Meeting Jesus - Week One: John 20:19-31 Embracing Doubt
At St John’s in our weekly worship, we are exploring a series called “Meeting Jesus.” The idea is that for the season of Easter, when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, we take time to look closely at who Jesus is and how we might meet Jesus afresh in Scripture and at work in our lives.
So, over the next six weeks, we are going to explore six different stories about Jesus together.
Painting by Caravaggio - “The Incredulity of St Thomas” painted in the early 17th century.
It has become one of the most famous paintings of the story of Thomas meeting the risen Jesus.
Link to image here - https://www.caravaggio.org/the-incredulity-of-saint-thomas.jsp
Let’s dive into the story and explore it some more. We are in John chapter 20, beginning at verse 24.
Here we meet Thomas.
(v24-25) Thomas and his doubt
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
This story is part of a series of stories of people encountering the risen Jesus. After his resurrection Jesus appears to a number of witnesses. These appearances are an important part of the gospel stories as together with the empty tomb they verify the historical reality of Jesus’ resurrection. Note that Jesus’ bears his wounds – and this is significant. It tells the story of both his crucifixion and resurrection. The resurrection didn’t ‘undo’ the crucifixion, rather the resurrected Jesus bears his wounds as marks of his love, as evidence of the price he paid to redeem and restore his broken creation.[1]
John recalls how Mary and the disciples had met Jesus after his resurrection. But Thomas wasn’t with them.
The disciples tell Thomas about Jesus and what has happened. But he isn’t so sure.
Thomas says: Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Thomas wants to see! And he wants to touch Jesus.
And to be fair to Thomas here, he isn’t asking to receive any more than what the other disciples did when Jesus appeared to them and showed them his resurrected body.
Thomas has been singled out as the “doubter” even coining a saying after his name. We might describe an incredulous and habitually doubtful person as a “doubting Thomas.” But Thomas was not alone in his doubt.
In the Gospel of Luke’s account of the resurrection we hear that after the women find an empty tomb and angelic messengers which proclaim that Jesus has risen – we read this:
8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened. (Luke 24:8-12)
The other disciples like Peter, wanted to see just as much as Thomas. They thought the story that he had risen was simply an idle tale.
In Caravaggio’s painting I think this element is captured well. We see the other disciple’s leaning in, straining their heads forward to see Jesus’ wounds. It’s not at all as if they are disinterested.
So, the story unfolds. In verse 26, just over a week later, again the disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them.
(v26) – The setting.
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
Jesus comes again and greets his disciples.[2]
This time, Thomas is present.
Jesus then, offers Thomas what he has requested. Jesus initiates the examination.
(v27) Jesus’ invitation
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
Notice the language of invitation “put your finger here” “put out your hand” “place it on my side”
The initiative of Jesus is captured wonderfully in Caravaggio’s painting. Notice Jesus pulls back his clothing to reveal the wound on his side.
Notice too the hand of Jesus grabbing a hold of Thomas’ hand to guide him.
Jesus is not holding back from Thomas with an attitude of “how dare he question me” but rather invites him in to see. In fact, this posture of Jesus casts my mind back to the opening chapters of John’s Gospel when Jesus first meets two of his disciples and he invites them to stay with him, saying “come and see.” Here once again Jesus invites his disciples to “come and see.”
Jesus welcomes Thomas to examine him.
This is such an important point that I want to make. And really it is the central point I want to highlight for us today.
That is – the invitation Jesus extends for us to come to him and see who He is and what He has done.
Within the church those who express doubt have often been given a hard time or told just to accept things simply or try and have more faith or something along these lines.
Some people just have a deep sense of faith from being young and they may never experience deep or nagging doubts, but there are others who have had nagging doubts for years. God can deal with both. Doubters are welcome to be disciples.
Doubt, in fact, can be a catalyst for faith.
Let me explain this a little more.
This week I called up my good friend the Rev. Spanky Moore because I know that he loves talking about this topic of doubt and he has lots of experience of working with people who are wrestling with doubt. Until recently Spanky worked as the Chaplain at University of Canterbury and in that capacity had many conversations with people exploring the Christian faith, and people deconstructing their faith or seeking to figure it out.
Spanky actually has as large print of Caravaggio’s painting of Thomas in his study.
And so, I called him up and asked him from his experience, what has he encountered about doubt.
Spanky was quick to point out to me that in his view there is such a thing as “good doubt” and “bad doubt.”
To describe the difference Spanky had a great metaphor for bad doubt which I particularly enjoyed. I’ll quote him: “Bad doubt is like a kea on a mountain pulling a car apart. It tears down but doesn’t rebuild. Dishonest doubt or bad doubt isn’t seeking truth had has no desire or intention to rebuild anything.”
On the other hand, good doubt, has a role to play in the search for truth.
Bad doubt is nihilistic in the sense that it simply operating by a logic of complete cynicism and deconstruction. We might also call this kind of doubt despair.
Good doubt compels us to ask questions and to seek answers in order that we might arrive at the truth of things. It takes us on a journey as pilgrims and seekers.
Notice Caravaggio’s painting, the furrowed brows of all of the disciples as they stare intently at the wounds of Jesus. Thomas isn’t throwing out casual and dismissive doubts, rather his doubt takes him in a journey to dig deeper and find out more. Thomas’ doubt was constructive toward actually understanding who Jesus is.
To embrace good doubt isn’t to say that all our doubts will be answered.
In fact, to accept doubt has part of our faith helps us learn that Christianity is a life, it isn’t just a set of beliefs.
The novel “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson tells the story of the Rev. John Ames, an elderly pastor from a small town. He is dying and is writing a memoir for his seven year old son so he might have memories of him.
Writing to his son about the faith he says this:
“So my advice is this - don’t look for proofs. Don’t bother with them at all. They are never sufficient to the question, and they’re always a little impertinent, I think, because they claim for God a place within our conceptual grasp. And they will likely sound wrong to you even if you convince someone else with them. That is very unsettling over the long term. “Let your works so shine before men,” etc. It was Coleridge who said Christianity is a life, not a doctrine, words to that effect. I’m not saying never doubt or question. The Lord gave you a mind so that you would make honest use of it. I’m saying you must be sure that the doubts and questions are your own, not, so to speak, the mustache and walking stick that happen to be the fashion at any particular moment.”[3]
I really like the point made by this fictional pastor.
He makes the point that Christianity isn’t about abstract beliefs, but rather our life with Jesus. It isn’t about other people’s questions and doubts, but our own.
Each of us, like Thomas is invited to meet Jesus honestly and openly and with our own questions.
Thomas isn’t shunned by Jesus when he does, but rather in his search for the truth, he is invited to lean in.
And it’s amazing what happens next as Thomas inspects Jesus’ wounds.
His response is incredible!
(v28) Thomas’ exclamation!
When Jesus invites Thomas to see his wounds, Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
This is perhaps the most explicit and clear pronouncement of who Jesus is in John’s Gospel.
It takes us right back to the beginning of the Gospel, to John chapter 1 when we hear that Jesus “the Word was God.”
Here we see Jesus is proclaimed unequivocally as God by Thomas.
Jesus is presented by John as human and divine. Pronounced here as God and at the same time human. One of the big wrestles of the early church was to figure out what was going on here. Not an easy won truth but rather one that is both open to examination and deeply important. (lot’s more could be said about this)
(v29) Jesus’ reply
Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Jesus replies to Thomas in what has sometimes been too simply viewed as a straightforward rebuke. However, it could be applied to all those who had seen the resurrected Jesus.
Rather the focus here is the invitation to all future hearers of the gospel to believe the testimony about his resurrection. The resurrection appearances happen and then the gospel will go out by the word of the first witnesses. What a blessing it is to hear this and believe.
In fact, this is the invitation of the entire book of John – to “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Like Thomas, we will have our doubts, and that is ok.
Like Thomas, Jesus invite us to come close to Him, to meet Him and see what he has done.
[1] Hymn-writer Matthew Bridges in the hymn “Crown him with many Crowns” saw the love of Jesus displayed in his wounds:
Crown him the Lord of love!
Behold his hands and side —
Rich wounds, yet visible above,
In beauty glorified.
[2] I’ve preached in previous years on the significance of Jesus’ appearance and pronouncing peace to his worried and fearful disciples. You can read about this here: https://www.stjohnstimaru.org/sermons-1/2021/4/9/peace-be-with-you-john-2019-31
[3] Marilynne Robinson, Gilead.
This is perhaps the most explicit and clear pronouncement of who Jesus is in John’s Gospel.
It takes us right back to the beginning of the Gospel, to John chapter 1 when we hear that Jesus “the Word was God.”
Here we see Jesus is proclaimed unequivocally as God by Thomas.
Jesus is presented by John as human and divine. Pronounced here as God and at the same time human. One of the big wrestles of the early church was to figure out what was going on here. Not an easy won truth but rather one that is both open to examination and deeply important. (lot’s more could be said about this)