All of us have done things
of which we are less than proud. If we are lucky, we don't get tagged
with a nickname that will follow us all of our life. "Doubting Thomas" has not been so fortunate. We don't know that he was called that in
his lifetime but he is known by that name throughout the church. It's
not fair.
We don't speak of "Doubting
Peter", though he and the other disciples did not believe Mary
Magdalene and the other women at first. We don't speak of "Doubting
James", though he did not believe that his brother was the Messiah
until the risen Jesus appeared to him. However, their conversion from
doubt to faith is not depicted as dramatically as Thomas'.
To be fair, Thomas was not
with the others the first time Jesus appeared to the remnants of the
Twelve. Why not? Is there any clue as to why Thomas was not holed up
with the other disciples after Jesus' execution?
The first time we hear
Thomas speak up is when Jesus has announced he is going to return to
Judea to raise Lazarus. The other disciples are concerned that this
will put Jesus in danger of falling into the hands of the religious
leaders. But Jesus seems determined to go. And in John 11:16 we read,
“Then Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow
disciples, 'Let us go too, that we may die with him.'”
That doesn't sound like
someone who is quick to abandon faith in Christ but someone who is so
devoted to him that he is willing to lose his life for him. That
raises a question that we will look at in a minute.
The second time we hear
from Thomas is at the Last Supper. Jesus has announced that he is
going away and that the disciples will not be able to follow. In John
13:36 and following, Peter asks where he is going and Jesus says,
“You are not able to follow me now where I am going, but you shall
follow me afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can't I
follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered,
“Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I tell you: the
rooster will not crow until you have denied me 3 times.” Jesus
goes on to say that he will prepare a place for the disciples in his
Father's house and then return to them so that they may be where he
is. Jesus ends with, “And where I am going, you know the way.”
Understandably, though, Thomas responds, “Lord, we do not know
where you are going, so how can we know the way?” To which Jesus
says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the
Father except by me.”
Notice 2 things. First,
Peter asks basically the same question as Thomas: Where are you
going? The disciples are not thinking about this metaphorically. They
are thinking that Jesus, surrounded by enemies and anticipating a
betrayal from within the Twelve, may be going somewhere to get out of
harm's way. None of them think Jesus is talking about his death.
Secondly, notice that
Thomas was the first to talk about dying with Jesus, back when they
were going to Lazarus' grave. Here Peter says he will lay down his
life for Jesus. And we all know how that turned out.
And now we might have
enough to work out the answer to 2 questions which arise from what
Thomas said and did. When it became clear that Jesus was going to the
tomb of his friend despite the danger, Thomas said, “'Let us go
too, that we may die with him.” Which raises the first question:
why didn't Thomas die or do something risky when Jesus was arrested?
Peter at least drew his sword and wounded a man. We don't hear
anything about what Thomas did. He just ran away with all the others.
We know the grief and
shame that Peter felt about denying Jesus. Wouldn't Thomas feel
ashamed for running out on Christ? Maybe even more so than Peter. He
was the first to offer to die for Jesus. And when the opportunity
came, he not only didn't die, he didn't even fight. He ran. Which
might answer the other question that arises. Why wasn't Thomas with
the other disciples in the upstairs room?
We are told that the
disciples were behind locked doors because they were afraid of the
Jewish leaders. As supporters of Jesus, they knew they were also at
risk of being arrested and crucified. Jesus was executed officially
for claiming to be the King of the Jews, which was treason against
Caesar. His followers would certainly be seen as traitors to Rome.
It's not a great leap of logic that the religious leaders might turn
them over to Pilate for the same punishment. So their hiding makes
sense.
Thomas' not hiding doesn't
make sense logically. But it does make sense psychologically. Out in
the open, he was a sitting duck for any Pharisee or scribe or priest
who recognized him as part of Jesus' inner circle. And maybe that was
what he wanted. He didn't defend Jesus when he had the chance. He
didn't let himself be captured and executed along with his Lord.
Maybe, consciously or unconsciously, Thomas was hoping to get
recognized and arrested. Jesus was dead as far as he knew. This way
Thomas could belatedly fulfill his words and die for Christ.
So it is in this state of
mind that we find Thomas when the other disciples seek him out to
tell him the great news: Jesus is alive! Why doesn't Thomas believe?
Would you? Let's say
someone very important and close to you died. And a few days later
some friends came and told you that they have seen that person
walking around alive again. How would you react? You would think that they were crazy. Or that they were playing a very cruel trick on you. Your
first thought would not
be, “Oh, goody, he is no longer dead.” And if your friends
persisted, saying, “No, really. He is alive again,” you'd
probably say, “I'd have to see him for myself.” Thomas' reaction
is in fact normal.
Thomas goes further,
though. He says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,
and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I
will not believe.” Why is he being so graphic?
Thomas, like every person
living under Roman occupation, knows what crucifixion is like. The
Romans meant for people to see what happened to those who opposed
them. To have a close friend killed like that was horrible. But along
with Jesus, Thomas' hope for the kingdom of God died. Everything
Jesus said, everything Thomas lived for during those 3 and half years
of ministry, was for nothing. It was over. Gone. Thomas was in
despair. And he is saying in the strongest way possible that he just
can't trust someone like that again. Worse than being hopeless is
being tempted by false hope. Thomas will not make that mistake again.
The only thing that will convince him is actually touching the
person he has lost and making absolutely sure it is not a trick or an
imposter. Nothing else will do for someone as disappointed, dejected,
and depressed as Thomas.
Which brings us to the
events of today's gospel reading. Somehow the other disciples have
persuaded Thomas to abandon his suicidal public mourning. They have
gotten him to join them in the upper room. And suddenly Jesus is in
their midst.
Imagine how this struck
Thomas. He knew Jesus had died. He either saw him on the cross or was
told about Christ's last hours by eyewitnesses. How else would he
know about the wound in Jesus' side, something done by a soldier on the spur of
the moment to confirm that he was already dead and didn't need his
legs broken? The one thing Thomas didn't doubt was Jesus' death. Yet
here he was, bigger than life. Now Thomas goes from doubting the
resurrection to doubting everything he assumed he knew about reality.
Jesus addresses Thomas. He
says, in effect, “Go ahead. Touch me. Touch my wounds. Leave your
doubts behind and trust your senses.” But Thomas makes no move to
do so. He can only stand and gape. Before this, he doubted that the
man on the cross was alive again; now he is not even sure that Jesus
can be called a mere man. Thomas saw Jesus raise the dead. But now
Jesus himself has been raised from the dead. This is beyond what any
prophet has ever done. Thomas is thinking that Jesus is way beyond a
prophet. Jesus called himself the Son of God. If the son of a human
is a human, then what is the Son of God? When he finds his voice, all
Thomas can say is, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus says, “Have you
believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have come to believe.” He is speaking about us. We
have not seen Jesus in the flesh. Unlike the first generation of
Christians, we don't even know someone who has seen him. It is easier
for people today to doubt and many do.
A recent study has
concluded that at least half of the decline in people being
affiliated with a religion is due to 3 things: a drop in the number
of people who have had no religious upbringing, the increase in the
number of people with college-level education and the increase in the
use of the internet. To take them in reverse order: the increase in
the use of the internet is possibly keeping people from associating
with a religion for at least 3 reasons. First, people are able to
look up answers or discuss questions they might have asked their
clergy about life, the universe and God. And it's even more
convenient than going to the library and reading books about such
things. Unfortunately, the answers you find on the internet never had
to pass muster with an editor or be good enough to find a publisher.
There is a lot of information out there that is badly researched or
just plain made up. And if you don't like one answer there are
literally dozens of answers out there you can browse until you find
one that pleases you. People tend to chose answers they want to hear,
regardless of whether they are true or not.
Secondly, the internet is
a great distraction from the big questions about life. Have you ever
searched for something on the internet and found yourself an hour
later having read a whole bunch of interesting articles and watched a
lot of videos instead of getting the answer you were looking for? In
C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, the
fictitious senior devil tells his nephew, a junior tempter, that they
really don't want people to think clearly about whether stuff is true
or false, right or wrong; they want to muddle human thinking and
distract us if possible. The internet is designed to do just that.
And because you read snippets from so many interesting points of
view, it can lull you into thinking you know a lot more about certain
issues and in greater depth than you really do.
Thirdly,
the internet is just one of the many things in this 24/7 world that
compete with worship. It used to be that there wasn't much to do on
Sunday mornings than sleep in or go to church. There were only a
handful of TV channels and they were running boring public service
shows like Meet the Press. You couldn't go to the movies, at least
not on Sunday morning. Today you can be entertained endlessly even on
a Sunday morning. You may even have been up very late on the internet
and find getting up for church on 4 or 5 hours sleep very difficult.
Today we have so many options that have to do with pleasing
ourselves, which most people find more attractive than pleasing God.
The
rise in the number of college educated people cuts both ways. Oddly
enough, college educated people are more likely to be religious than
less educated people. But having a college education can also make
you think you know it all. Having knowledge is not the same as having
wisdom. It is not hard to find highly educated fools.
Some
college professors certainly feel that religion is a dangerous relic
of our savage past or that it is impossible to be both a person of
faith and someone who understands science. Kids in college want to be
thought of as smart and “up to date” in their thinking,
especially in the eyes of popular professors. They uncritically adopt
these attitudes, never wondering how so many great thinkers and
scientists managed to be both ground-breaking thinkers and people of
faith. Isaac Newton is considered one of the greatest of all
scientists, if not the greatest scientist of all time. He also wrote
voluminously about theology. Not even Richard Dawkins would dare say
Newton was therefore not a good scientist. Yet a lot of people take
away from college the idea that faith somehow destroys the ability to
think critically and clearly.
Also
college is a time when young people get away from their parents and
their parents' rules and experiment with alcohol, drugs and sex. That
makes it hard for them to pray to God or face people in church. They
can either give up these new and popular pleasures or they can give
up going to church. Guess which one they choose?
But
the key thing that has caused a drop in religious membership has got
to be the simultaneous drop in people being brought up in a religion.
A lot of Baby Boomer and Millennial parents have said, “I want to
give my children the chance to choose what they want to believe.”
The problem is you have to offer them something to choose from. If
you never take them to any religious gathering, much less a whole
range of churches, synagogues, mosques and ashrams, how are they to
know whether a faith has anything to offer them? It's like never
voting nor encouraging your kids to get engaged on important issues
but somehow expecting your children to be active citizens who will
uphold our democratic process. Some kids will rebel against your
apathy but most will merely imitate it. The same goes with religion.
And if you are worried about them being damaged by religious
extremism, don't take them to such churches! Take them to churches
which emphasize God's wisdom and love for us and our duty to love one
another and to fight injustice and to work for peace. Even so, when
they grow up, they may choose another church. But at least they will
realize that there is a spiritual dimension of life, essential moral
values and someone greater than themselves.
Just
because we haven't physically seen Jesus doesn't mean we cannot put
our trust in him. People who never saw or met Plato or Thomas
Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln can nevertheless find themselves drawn
to their words and their lives. How much more do people find God
speaking to them through the words and life of Jesus! As it says in 1
John 4:12-13, “No one has ever seen God. If we love one another,
God remains in us and his love is completed in us. This is how we
know that we remain in him and he in us: he has given us a share of
his Spirit.” Just like the wind, we may not see the Holy Spirit but
we can feel his effect on us. God's Spirit communicates his love and
power to us. We feel his life taking root in us, growing in us,
transforming us. And feeling Jesus' life active in us assures us of
his reality more that touching his wounds ever could.