The Thomas story is a story all about “trust.”
It is about trusting the word of “someone else”…or “not” trusting it.
Thomas was not the kind of guy to swallow simply everything that is said.
If it doesn’t sound reasonable, if it doesn’t sound true, if it doesn’t sound reliable – how do you then, just accept whatever is being said?
If it doesn’t make sense…it doesn’t make sense!
You know, to begin with you – have to be confident in the word or the words – that a person is telling you. You have to trust them.
Are they being honest? Is there no hidden agenda? Is there credence to their word?
Imagination was not one of Thomas’ long-suits. He kind of called a spade a spade. He didn’t believe in fairy-tales or in ghost stories. If anything came up – that he didn’t believe in or couldn’t understand, his questions although thoughtful, could be pretty direct. Thomas did not mince words.
You have to understand, confusion was everywhere. The disciples were in hiding for fear of the Judean elites.
This was Easter Day! Some women, who had gone to the burial site – that very morning, came back with some pretty incredible words.
They said the tomb was empty. Jesus was not present in the tomb.
They had met some “messengers” who informed them, that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead. It was “incredible stuff.”
When they told the eleven disciples, it all seemed to be – too good to be true. It was like an idle tale. Everyone was skeptical, including Thomas. Basically, because the news came from the mouths of women and not men, their word was not believed.
So, what happened to Jesus? Where did he go? Who took him away? Was it grave-robbers? It was all just idle chatter and conjecture. No one knew for sure, just “what” was going on!
“Confusion and tension” were growing together simultaneously.
What the disciples knew for sure was that Jesus was dead…dead as a door-nail…dead as dead, can be. His lifeless, pierced, beaten crucified body was lying in a dank, dark, stuffy tomb.
Was! It was lying there? Now what?
It was like; all of a sudden you could not trust anyone’s word.
So, the Galilean disciples were behind locked doors in fear that the Judean authorities – might seek them out – next.
The authorities were trying to obliterate Jesus and his movement. The authorities would most certainly act and move – against this group, if they were to be found out.
These were scary times.
So, on the evening of that first day of the week, Thomas slips out.
We are not told why. Was it for supplies?
Was it to be a listening ear? Was it for information gathering purposes? We simply do not know why.
During his absence Jesus appears in the midst of these ten scared, frightened disciples hunkering down in a sweaty- sultry little “tight-knit quartered room” together.
Jesus is in the center of their sweaty mass, everyone is crowding in around him, jostling to see his hands and the gash in his side, that he is showing them. “Shalom,” he says, “As the father has sent me, so I send you.” And then, he is mysteriously gone.
Thomas would not accept their word – any more than he would accept the word of the women. Thomas was an equal opportunity skeptic!
Thomas simply missed out. Wrong place at the wrong time. His loss. He would not believe. He would not trust in their words.
A week later, they were still holed up in that same stinky little room…and one more time, Jesus appeared in their midst. This time, Thomas was present.
Again, Jesus says, “Shalom.” His disciples were to become people of “peace.”
Thomas unfortunately has become a symbol of skepticism and doubt, the twin hallmarks of the twentieth and twenty-first century minds. The Gospel of John is directly confronting skeptics of all generations and all centuries – and John is merely asking us to look at the evidence that he is presenting us in his gospel.
I know this, Thomas was never in danger, his faith was not revoked or nullified. He was not abandoned by God…and his name was never stricken from the Book of life. It is ok to doubt.