Many of us heard the story of Doubting Thomas this past Sunday at worship. Thomas, the doubter.
We all know this story, and we might have even been called a Doubting Thomas, coming from this story. Someone who will not believe it without seeing it. Wasn’t Thomas just being a realist?
I think, and the sermon I listened to this weekend said, Thomas got a bad rap. Look at the stories. In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb, and sees it empty and runs back to the disciples, they come running and go in and see the clothes but no Jesus, and go away. Then Mary who sticks around sees a man, who she assumes is the gardener. After saying her name, she knows him, her teacher, Jesus. She goes and talls the disciples, but they are slow to listen. This is the same in Luke. The disciples dismiss the appearance of Jesus to the women as an idle tale. They have not seen it, so they don’t believe it. Sound familiar? Thomas said, “unless I see the mark on his hand and place my finger in the hole, and place my hand in his side I will not believe it.” Unless I see it, I can not believe it. At least Thomas said it. The other disciples did not say it, but they displayed it. They showed by their actions that they did not believe it. They were locked in a room for fear of their life. Did they not remember what Jesus has said to them? He told them all quite plainly that he would be killed, and that he would rise again. Yet the women came to see them and told them that Jesus was alive, and they dismissed it as an idle tale. Does this show belief? All of the disciples doubted. This is seen in the end of Matthew’s Gospel also. Verse 28:17 says “When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.” Now Matthew’s rendition in this translation says that some of the disciples doubted Jesus was there, after all they had been through with him, and all he had told him. the doubted everything that had happened and that Jesus was resurrected. But all of that is fluff. The actual zinger to all of this is, the translation is a supposition. That is, the original Greek does not say “but some doubted.” The original Greek says “and seeing him, they worshipped, but they doubted.” There is no some. The some is supposed from other Greek grammer construction similar to this construction. Is the some suppose to help us? To feel like a few of the disciples had it together and was not questioning the last 3 years, and the miracle that stood before them? Or does it hinder us into thinking that we need to have it all together all the time, and not question our faith? Doubt is not the absence or opposite of faith, questioning and doubt are those things that fuel our drive to learn more and be in relationship with Jesus. We all will doubt something about our faith, if not already, sometime in the future. Do not think less of yourself in your questioning, if the ones picked by our Lord and Savior couldn’t get it together, why do we think we need to have it all together and not question or doubt. Thomas said it out load. He claimed it for what it was. Thomas is a model for us to see and use for our faith. Embrace the question, and the doubt, God is big enough to take it…
aSacredRebel 