shamed: a Doubting Thomas
‘For here is the way God so loved the world—He gave His only unique Son as a gift.’ (John 3:16a, TPT)
April 22nd, 2022
FOOL-ish, i.e. lacking judgement or sense; ill-considered; unwise; preposterous; thoughtless; reckless; absurd; idiotic.
1 Corinthians 1:18: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.’ (NKJV)
Do you know the definition of ‘doubting Thomas’ actually exists in the Dictionary? It is a noun and says, ‘a doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without a direct personal experience’ or ‘the description of someone as a doubting Thomas means a person who refuses to believe something until they see definite proof or evidence of it’. We giggle about this idiom, and crassly refer to someone as such, and chortle a person for being so fool-ish to require proof, but how many times have we ourselves needed proof that what Jesus speaks is really true, is truly for real?
I am guilty of this myself, perhaps sometimes daily, to the point it hinders my faith in God, that He will do what He says He will do. My trust in Jesus and others often hangs in the balance and I am sure it affects many of my relationships. I am learning—I pray about it daily—that I would be teachable to learn trust and faith. Did God change His mind? Did I hear wrong? Did God make a mistake? Did I misunderstand? Those are thoughts that dance across my mind when I think something that I believed God spoke to me and it isn’t happening as quickly as I thought it would or in the manner I pre-destined God meant in my head. I am seeing His faithfulness, His trustworthiness, and I am trying to learn not to be a doubting Thomas, but I am not flawless yet, and it is an act I must consciously pray toward achieving long-lasting results.
I step back over two thousand years ago, and I find myself crouching in the corner of an upper room, one with a dirt floor where some men have reclined around one another, their voices hoarse whispers, clearly not wanting to be heard. Thomas, the disciple known as the Twin, is agitated, arguing with the others about what they have seen and know to be true. Again, he shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders. It can’t possibly be true, what his friends are saying. He knows that his Lord, Whom he believed to be the Messiah, is dead now. He can’t possibly have shown up here a week ago after He was crucified; his buddies here have gotten it all wrong. ‘Naw, I don’t believe you,’ he emphatically tells them. ‘Unless I see the nail holes in His hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in His side, I won’t believe it.’ (John 20:25)
Suddenly, there’s a noise, and Thomas glances over his shoulder. “Peace,” he hears. He gasps. He almost falls over! A man who looks identical to…to Jesus! has appeared out of thin air! It can’t be! His friends told him that Jesus had walked through the wall just a week before, but this is ludicrous. The man looks him right in the eye and says, “Take your finger and examine My hands. Take your hand and stick it in My side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.” A chill runs down Thomas’ spine as he exclaims, ‘My Master! My God!’ (Luke 20:27-28, MSG, paraphrase mine).
From my hiding place on the floor, I marvel at the patience of the Savior. He has just conquered death and the grave—been sold out and beaten, faced a criminal’s death when He’d done nothing wrong, had to stare at the back of His retreating Father as His Father turned away from Him while He bore our sin and shame, went down into Hades to stare down Satan and bring back the keys to Paradise so you and I can live there, assuredly and undoubtably forever. The love on His face for the doubting Thomas reminds me of the way He looks at me when I question His grace, doubt His love, hesitate on His promises, confuse His purpose. I trace my finger across His nail-scarred palm, and I am reminded of what He willingly did for me. How fool-ish for me to doubt what I can see, what I know! My tears fall on His pierced feet, and I dry them with my hair, an act I witnessed a woman named Mary perform that I thought was so poignant and beautiful and so…so redeeming. My hand touches His side, and although He grimaces, He smiles. “Go ahead,” He says, “Then, believe.”
Luke 20:29, ‘Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”’ (NKJV)
John 3:16b, ‘SOW NOW: whoever believes in Him will never perish, but experience everlasting life.’ (TPT)
