Preached 3 July 2022 @ Christ Church 10am
Introduction
There are only a couple of stories in the Gospel of John that mention Thomas. He’s included in the lists of disciples in each of the gospels and Acts, but only John gives him a voice.
So I thought it would be helpful to look at these stories and try to get some idea of what sort of person Thomas was. That might help us to understand why he doubted the resurrection. Then we will take a look at this morning's bible verses and see what they meant for Thomas and what they might mean for us.
Tradition
According to traditional accounts of the Saint Thomas Christians of India, the Apostle Thomas landed in Muziris near Kochi on the Kerala coast (south-western India) in AD 52 and was martyred in Mylapore, near Madras (now Chennai) in AD 72. A journey north-easterly across Tamil Nadu covering something like 700 km (435 miles). He founded the ancient Indian Christian Churches on the way. A missionary journey to rival the apostle Paul.
John 11
His first specific mention is in John 11. Jesus tells his disciples he wants to go back to Judea. The disciples are not at all in favour of this and respond:
Jn 11:8 “But Rabbi, a short while ago the Jews tried to stone
you, and yet you are going back there?”
Jesus tells them, in a round about way, that Lazarus is dead, they don’t get it, so he tells them directly. They would have all known that Lazarus was one of Jesus’ closest friends, and it is Thomas who responds:
John 11:16. “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Now, as Catherine was saying last week, it's difficult to know what he really meant without the tone of the voice and the body language, but I can’t help but feel that this a rather downbeat response.
Despite that, it also shows that Thomas has a certain commitment to Jesus that perhaps the others didn’t at this point. Later, Peter will profess openly that he will follow Jesus and never leave him. Then at the last minute Peter, in fear for his life, fails to live up to his promise. Like, Peter and the other disciples, Thomas will also abandon Jesus. But for now, Thomas, perhaps grudgingly, or perhaps with a degree of resignation, will actually follow Him.
Knowingly following someone, however much you love and respect them, into a dangerous situation, shows a certain strength of character.
John 14
We next hear of Thomas in Chapter 14. Jesus is comforting His disciples, having just predicted Peter’s denial.
Jn 14:2 “In my
Father’s 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 to be with me that you also may 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?”
One thing I like about Thomas, is that he is not afraid to ask the obvious question. I’ll bet that all the other disciples were thinking the same thing. And they were all waiting for someone to ask the question. That someone was Thomas. We should all be very glad that he did, because Jesus’s response is one of the most well known of His sayings.
“I am the way and the
truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Without Thomas being willing to speak up, we would not have this quote, which means so much to so many.
John 20 + 21
Then comes our reading this morning, and shortly afterwards Thomas is mentioned at the start of chapter 21 where the disciples decide to go back to their fishing boats and resume their old careers.
Where was Thomas?
Our reading started with “Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.”
Which prompts two questions:
“Why not?” and “Where was he?”.
We cannot answer the latter question, but we can speculate a little about why. The disciples have watched as the man they thought was their Messiah, who would save them and restore Israel, was arrested, given a very unfair trial and put to death.
They were in fear for their lives, believing the authorities would come after them too, and they would suffer the same fate. They have been in hiding and being very careful. They think it is all over, and in a few verses time we will read that they are going back to their old jobs.
It’s entirely reasonable to believe that Thomas was hit harder by these events than the other disciples, and had excluded himself from their company for large amounts of time. He maybe contemplating leaving the group.
We have seen the Lord + response
So when he meets up with them again, and they tell him “We have seen the Lord”, he begins to think that they are either delusional, or suffering for a severe case of wishful thinking.
His answer “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.” is just a very long handed way of saying “I want proof”. Which sounds entirely reasonable to me. Dead men don’t walk and talk.
Jesus appears
So, a week later when Jesus appears while they are in a locked room, Thomas is given his chance. Jesus says “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
It sounds to me a little harsh – is Thomas really supposed to believe the others, while they are deep in their grief, after all the mind plays strange tricks on people in those situations. I can remember a few instances of thinking I’d seen dad, in the weeks immediately after he died. I even started to get frustrated that so many people apparently looked like him!
Lazarus
But it is different for Thomas, however down he was feeling. Firstly, he has had years of teaching about how Jesus’s life was to end – had he heard nothing? Did none of it go in?
Secondly, he had been there, as we have already seen, when Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb.
There is enough teaching and enough evidence for Thomas not to be doubting what the others are telling him.
Belief in the Resurrection
Just a short aside for a minute. Belief in the resurrection is critical if we are to be called Christians. A few weeks ago, when I was discussing the Trinity with you, I said that the Trinity was the distinctive belief for Christianity – and it is.
There are lots of mythological religions that include the belief that their god has been resurrected. One such god is mentioned in Ezekiel chapter 8, where Ezekiel is shown the detestable things that the Israelites are up to. Women are mourning for the god Tammuz. The exact beliefs about Tammuz vary with time and place, by now it appears that he spent half his time in our world (the summer) and half his time in the netherworld (winter). So he was mourned each year and resurrected 6 months later.
So far as I can find, no-one ever believed that Tammuz was a real man. While resurrection is not a distinctive idea, having a real man resurrected seems to be.
It is God’s proof that Jesus didn’t die a failure, without it, as St Paul says, we are still in our sins.
There is plenty of evidence in the gospels, and some in Paul’s letters. All the arguments for how a mistake might have occurred are covered. The best evidence today, though, is the very obvious change in the disciples once they truly believed that Jesus had risen.
Thomas
So, getting back on topic, it is critical to the mission that Jesus has given His disciples that they are clear that the resurrection is real.
So Thomas is given the chance. Jesus effectively says “Go on, examine the evidence, everything you need to believe is here”
Faith – from the presence
But evidence is not what Thomas needs, he clearly already has enough of that in the teaching he has received, in the things he has already seen and in the trust he has in the other disciples.
What Thomas needs is to SEE Jesus. We have a phrase “seeing is believing”, maybe it comes from this passage, but if it doesn’t it so easily could. Now he has seen the risen Lord, there is only one response possible, “My Lord and my God”. Thomas’s doubting is over. He is restored and ready for his mission, just as Peter was.
Grand Masters
There are a lot of art works of this scene, it fascinated the grand masters. Most of them, using their artistic licence I suppose, got it wrong. The recognition is instant, Thomas makes no attempt to examine Jesus’s wounds.
Important quote
It is Thomas’s interaction with Jesus that again give us an important quote: “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”.
Is this perhaps a prophecy for Thomas’s ministry, for all the people in India who would become convinced of the truth that Jesus died for our sins and rose again.
It applies as much to us as is does to them, of course.
Evidence?
How many of you, I wonder, looked at the evidence for the resurrection when you were considering the Christian faith. I know I did.
We have seen, though, that evidence alone is not what it takes to make people believe. Just think of the vaccination debate, the evidence for the use of vaccines is strong, and the risks are low, but people often make up their minds based on the opinions of their friends (qualified or not).
I wonder how many of you were swayed by the evidence alone, and gave your life to Christ solely on that basis. I’m sure there are a few in the world, but I expect there are many more who watch the example of their already Christian friends, and try to see Jesus in them. I know I did. And those friends, like Thomas, were keen to tell me about Jesus, the basis of their faith and their life.
As Romans 10:14 says, “14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”
That’s a sermon for another day, but a lifetime for Thomas, once he had put his doubts behind him.
Amen.
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/HN5vyz9Vg5A
