AN ANTHOLOGY OF THOUGHT & EMOTION... Un'antologia di pensieri & emozioni
הידע של אלוהים לא יכול להיות מושגת על ידי המבקשים אותו, אבל רק אלה המבקשים יכול למצוא אותו

THE FINGER IN THE SIDE

Caravaggio - The Incredulity of Saint Thomas
Doubting Thomas was one of the 12 disciples in the Bible. Another name for Thomas was Didymus, which comes from the Hebrew and Greek words both meaning 'the twin.' He wasn't one of the more well known disciples, but he was popular enough to earn the nickname "Doubting Thomas." He was given this label because he simply did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Jesus appears to some of the disciples, but Thomas was not with them the first time. John 20:25 says, "So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the Lord!' But he [Thomas] said to them, '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 it.'"

Eight days later, Jesus appears before His disciples again: "A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.' Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!' Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed' (John 20:26-29).
The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Bernardo Strozzi
Believing Without Seeing

By Jack Crabtree

Thomas is frequently dubbed “doubting Thomas” because of that famous incident in the gospel of John (20:24-29) where he refuses to believe in Jesus’ resurrection simply on the basis of the eye-witness testimony of his fellow disciples. Instead, Thomas insists that he must personally be an eye-witness of the risen Lord before he can believe that Jesus is risen: “Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my fingers into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

But the apostle Thomas has received a bum rap. Nothing in the gospel accounts warrants the conclusion that Thomas was especially resistant to belief, exceptionally hard-hearted, or otherwise more severely prone to doubt than any of the other disciples. If you read the gospel accounts carefully, you discover an interesting thing: every disciple—so far as we can tell from the record—had an opportunity to believe in the reality of Jesus’ resurrection merely on the basis of someone’s eyewitness account (a man or an angel); and yet none of them believed in the reality of his resurrection until they had some first-hand empirical evidence of their own. This puts Thomas’s hesitance to believe in perspective. When Thomas gives expression to his requirement that “unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my fingers into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe,” he is requiring nothing more in the way of evidence than what every other disciple had already received. Thomas is simply saying that he too must see for himself—as each of them had—before he will be able to believe such an astounding claim.

Typically, we assume that John includes this account of Thomas’s doubt in order to expose and to warn us against the sort of doubt Thomas manifested. But this is not right. Why then is the whole encounter with Thomas noteworthy? Why does John include it? Here, I think, is the reason: In the unfolding of the historical events, Thomas, and no one else, explicitly articulates what evidence he requires in order to believe. All the other disciples—as we can see by their actions—implicitly act on exactly the same requirements for belief, but Thomas happens to be the one whose circumstances forced him to make them explicit by articulating them. This, in turn, creates the opportunity for Jesus to make the profound and interesting point which I believe prompted John to include the event in his account: “Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Strictly speaking, Jesus could have said exactly the same thing to any disciple in that room. Among the disciples present at that time, Thomas was not unique in requiring first-hand empirical evidence for his belief. Virtually all of the disciples had required that.

Two points follow from this discussion of the evidence required by Thomas and the other disciples for belief in the resurrection: First, contrary to certain ways liberal Bible scholars portray the first Christians, the first Christians were not hysterical with grief and obsessed with wishful-thinking and an unrealistic desire to overcome the power of death. If the New Testament account is anywhere close to accurate, the first Christians were hard-headed realists.

My second point is longer and must be developed at length. The whole Thomas account raises this vital question: Why do people like you and me believe? We have not put our fingers in the nail holes in Jesus’ side and feet. We have not seen Him alive from the dead. We never even saw Him alive before He was crucified. Why, then, do we believe? Are we satisfied with something Thomas and all the other disciples were unwilling to be satisfied with—the say-so of other people, the claims of those who say they saw Jesus alive from the dead? Do I believe that Jesus lived, died, and was raised again because some first-century Jew named Thomas and a group of his friends supposedly claim all this is true? I don’t know Thomas; I’ve never talked to him; I’ve never seen him. I have absolutely no basis whatsoever for making my own judgment or determination about his intelligence, his character, his sanity, his stability, his motives, his intentions, his anything. He is a nearly abstract human figure out of the distant past who—according to certain written records—claims to have encountered in a convincing way the risen Jesus. And because I think this guy might have said that he saw Jesus, I believe it? Isn’t that just a bit too easy? Aren’t I being just a bit too hasty? Aren’t I being terribly gullible? Even irresponsible?

I think John records Jesus’ encounter with Thomas for precisely this reason: to acknowledge the extraordinary hurdle that exists for people like you and me to come to a belief in the resurrection of Jesus. We have not seen; how can we believe? Thomas could not believe until he had seen. Peter could not believe until he had seen. Mary could not believe until she had seen. How can I believe when I have not seen? Because I have been blessed, says Jesus: “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” My believing is a gift from God. He has given me something to make my belief in the risen Jesus possible—even when I have never seen the risen Jesus.

What, exactly, has God given me? In simple terms, he has given me “eyes to see and ears to hear.” He has given me eyes that see the truth of Jesus’ messiahship, resurrection, and kingdom. But what are these God-given eyes seeing that leads me to believe the claims of these early Christians?

The eyes which come from God’s blessing do not bring me to see the risen Messiah as Thomas did. I do not see the empty tomb with the first-generation disciples. I do not see Jesus in His resurrection body sitting in a room chatting with His disciples. No, what I see with these eyes is something rather different.

I “see” how plausible it is that God would become a man and come to die that I might live. I “see” how fitting and appropriate it is that the Messiah sent from God would suffer and die a humiliating death. I “see” how necessary it is that the whole gospel story be true if there is to be any meaningful and significant salvation for mankind at all. In other words, God’s gift to me is a keen and incisive perception into the nature of human existence and into the nature of the human predicament, such that the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection appear as a reasonable, natural, and likely response by God to the human predicament. Once I have “seen” that, then, in the light of the story’s intrinsic plausibility, Thomas’s alleged eye-witness testimony naturally seems probable.

So, do I believe in Jesus’ resurrection because some people told me they saw the risen Jesus? Yes, in part; but not really and not primarily and not only for that reason. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus, most importantly, because it makes so much sense in the light of everything I have come to understand and know about myself, about God, and about life in general.

It is important that the first disciples bear witness to the fact that they were convinced they saw and spoke to the risen Jesus. It is important to me that their testimony to that effect is plausible and consistent and not self-contradictory and incoherent. If their testimony were seriously flawed and suspect, that would be a powerful and compelling reason for me to withhold belief in the resurrection. But I don’t believe in the resurrection simply because they say it happened. I believe the resurrection is likely to have happened on other grounds—on the grounds that it makes so much sense in the light of everything else I know about God, His creation, and what He is up to in that creation.

So it is just as true to say that I believe Thomas saw the risen Lord because I believe Jesus did raise from the dead as it is to say that I believe Jesus did raise from the dead because Thomas said he saw Him. Both are vitally important to my belief; and they exist in a sort of dialectical support of one another. In any event, my belief is not at all so simple as “if Thomas says it, I believe it.” Thomas’s saying it could never be enough for me (or for any human being trying to understand his experience with intellectual integrity); and if God had not blessed me with other critical insights which render the story of the resurrection plausible, then I could never have come to believe on the basis of the disciples’ testimony alone.

The inversion that has taken place between the first-century believers and now is interesting when you think about it. We have a hurdle to belief that they did not have, but they had a hurdle to belief that we do not have. Our hurdle to belief: we have not seen the risen Jesus for ourselves. The first-century believers did not have that problem; they saw him with their very own eyes. Their hurdle to belief: though they saw him with their own eyes, they were not prepared to understand easily how the resurrection could be or what it could mean.

The hurdle for the first-century believers was to find plausible in the first place the fact that the Messiah sent from God would come to humiliation rather than victory, that He would suffer and die rather than assume His power and authority as King. As a reading of the New Testament attests, this was a very difficult obstacle to the belief of those first-century Jews. They did not immediately understand how it all was supposed to work; what God was up to; nor how it all was consistent with the promises He had made through His prophets down through the centuries. They struggled with these issues and were eventually able to get past the apparent implausibility of the gospel. Searching the Scriptures, they came to see how utterly fitting and how entirely consistent with what God is up to the story of Jesus actually is. They left their thinking, their arguments, their understanding, and their wisdom to us as a legacy. That, in large part, is what the New Testament is—their hard-fought understanding as to how what God did in and through the events of Jesus’ life all makes sense.

As a consequence of this legacy, we have an advantage the first-generation believers didn’t have. If God has given us the eyes to see life and reality as it truly is—so that we are open to the truth at all—then in the New Testament we are given a true and adequate account of exactly what God is up to; and, therefore, we are given an account of exactly how Jesus’ life, crucifixion, and resurrection fit into the picture of what God is up to. We are in a position to judge for ourselves the plausibility and likelihood of the Easter story apart from ever having heard of Thomas or Peter or John or Mary. If God blesses us with the “eyes” to see how true the Easter story has to be, and we then hear a consistent, coherent, and realistic story of Thomas sticking his fingers in the nail holes in Jesus’ side, we can say, “Oh sure, that undoubtedly did happen. Why would I doubt it?”

The first-century believers had the advantage of knowing—beyond any reasonable doubt—that the events of Easter did occur. They had the disadvantage of not being able to understand immediately what the events meant and how necessary it was for them to occur. If God has cleansed our hearts of the numbing effects of sin and rebellion, then we have the advantage—with the help of the New Testament—of understanding clearly how true the story of Jesus has to be. We have the disadvantage of not being able to say from direct experience, “These things did occur; I know; I saw them with my own eyes.” For both the first-century believers and us, however, the advantage God gives is able to overcome the disadvantage. Because they could not—with integrity—deny the facts of Easter, the first-century believers were able—against tremendous obstacles—to come to an understanding of the meaning of Easter. Because we cannot—with integrity—deny the meaning and therefore the inevitability of Easter, we are able to believe—on what would otherwise be less than adequate evidence—the facts of Easter.
A Doubter Gives Lessons in Faith

By Gerald M. Fagin (American Magazine, 2007)

Thomas the Apostle needs a publicist. Even though in Johns Gospel he gives voice to the most profound statement of faith in the New Testament, My Lord and my God, the first word that comes to mind for most of us on hearing his name is doubtingdoubting Thomas. We forget his courageous response when Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem and almost certain death: Let us go with him and die with him. His great act of faith in Jesus has been overshadowed by his refusal to believe (much worse than doubting) the other disciples who proclaimed that they had seen the Lord: 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 (Jn 20:25). Thomas rejects their testimony and boldly demands a sign. Even so, doubters like Thomas can be great teachers if they prompt us to examine our own faith. Doubting Thomas imparts three important lessons about faith.

First, Thomas reminds us that faith does not exclude doubt and questions, nor does it exclude moments when we wonder whether God is truly with us, faithful to Gods promises. Sometimes God may seem distant and unresponsive as we face darkness, illness or helplessness before the dying of a loved one. Faith is not always clear and unchallenged. Yet we are asked to believe in the midst of the questions and uncertainties that surround us. Faith may lead to certitude, though not the comfortable certitude of logic and scientific proof, but rather the certitude of one who trusts in Gods word. We identify with the father in the Gospel who prays with great honesty, I believe. Help my unbelief (Mk 9:24).

Second, Thomas reminds us that we receive faith in and through the community of parents, friends and church. Thomas found faith because he returned to the community and trusted enough to show up the following Sunday. Ultimately, however, Thomas testifies to the fact that our faith must be rooted in our own experience of God, in a personal acceptance of God and commitment to God. We cannot simply believe because someone else believes. Our faith must be founded in our own deepest convictions. At times, we may rely on the faith of others to support us and sustain us, but others cannot believe for us. We have to say our own personal yes to the invitation to faith given by God.

Third, Thomas reminds us that faith is not simply an assent to doctrines and propositions of faith. Thomas had no creed to accept. In fact, the apostle Thomas did not know the Apostles Creed. He had no idea that Jesus had two natures united hypostatically in one person. He had not figured out that there were three persons in one God. He was totally unaware that 10 days earlier, at Jesus last supper, the bread and wine had been changed into the body and blood of Christ. Thomas would have flunked the most basic quiz on the catechism.

Yet he dramatizes for us that, while it is vitally important that we believe that certain doctrines are true, we must first believe in God, the God revealed in Jesus. Thomass faith was a personal response, a graced surrender to the risen Jesus as his lord and savior and an acknowledgment that Jesus spoke the truth when he said, I have the power to lay my life down and I have the power to take it up again (Jn 10:18). As portrayed in Johns Gospel, faith for Thomas was an expression of loyalty, faithfulness and allegiance to Jesus. It was a radical act of trust and a personal commitment to Jesus and Jesus invitation to new life. Thomas reminds us that, in the end, we believe because we know we are loved. We believe in the one who loves us.

In those times when we identify with Thomass doubts, we may boldly ask Jesus to show himself to us. If, like Thomas, we find ourselves isolated from the community of faith and envious of others faith, which seems strong and unwavering, we may hesitate to rely on the word of others who try to encourage us to believe. Then Thomas may assure us in our doubts. But he also challenges us to deepen our faith, trust and commitment to Christ, even if we have not seen him.

What the doubting and believing Thomas teaches us may purify and enrich our own faith. It may also raise questions about how we can best pass on the faith, how we catechize and how we invite people to come to faith. How do we engage their hearts as well as their heads? How do we lead others to encounter Jesus in an intimate way that evokes our trust and surrender and not simply our adherence or intellectual assent?

The Gospel story does not tell us whether Thomas put his fingers in Jesus wounds or touched his side, but he did meet Jesus face to face. That is how he heard the call to faith and where he found the strength to believe and live out that faith as an apostle and martyr. We too are invited to encounter the Lord face to face in word, sacrament and community and in the poor and the needy. Christ is always in our midst inviting us to touch him and believe.
Doubting Thomas by Sebastián López de Arteaga
Doubting Thomas?
 by Elliot Ross

When we think of the Lord’s disciples. We have certain words that almost always go with them. We think of Judas Iscariot or Judas the Betrayer, we think of Peter denying Christ three times but also Peter the Rock that the church was build on, we think of the John, the one Jesus loves, and we also think of Thomas or as he is better known as Doubting Thomas.
Guercino - Doubting Thomas
I want to look at the man that we know all to often as doubting Thomas and see if this name really fits the character of Thomas. Is this doubting aspect of Thomas really negative or should we see it as a positive trait. As an inquiring mind that needed to see the truth to believe but was more than willing to believe once he saw the truth. Maybe he just needed to see the truth, had questions and wanted them answered.

I think that the doubt that Thomas expressed is said well in this quote. "His doubt had a purpose. Thomas wanted to know the truth, his doubt gives evidence not a lack of faith, but of a desire to have faith founded in fact not fancy."

Let us look at the three times that Thomas is mentioned in the gospel of John. This is the only gospel that makes any mention of him beyond being listed in the list of disciples. The first mention we find is in John 11:16.

Let us start by reading a few verses before. Starting in 11:7 "Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea." 8 " But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?" 9 Jesus answered, " Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. 10 It is when he walks by the night that he stumbles, for he has no light." 11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, " Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am , going there to wake him up." 12 His disciples replied, " Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better." 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, " Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." 16 Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

The last few times that Jesus had been in Judea the Jews had tried to seize and kill Christ so there was good reason why the disciples were not to eager to go back there to see Lazarus. But we see in this case the good example of Thomas who knew that Jesus was going to go back there no matter what the disciples thought. Jesus was going to go to his now dead friend Lazarus. Thomas statement that he made here was a very brave statement in that he had assumed that if he went with Jesus it could very well mean the end of his life. He was willing to follow Jesus in this case even if it meant death. He was putting into action the teachings of Christ that we find in Mark 8:34-35 "If anyone would come after me; he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whomever wants to save his life will lose it, but whomever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
In this case Thomas was the one disciple who was putting into action the teachings of Jesus. He was willing to follow his master even if it meant death. He truly wanted to do the will of God and if this meant death than he was willing to take it. This does not fall in line with personality of a doubter but rather one who has honest questions but once he receives the answers he is more than willing to follow. Thomas could only see disaster – but he was for going on. Thomas was determined to be faithful – even in the face of death! For Thomas there may be death, but there could never be disloyalty.

The second mention that we find of Thomas is in John 14. We will start in verse 1. 1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. 2 In my fathers house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you with me that you may also be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going. 5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me."

I think that it is really neat to see that the second mention of Thomas in John is this mention and a question that he asks that I am sure the other disciples had on there minds also brings out one of the greatest "I AM" statements of Christ. "I am the way and the truth and the life." One of the most known statements in Christianity stems out of a question that doubting Thomas asked or maybe just honest Thom.
I think we can still look at this and say how little faith that Thomas had he didn’t just accept the words of Christ and go on his way. But he was so eager to know that if Christ was going to go away Thomas wanted to go with him. He very honestly and passionately said "I don’t know the way but I sure want to follow. Tell me how". Not only was he so passionate about going with Christ and sticking with his Lord but he also sought out a deeper truth and asked a question that brings out a reply that really is at the heart of Christianity.

Okay now I know that these two scriptures are not where doubting Thomas gets his name but it is in John 20:24 where he gets the name doubting Thomas but how deserving of this name is he even from this scripture.
Let us look at verse 24. "Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe. A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, " Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my GOD!" Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

It is easy to see where we get the nickname doubting Thomas as even Jesus says, "Stop doubting and believe." So it is easy to say oh well Thomas was a doubter and even Christ himself says so.

However we need to look at the whole story. Mary Magadlene was the first to see Jesus and then she told the disciples but when we see the first appearance of Christ to the disciples they were locked in an upper room in absolute fear for their lives. Now I don’t want to add anything that is not in the Bible but I think that if we look at this we would see that Christ first appeared to a former prostitute and this women tells a group of good Jewish boys that their Lord is risen. I would think that there might be some doubt in their minds here. So to be it would see that Thomas was not the only one who had to see to believe but maybe the only who expressed it or maybe the only one that the Bible tells about so that we can learn from his example. I don’t know.

Thomas was not with them and when they told him he said I have to see and know for myself. So yes there was doubt in his mind but I don’t think it was a doubt in his Lord but maybe a doubt in man. He did not give on Jesus when he had not seen him for himself even a full week after everyone else had seen him. He was living on faith by even being with the disciples the second time. He needed to see for himself but I don’t think he ever gave up on Jesus and the faith that he had. Thomas needed a faith founded on fact that he himself had discovered he could not take anyone word for it but had to see for himself and when he did he did not doubt but was a very faithful disciple.

His reaction to the risen Christ is also very profound as he addresses him as GOD. He says "My Lord and my God." Powerful truth that comes out of Thomas here. He knew that when he saw the risen Lord that he truly was encountering God. I don’t think that he would ever forget that.

I know at times we really can identify with Thomas. We have doubts and we want to know something for ourselves. No ones word is good enough but we need to know for ourselves. Is this not having faith I don’t think so. What faith is greater: the one that never doubts or the faith that doubts and investigates and believes. We see examples of this throughout history if people who doubted and some even went as far as to try to disprove Christ and what happens. They doubt but they also have a changing encounter with the risen Lord. Lew Wallace the man who wrote Ben Hur was one of these and there are many others.

So when we have doubts or when we hear about doubting Thomas let us remember that he was so much more that a doubter but rather was one who needed to find out for himself, needed to search for the truth, needed to believe not because of other mens words but because of God himself revealing it to him. We can trust others but let us search. Let us be like in Thomas in his dedication to Christ, in his desire to really know for himself this risen Lord. I think Thomas really fits what Josh McDowell once said "My heart cannot rejoice in what my mind rejects."

So let is search with both our hearts and the unseen faith and with our minds and the discovered risen Lord.
Giovanni Serodine - Doubting Thomas
  • Finally, on this "doubting" topic, see the PDF article by David J. Norman, DOUBT AND THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
    Debate on the resurrection of Jesus tends to focus either on the likelihood of Jesus’ body rising physically from the tomb or on the form in which it appears to the witnesses. The first part of this article provides a snapshot of recent literature on Jesus’ resurrection. The second part argues that there is no coming to faith in Jesus as Lord and God without accepting the necessity and reality of his death. The resurrection appearances alone are insufficient.