The Gospel for Doubters, Good News Through the Eyes of ThomasSample

Those hurting and doubting need our presence more than they need our propositions. And Thomas’s road back to faith began with a simple nudge from his close friends. "We love you. We care about you. Let us show you something."

We don’t know what was said in those times, but we do know at the end of this week they were together again, in that same upper room. You have to imagine that they gathered in this space on purpose. Buildings don’t hold any spiritual value, but places can be sacred. They can at times remind and draw us to certain spiritual moments of significance. Perhaps they thought that if they came back here, Jesus would appear, and Thomas would see Him. It’s interesting that yet again they locked the doors. Though they believed, they still had some doubts and fears, as all of us do, even if we’ve been with Jesus for a while.

And as they gathered there, Jesus once again appeared; again the locked doors were not a barrier for the Son of God. Jesus,, reading Thomas’ doubts, showed him His scars. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus said (John 20:27 NIV). Jesus wants Thomas to know that he’s reached the end of his quest. The answer to our doubts is not a set of principles, but the sight of a Person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Like a good shepherd, He meets His struggling disciple where he is, carefully tending to his soul. Thomas, who had said he’d only believe if he could touch Jesus’ physical body and see the evidence for the resurrection, saw the doors of his heart opened, and he fell in worship. This was the Good Shepherd bringing home a lost sheep.

Thomas’s words became a powerful declaration of faith: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). This Jesus was no failed prophet or disillusioned revolutionary. To Thomas, it is clear that Jesus is both Lord of creation and God of the universe. But more importantly, Thomas is not content with mere knowledge and belief. Jesus, he declares, is his Lord and his God. This is the truth Thomas would be willing to go “die with him” for.

This confession is the only legitimate response to an encounter with Jesus. If it is true that Jesus rose from the dead, that the scars He bore on Calvary are still the scars He bears today, then we have no other option than to look at Jesus as “our Lord and our God.” Thomas’s story shows us the paradox of Christianity: it is both faith and facts, believing and seeing. Our faith is grounded in a mountain of historical facts that Luke describes in Acts as “many convincing proofs” (Acts 1:3), some of which another former skeptic, the Apostle Paul, lays out in 1 Corinthians 15. Scholars through the ages have come away unable to explain away, without intellectual dishonesty, Jesus and the movement He created. 

Discussion question: Why do you think Thomas needed to see Jesus’ scars and His physical resurrection?