Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”— John 20.27
My heart goes out to Thomas, really it does. Excepting Judas Iscariot, who was the cause of his own problems, no disciple among the original twelve has more often been censured than he. All because he hesitated to believe the other disciples’ story of Jesus’ resurrection.
John the evangelist says that Thomas told the other disciples, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” (Jn. 20.25 NLT) A week later, Jesus showed up in bodily form to Thomas and let him do exactly what he’d asked for. Thomas then believed: “My Lord and my God!”
It should be noted that Jesus made a point to caution Thomas about making a virtue of his skepticism. Those who believed without seeing were blessed as well, Jesus said. Still, one ought to notice that Jesus does not criticize Thomas (as we often do) for demanding empirical evidence. Indeed, he honors it. Thomas’s humble, skeptical mind is not grounds for dismissal from the club of disciples.
As I said, my heart goes out to Thomas. It’s not easy to have a brain that is so demanding of proof and more proof for what seems such an easy thing to believe by others. We have usually chalked up Thomas’ doubts to a lack of faith and too much trust in his own intellect. But Jesus’ response to him implies we ought not to be so quick to judge. His brain was wired differently than the others and Jesus graciously and patiently accommodated him.
I’d also like to think that Thomas’s reluctance to believe the story of the resurrection was as much the reaction of a broken heart as anything else. Here was a man who had fallen in love with Jesus, who had left behind his occupation and who had given himself to the discipleship of one he considered the Savior of the world. Then he saw his master cruelly and unjustly killed. Just like that, his hopes were gone. He saw the cross and he witnessed Jesus die. For a man who demands sensible proof to believe anything, he had it in spades. His ears and eyes told him more than he wanted to know: Jesus was gone. And his brain told him it was time to move on.
So when the other disciples came with their crazy, fantastical story of Jesus alive again, Thomas wanted nothing to do with it. “Don’t get my hopes up again,” he could easily have said. “My heart can only take so much disappointment. Forget you ever knew me. I’m going back to my old life. It wasn’t as exciting as the last three years have been, but it didn’t hurt as much, either.”
But Jesus didn’t forget Thomas. He sought him out and told him to take his time examining the evidence. And when he did, Thomas found his faith and his love again. It wasn’t just Jesus who came back from the dead. Thomas did, too.
— KDS
Thoughts Along the Way 