Today is low Sunday in the church, or the lowest attended Sunday in worship…
Why? I heard an excellent message this morning in worship that touched on this. Pastor Amy Danchik this morning said people come to worship on Christmas and Easter because they know they are going to hear the good news of Jesus and how we all are accepted and we all can have grace, and we all can get mercy, and everything is wonderful because of Jesus. But then on this Sunday, the Sunday that somewhere along the way got named Doubting Thomas Sunday we will hear that we are not good enough and our sin is over whelming and we just aren’t good enough. She continued that none of us are ever good enough and if it was contingent on us having it all together before we came to church the building would be empty including the pulpit! It was a powerful message of the understanding of who we are and why Jesus came to earth. It was the “necessity of the incarnation” she said and told us that we all are loved by God just the way we are.
There were many things in Pastor Amy’s message that resonated with me. And she made me feel loved by God and acceptable to be used in mission with Him in the world.
You see today has been dubbed Doubting Thomas Sunday which is sad. First of all doubting does not appear in the original language of John 20:19-31. And this dubious name has setup doubting to be the opposite of faith and that is simply not true.
Plus a close look at the text shows us that Thomas asked for no more than the disciples themselves got. Jesus appeared to them in the locked room and said “Peace be with you” and what happened? The disciples looked at Him in awe and were dumb founded, or they gasped, or they looked on in unbelief, or what? Obviously Jesus knew something was up, because the next thing John writes is and He showed them His hands and His side, and then they rejoiced. The disciples didn’t believe it until they saw what Thomas asked to see! And we say that Thomas was doubting! The disciples saw Jesus standing among them in a room where the door was locked and they do not know who it is?
Plus there is the issue of the wording….
The NRSV has Jesus saying to Thomas ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Do not doubt but believe! This is not what the original Greek says. Now it is true that one could possibly rend this statement this way. I personally believe though that this causes undue stress on doubt and sets all of us up for making ourselves crazy over doubting too much. The actual sentence is καὶ μὴ γίνου ἄπιστος ἀλλὰ πιστός The word there that is translated doubt is apistos which is the opposite of pistos. The sentence in a strict translation is ‘and not become you unbelieving but believing’, or ‘and not become you unfaithful but faithful’, or ‘and not become you untrusting but trusting’. It is not doubt vs belief. Doubt is not the opposite of belief. Doubt in my mind makes my belief, my faith, my trust stronger. Doubt allows me to question and seek our answers to my faith issues, problems are solved by the doubt that arises, and I am drawn closer to God in my doubt.
Thomas asked for nothing more than the disciples got, and we all want, so who needs to be questioned, or called out. And notice, Jesus did not reprimand Thomas, He gave him what he sought. And told him to trust, have faith, and believe.
So don’t get caught up in your doubt. Have it push you closer to Jesus, and trust, have faith and believe!
aSacredRebel 