A Defense of Doubting Thomas

Scripture

John 20:24 – 31

Acts 17:10 – 15

James 1:1 – 5

Right off the bat, I must deal with Thomas. I’m not sure we got it right in labeling him“Doubting Thomas.” Yes, I know, I am calling this devotional the “St. Thomas Project: Devotions for the Doubter,” but I’m not convinced that his doubts were wrong. He has gone down in history as the ultimate doubter, and rarely, if ever, are his doubts considered a good thing. I want to suggest a positive side to “Doubting Thomas.”

There are a couple of things to consider. First, Thomas was not with the other disciples when they saw the risen Jesus. You could suggest that, based on all the Old Testament prophesies, he should have immediately believed that Jesus was raised from the dead, but that would be holding him to a much higher standard than all of the other disciples. He was simply asking questions. Second, if Jesus wanted to hold Thomas to the standard of believing in Him without any proof, then why did He bother to reveal His wounds to him? Thomas asked for evidence and Jesus gave it to him. If Jesus considered Thomas’s unbelief sinful, it seems like He would have concealed the proof and forced Thomas to make a choice. Instead, He invited Thomas to touch Him and to observe His pierced hands. So, what about the apparent rebuke of Jesus – “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (v. 29). Even if this is a rebuke, it does not appear to be a harsh one. Thomas was merely asking to have the same benefit the other disciples had, namely, seeing the resurrected Jesus. Jesus’s words could refer to a couple of things. First, John says he is writing his gospel so that his audience “may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31). John may be including these words of Jesus in an effort to encourage belief among those to whom he is writing, those who did not have the benefit of seeing the risen Jesus.

Second, one interpretation of these words goes something like this, “Blessed are you, Thomas, for having the benefit of seeing the proof and believing in me; blessed are those to whom you will be ministering in far off lands who will never have such a benefit.” Thomas eventually took his experience of the living Jesus to far off lands, indeed. To this day, Indian Christians claim to trace the existence of their church all the way back to the first century when Thomas settled in Kerala and established a church there.

The point is that doubts about the faith are not necessarily wrong or sinful; perhaps they can be, but they aren’t always. Check out the other reading for this meditation, Acts 17:10 – 15. The Bereans “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (v. 11). They did not believe until they took time to investigate the claims that were being made. They exhibited a healthy skepticism and then believed after gathering the facts.

Take aways: A certain kind of unbelief is condemned in Scripture (I’ll do a later meditation on Hebrews 4). It is good to ask valid questions to better know the truth. Jesus loved Thomas in his questioning and guided him to the truth. Don’t beat yourself up because you wrestle with these doubts. Rather, keep on brawling and keep asking for true faith (James 1:5).