tough.  Thomas isn’t so much doubting as he is trying to protect himself. Once again…Thomas is devastated.  If he really didn’t believe, why would he be hanging around still?   

The way home in such a case as this is for the believer to humbly remember this context and to be so well schooled in the great truths of the gospel that the arrows of despair fail against that great armor of God, which is faith, truth and righteousness.  Depression and hopelessness will grow like weeds in the heart if we drift away from the great Christian fortress that is the gospel.  Current events, personal losses, health, finances, relationships…all of these will continue in the lives of the saints.  We must, therefore, be trained to understand that all events are actions under the direction and care of the Lord and that He’s promised that all things will work together for our good.  This is the perseverance of the saints or, really more to the point, the preservation of the saints.  The great doctrine of Romans 8:28 isn’t to say that every single moment of our lives, even entire seasons, are all sweet and that Christian life is a picnic.  No.  We live upon a great battleship upon treacherous waters, not a cruise ship in untroubled seas.  But every battle is waged in faith and every skirmish leads us closer to that great goal of being conformed to the image of Christ.  

So, Thomas is all of us.  He doesn’t represent one type of Christian but, rather, all Christians at some point.  He shows us a Christian who is in pain and is hurting so bad from the disappointments of life that he/she has trouble seeing the Lord’s will.  To this we notice how the others don’t reproach him or cast him out.  He’s hurting and they keep him close.  And then, yes, the Lord comes to them all again.