Doubting Thomas
“And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God.” John 20:28
Most of us who are familiar with scripture, know Jesus’ disciple, Thomas, as “Doubting Thomas”. Unfortunately, sometimes nicknames stick even after the reason for the nickname has long passed. This is what happened to Thomas since he is still known by that moniker. (Some of us cannot get away from some past mistake or some stupid thing we did. Sometimes folks just won’t let it go, and we have to live with it.) Like Jesus, Thomas was also from the region of Galilee, but his hometown is unknown. His public calling by Jesus was not recorded in scripture. He was a bit of a pessimist. When Jesus announced that He was going to Bethany after His friend Lazarus had died, Thomas, worried about the threats that had been made on Jesus’ life by the Pharisees and perhaps also worried about himself as one of Jesus’ disciples, said to Jesus, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (John 11:1-16). I suppose that Thomas was showing a loyal respect for Jesus since he was apparently willing to die with Him.
In John 14:1-7, Jesus told His disciples that He was going to leave to prepare a place for them for all eternity, and that they knew where it was and how to get there, but Thomas spoke up, saying, “We don’t know where You are going and neither do we know the way”. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father except through Me”. Thomas’ skepticism paved the way for Jesus to teach His most profound truth.
The most familiar passage about Thomas is found in John 20:19-29. When Jesus first appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, Thomas was not there. I wonder what was so important to keep him from gathering with his fellow disciples during the most significant event of their lifetimes. I can only speculate that he was so full of doubt concerning Jesus’ ministry and subsequent crucifixion and didn’t see any need to continue on with the other disciples. Or he was just plain scared and found a hiding place. He did meet with them later, and they told him of Jesus’ visit to them, but he did not believe them. He said, “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe”.
The next week, Thomas must have become somewhat braver to appear out in public and made his way to where the other ten disciples were gathered. I can imagine that they were all talking about the events that had occurred during the last two weeks. I am sure that they must have been discussing Jesus’ visit with them. I can see Thomas rolling his eyes because he thought they were hallucinating. Then all of a sudden Jesus appeared to them once more. Again, I can only imagine the look on Thomas’ face. Jesus, knowing what Thomas had proclaimed the previous week, offered to let Thomas touch Him, but there was obviously no need to do that. All Thomas could say was, My Lord and my God”. There was no longer any hint of doubt in Thomas’ mind. We can’t see Jesus in person, at least not yet, but we have the word of God which leads us to have faith that everything that He said about Himself is true. Yes, many of us have doubts from time to time, but faith is based on facts, not on feelings. Jesus will reveal Himself to anyone who seriously seeks Him.