I doubt it

 

John 20:19-31

 Thomas gets a bad rap.  He is usually considered a lesser know disciple and apostle. 

 Thomas for all time has been labelled “doubter,” but the other disciples SAW Jesus.  Theirs was not faith, but sight.

 Thomas did not doubt Jesus.  Thomas doubted the witness of the disciples that they saw Jesus.

 When Thomas saw Jesus, he too reacted with awe and submission, proclaiming his faith boldly and powerfully.

 Doubt is an interesting thing.  We can doubt the veracity of a statement made by someone else, doubt the intentions of others, doubt ourselves, doubt God’s activity in the world and doubt anything that goes against the natural order, our own abilities or even the truth.

 What do you doubt?

 Thomas seems to have been the scientist in the group.  The others had seen Jesus’ hands and side.  He claimed he would only believe if he could touch Jesus’ hands and side.  He may have been a man before his time.  In that time and place, people did not believe in a “natural order.”  Everything was done by God.  If the sun rose, it was because of God.  If it rained, it was God’s will.  If something bad happened, God was punishing.  If something great happened, God was rewarding.  Thomas knew his own grief at the death of Jesus.  He knew that people did not just normally get raised from the dead, except Lazarus, of course.  But Jesus, the raiser, was dead.  Thomas knew that the other disciples were grieving, maybe in denial, maybe bargaining so much that they believed that they saw Jesus.  But they did not witness to having TOUCHED Jesus.  It could have been a mirage, a grief induced group hysteria of wishful thinking.  Thomas wanted to KNOW that it was Jesus and that Jesus was truly alive.  Anyone else feel like that sometimes?

 I have doubted my own perceptions at times.  Sometimes it has been warranted.  I have doubted my own abilities at times, my own sanity, my own agency and my own motives.  I have doubted myself.

 I have doubted others.  I have doubted their integrity, their honor, their truthfulness, their motives and intentions and their value to me.  I have doubted others’ ability to love me – to really love me.  Perhaps it was really my ability to be loved that I doubted.  I have doubted others.   

 I have doubted God, and God’s activity in the world or in my life.  I have doubted that God really does anything anymore.  I have NEVER doubted God’s Love and God’s Grace.  I have NEVER doubted the value of God’s Word in my life.  I have doubted that beyond giving the Word and Grace, and that the love of God permeates my being, God doing anything actively in my life.  I have doubted God.

 I can be proven wrong or right.

Others can be proven wrong or right.

With God, we have to take it on FAITH and not Proof.

   God’s Love and Grace, God’s Will and Activity and God’s Presence and Power can be doubted easily.

   We will either take them on Faith or we will doubt God in them.

 Jesus’ other disciples were not tested like Thomas was tested.  They saw Jesus and believed – it was PROOF.

Thomas was tested and doubted their testimony, and perhaps Jesus’ resurrection.

In the end, he believed when he saw, also.

In the end, he was faithful.

In the end, he gave his life for his faith.

 In what or in whom do you believe without any doubt?

In what ways do you claim faith, but seek proof?

If we are people of faith, we will sometimes doubt and fail, fall and sin.

Do you believe in God’s Grace and Love, that they are stronger than your doubt, failures or sin?

 Thomas got a bad rap.  Yes, he refused to believe the Disciples who had seen the Lord alive.

   But in the end, he was faithful to giving his own life in faith.

 In John’s Gospel, Thomas was the one who proclaimed that Jesus would go to Bethany at His own peril, but then beckoned the other disciples to go with him in following Jesus there to die with him.

Thomas was brave and humble enough to ask Jesus, The Way, what was the way to eternal life.

Thomas saw the Lord and utter a simple and profound statement of faith, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas served the faith and was martyred in India, having had his body carried then to Mesopotamia. 

 All that ain’t so bad for an obscure twin, who gets a bad rap for being a mediocre Apostle and one called “the doubter.”