Honesty is an attractive “thing.”
I think it has always been attractive…
Especially today, when honesty “seems like it is more fleeting than ever…”
Why is it that most of those incarcerated say, “They are “not guilty?”
Individuals whom are caught red-handed, claim to be not guilty. DNA evidence clearly convicts and yet, people say they are not guilty.
“I am innocent,” they protest and cry!
Everybody seems to plead they are “not guilty”…these days…
Where is there “truth?”
I tell you, honesty is “attractive.” And Thomas was an honest-kind-of-guy!
Thomas did not believe, just to believe.
Belief was important to him. It was sacred business. You don’t mess around with it. It is holy stuff.
Thomas wasn’t the kind of person who blindly accepted things without thinking them through and questioning… Questioning “things” was important…
Questioning brought clarification…questioning elucidates…expressing “reservation” and “inquiring” and stepping back for a moment – is a sign of a “thinking personality.”
After all, there is nothing wrong with questioning…or inquiring further…
Thomas liked to ponder, too!
He liked to “think” for himself.
Questioning was just a part of – “who he was!”
He didn’t want to be “told” what to believe. Thomas thought for himself…he had a challenging and inquisitive mind…
Wouldn’t we say, that was a “good thing?”
So, Thomas was this really honest guy, who prized honesty, he expected honesty in return and he sought out honesty…
Thomas did not vote with the rest”…he didn’t run with the crowd…he didn’t believe the majority rules…he was not at all…into “snowballing effects,” he disapproved vehemently of those who jump on the “proverbial bandwagon…”You don’t jump, just to jump…
That’s why Thomas has always been appreciated…He goes, where some of us, would never go…He goes against the grain…
He swims in the opposite direction and dances to his own music…
Thomas does not hide his misgivings…
He doesn’t care or mind if he is outspoken, “he is who he is,” and that was probably what Jesus loved about him.
Thomas, was, well, Thomas!
Thomas was his own man. You just have to appreciate that! It is almost refreshing…
It was “then,” and it still is “now!”
And one way or another, Thomas was going to “sort things out – for himself!”
So, it all started out with the disciples being in total “lockdown-mode.” They met in a house. They “locked the doors,” “bolted the windows” and “feared even lighting a light.” It was dark, dank and smelly.
It was probably “a good move” on their parts, who knows what would have happened if the religious authorities found them.
Surprisingly Jesus came and stood in their midst. He showed the wounds on his hands and in his side, he sent them out and breathed on them, in that closely quartered room. Thomas was absent.
Thomas missed out. Thomas wasn’t buying any of it. He needed/wanted proof of life. He demanded it.
A week later they were all together, sequestered still and Thomas was present. What could possibly happen? Oh yeah!
Again, all the doors are locked, windows bolted, but again, Jesus comes, of course and ends up – somehow in the midst of them!
Thomas, the symbol of “skepticism and doubt”…the twin hallmarks of this our twenty-first century mindset…
Jesus “calls him out” to “reach out and to touch,” to” quit doubting and to start believing…” And he does so immediately, without any hesitation whatsoever…
Thomas’ confession actually serves as the climax of John’s Gospel…it is also an example of “a climax in faith, in trust and in belief…” From doubter and skeptic, Thomas goes to whole-hearted-believer quicker than you can “bat an eye…”
Now what about you? Where do you stand?