Thomas, the Doubter
SUMMARY
Thomas, often unfairly labeled "Doubting Thomas," was actually a man of remarkable courage who asked the honest questions others were too afraid to voice — and in doing so, drew out some of the most profound truths Jesus ever spoke. Far from rebuking Thomas, Jesus met him with grace, giving him exactly what he needed to move from doubt to worship. Thomas's story reminds us that faith is not about pretending life isn't hard, but about following Jesus even when it is.
TRANSCRIPTION:
We've all got one, don't we? We all have that friend. You know, the friend. Maybe you're that friend, but the one who says what everybody else is thinking, only we're a little too polite or sophisticated to actually say it out loud. It turns out Jesus had one of those friends, too.
His name was Thomas, or maybe Didymus. Unfortunately, Thomas has lived with this nickname, Doubting Thomas, for about 2,000 years. And in fact, if you ask the average person who goes to church and said, hey, what do you know about Thomas? The thing they would probably say is, oh, isn't that the guy who didn't believe that Jesus was resurrected? I don't think that's actually very fair.
You know, when Thomas shows up in Scripture, my hope this morning is we'll get a little different picture of who Thomas actually is. In fact, we encounter him three different times in Scripture and. And three times he speaks, and all three times, Jesus has a pretty amazing response, pretty amazing answer. We learn something deep and revealing about Jesus. So again today, I hope that we'll see Thomas in a new light.
I want us to see him as the disciple who had the courage to say out loud what many of us are too afraid to say, maybe too polite or too sophisticated. But I wonder if that's maybe why Jesus loved him so much. Thomas was a man of great courage. The first time we see Thomas speaking is actually not in John 20, the passage that Dee read for us just a moment ago. It's several chapters earlier.
Jesus has just received word from his friend, dear friend Lazarus has died and he wants to go back to Bethany. And the disciples know something about that place, as you heard this morning in our reflection by Thomas, that Jesus had. The folks in Jerusalem had tried to kill Jesus. And so the disciples weren't really crazy about this idea. In fact, we hear a little bit when he says, we're going back, the disciples say, but, Rabbi, a short while ago, the Jews there tried to stone you and you want to go back.
I mean, it's a terrible idea. Jesus, can we rethink this plan? But Jesus won't be deterred. And I wonder if that's the underlying reason Thomas understood that. And so his response is simply, let us also go, that we may die with him.
And just the collective groan in the room of the disciples, like, come on, man, Thomas, really? Seriously, I'm guessing Thomas was a pessimist. Some might call him a realist. Thomas liked to tell the truth. William Barclay describes him as a man of heroic power, pessimism.
I Love that he expected the hardest outcome and yet he followed Jesus anyway. I mean, isn't that amazing? Thomas expected disaster and he went anyway. That's pretty amazing. Thomas reminds us that faith is not pretending life isn't hard.
Faith is following Jesus even when it is hard. Thomas wasn't optimistic, but Thomas was loyal. He recognized that following Jesus might cost him everything. And his response was, I'm in. Let's go.
Let's go. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like a coward. That actually sounds pretty courageous, you know, the next time you encounter Thomas, it's a few chapters later, they're in the upper room and Jesus is unpacking. What's about to happen in the next 24 hours. And there's a lot of confusion.
Most of them have no idea what's going on. They're trying to absorb what Jesus is saying. And so, as chapter 14 opens, we get this little window John gives us into what Jesus is telling them. He says, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
My Father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare that place for you, won't I come back and take you to be with me? That you may also be where I am, you know, the place where I'm going. Now, the irony here is they have no idea of the place that they're going, right?
They're discombobulated. They have no idea what he's talking about and what he means. I. I imagine if any of us were there and we didn't have the rest of the story in our back pocket, we'd be disoriented too. And so Thomas, wonderful Thomas, he asked the question that everybody else is wondering, but no one has the guts to say it. Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how could we know the way?
I love that question. Thomas refuses to pretend he understands something that he doesn't understand. He doesn't nod politely and fake it. Oh, the place you're going. Yes, yes, I know what you mean.
He doesn't think. Well, everybody else around here seems to get it. I'm just going to go along to get along, he asks. And here's what's amazing. Jesus doesn't rebuke him, right?
He doesn't go. Thomas. Bruh, come on, man, keep up. How many times do I have to tell you? Over and over again, he doesn't say, Thomas, if you just had a little more faith, man, just a little more, you'd come along, you'd understand that's not how he answers.
In fact, Jesus doesn't say that at all. He gives an incredible answer, one of the most impactful statements in all of Scripture, right? He says, Thomas, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.
It's me.
Jesus doesn't hand Thomas a map. He doesn't try to pull them aside and say, okay, now, heaven is this. I know we kind of. But let me. That's not what he does.
Jesus doesn't simply say, I know the truth, or I teach the truth, or he doesn't say, that is the truth. He says, I am the truth. Now, again, I think that's one of the most freeing statements in all of Scripture. If you have your Bible that you can underline, and I'd invite you to underline that verse because it means if something is true, then it belongs to Jesus because he is the truth. Right?
Which is, again, something that I think is so important for the Church. We don't have to fear honest investigation. We don't have to fear asking questions about science or archeology or history. We don't have to shy away from difficult passages or pretend we can't deal with hard questions. Why?
Because anyone who is honestly pursuing the truth, what Jesus says, if you will honestly pursue an answer to a question you have, you're going to go toward Jesus, not away from him. You're going to find yourself where he is. Which is why I think it's unfortunate that sometimes Christianity has become associated with this mentality of don't ask questions. Don't ask questions you don't already know the answer to. As if any truth that we come across might stumble or might rather threaten the reality that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.
You see, Jesus never asked his disciples to check their brains at the door. He never said, don't ask me that. Don't talk to me about that. He said, I want you to be faithful to what you know to be true. And if a question or a doubt comes in, I want you to pursue it.
I want you to chase after it. I want you to be relentless. I don't want you to settle for simplistic answers. In fact, some of the greatest teachings we have recorded in Scripture are because somebody had the courage to ask a question.
Remember Nicodemus? Now, Jesus, how in the world can somebody be born again? Or maybe the Samaritan woman. Okay, you're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan. How can you ask me for water?
Or maybe the expert in the law, really, Jesus? Well, who is my neighbor? Some of the most important questions and teachings have come because of sincere and honest questions. In fact, Thomas question leads to one of the most remarkable statements in all of scripture. I mean, have you ever wondered what would have happened if Thomas hadn't asked that question?
What if Jesus had said, you all know where I'm going? And they all just went, of course we did. And nobody had said, whoa, whoa, whoa, where are you going? No, no, no, we don't know. We don't understand.
I mean, maybe we wouldn't have had these words spoken in the way that they were. And maybe that's part of the lesson, that sometimes the questions we're most afraid to ask actually become the doorways to discovering more about who Jesus really is. Now, that doesn't mean every question gets answered immediately, nor does it mean that every question is of equal worth. One of my favorite things about my daughter Hallie, is she loves to ask questions. She has always asked questions, always.
When she was a little girl, it was cold outside, and she wanted to go with me on this errand. But all she was wearing at the time were, and some of you will know what these are, little jellies, you know, these little jelly little plastic shoes. It's freezing outside. And so we argued back and forth. You got to change shoes.
Why you got to change shoes? Why you got to change shoes? Well, she's marching up the stairs, and she gets about halfway up and she stops and she goes, dad, are you the boss of God?
And I said, no, I'm not the boss of God. She said, well, because God told me to wear these shoes. Oh, yes, church. And I said, well, I'm not the boss of God, but I am the boss of you. And you're changing those shoes, sister.
Another time, I picked her up from school when she was in kindergarten, and she and Gabe had friends. The boy was Gabe's age and the girl was Hallie's age. And literally, I could take you right now to the intersection in Austin, Texas, where we were waiting at the stoplight when Hallie said, dad, is God going to send Nicole to hell?
What?
Her little mind was wondering, like this heaven health thing. And I heard something about it at VBS last week. And I know my friend Nicole doesn't go to church. Is God going to send her to hell? What a question.
I said, that's a great question, sweetheart. When we get home. Mom's going to explain that to you. And she's so smart, right?
That's not what I said. But I had an answer. But. But again, this idea, the courage to ask a question is so powerful. Remember, Jesus doesn't change our personalities.
So when we find now in this passage, as we get to the one that Dee read to us just a moment ago, it won't surprise us to discover that Thomas is still Thomas, that he still has questions. He's still wondering, he's still curious. He's still not just gonna accept what everybody else says, right? The next time we encounter him, everything is different. Jesus has died.
He has been crucified. And now the tomb is empty. And Jesus. The disciples are gathered in a room in a house, and we're told they're behind closed doors and they're locked because fear of the Jews. And Jesus appears.
Peace be with you, he says. After this, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord again. Jesus said, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I'm sending you.
And with that, he breathed on them. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. If you don't forgive them, they're not forgiven. But John gives us another little detail in this story that's not told.
In this initial one, it says, now, Thomas wasn't there. We don't know why he wasn't there. We don't know where Thomas is. We don't know if he was sent to the grocery store to get more groceries. We don't know if he had to run home and do laundry.
We don't know where Thomas is. All we know is he's not there. And imagine how it must have been when he shows back up that the disciples, I can only imagine, are just frantically going, thomas, you'll never believe what happened. You'll never believe. And they start to tell him Jesus was here.
He was just here. I don't know where he went, but he was just here. He was talking to us. He showed his hands and his side. It was incredible.
Then he breathed on us. And that was kind of strange, but, you know, he said something about the Holy Spirit. It was incredible.
Thomas is trying to absorb it. I mean, he's not just hearing this from one excited friend. He's Hearing it from 10, 10 of his buddies that he spent the last three years walking with Jesus every day from 10 people. He trusts their testimony. He trusts them with his own life.
Yet he still can't make himself believe it. And so we get this moment right, this moment in time where he gets his nickname. Unless I see the nail Marks for myself in his hands and I put my finger where they were and my hand in his side, I'm not gonna believe. Now again, how many times was Thomas criticized for this question, for the statement? Rather right, his.
His hot mic moment, it's all on tape, it's all recorded, it's all in scripture and we get to read it. But I have to ask, what's Thomas asking for? Didn't we just hear John tell us that when the disciples were there, Jesus showed him all that stuff. He showed him his hands, he showed him his side. You know, Thomas isn't asking for something more.
I just want the same experience you guys had. I don't know about you, but that changes the angle of the story a little bit. He isn't so much rejecting Jesus as he's refusing borrowed faith. I'm not just gonna believe this because you said so. I'm not just gonna settle it.
I wanna have my own experience. I wanna have my own encounter with Jesus and church. I'm not sure that's really such a bad thing. I mean, every generation has to encounter Jesus because our parents faith will not save us. And our spouse's faith will not save us.
Our friend's faith will not save us. Your preacher, as strong and wonderful and eloquent as he is, his faith will not save you. At some point, faith has to become yours. You have to believe. And Thomas refuses to pretend.
And I love that so much. Now here's what I think is incredible. Notice Jesus response. A week later, he shows up again. And as we saw with Matthew last week, he doesn't begin with a lecture.
He doesn't say, oh, Thomas, O ye of little faith. Thomas, he says, thomas, put your finger here.
Let me see that hand. Put it to my side.
Stop doubting, brother. Believe.
You see what Jesus is doing? He's meeting an honest seeker and transforming them into a follower. Jesus calls Thomas beyond his doubt with lots of grace, and he gives Thomas exactly what he needs to move forward.
And Thomas response is that my Lord and my God. Isn't it amazing that the disciple who once asked, how can we know the way? He now knows who is the way. The disciple who wanted proof winds up in worship. Because that's what happens when people genuinely encounter Jesus.
He doesn't merely answer questions, he transforms followers. I love that Thomas story doesn't end in that room. Much like the other disciples, he Begins to fade into the sunset, so to speak. As far as Scripture is known, he's in a couple of lists. And beginning of Acts, he's in that list.
But then Luke doesn't follow his story any longer, but church history does. Ancient Christian tradition tells us that Thomas carried the Gospel farther east than anyone had ever gone, maybe further than any of the other apostles. That he traveled through Syria and through Persia and eventually reaching India, where churches today trace their story back to Thomas bringing the gospel. And it's there, years after faithful ministry and service to Jesus, that Thomas is said to have given his life as a martyr rather than giving up the one who believed in him. Now, think about that for a moment.
The disciple who's best known as saying, unless I see, he spends the rest of his life saying, let me tell you about one that I saw.
You see, Thomas didn't spend the rest of his life talking about his doubts. He spent the rest of his life talking about Jesus. History gave him the name doubting Thomas, but Jesus gave him a mission. And Thomas shows us which one matters the most.
Church. Don't settle for someone else's faith. Don't be afraid to ask questions. That's one of the things I love about our church, is we're not going to shy. We're not gonna pretend it's not hard.
We're not gonna pretend we don't have all the answers, right? We don't, but we know who does. And our belief is he is the way and he is the truth, and he is the life. And so we don't have to be afraid. It kind of gives me a whole new understanding of Jesus teaching in the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 7, where he says, ask and it will be given to you.
Seek, and you'll find. Knock, and the door is going to be opened for who? Everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds. And the one who knocks, well, the door will be opened.
If we need one more reason not to be so hard on Thomas. Let me. Let me show you this. If you have your Bible, turn over to Matthew 28. This is it.
I promise I'll land the plane here. The disciples after the resurrection. Jesus has called them up onto a mountainside. And this is what Matthew tells us. It says, when the disciples saw Jesus, they worshiped him, but some doubted.
It turns out Thomas wasn't the only one who had a hard time comprehending all that Jesus was saying and doing. He wasn't the only one who doubted. But if you're familiar with the rest of that Passage you know, Jesus immediately says, you disciples, you go and you make more disciples. You go and teach them everything I've taught you. And you teach them to follow God and to love God with all their heart, soul and mind.
See, I love the testimony that the truth is faith always mature in a single moment. Sometimes it comes because you had the courage to ask a question. Sometimes it comes through wrestling with God and his Word. Sometimes it grows just one faithful step at a time when certainty isn't possible. Can we be faithful to what we already know to be true?
Well, that's my hope this morning that Thomas might remind us he moved from courage to questions, to worship, and then finally to witness. Well, may that be our story as well. God, thank you for the gift of your word that teaches us so much. Thank you for Thomas story that reminds us of who you are and that you're not afraid of any question. And God, sometimes we come across some really tough things in our world.
Sometimes in our own lives, in our families, in our relationships that we care so deeply about. We have this question. We can't quite put it all together. God, we hear in your word some hard teachings and we're not sure. God, would you give us the courage that you gave Thomas to keep asking questions, to know that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and so we don't have to be afraid.
God, would you help us to go this week as witnesses that we serve a God who welcomes those who have questions? God, if some of us this morning here doubt are just struggling with doubt, they're in the right place. This is where we come to learn and discover and grow. Where we can ask hard questions and not settle for easy answers. Where we can keep looking to the way and the truth and the life for leadership.
So, Holy Spirit, would you do that amazing work in us that you did in Thomas and all those that came after him? Thank you that he was willing to ask those questions. God, would you give us courage to ask those questions? And God, would you show us the way? Show us yourself.
We love you Father. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.