Dealing with Doubt
Series: A Journey with Jesus (through the Gospel of John)
Brad Bailey – May 8, 2011
Intro
Today we engage a topic that is rarely discussed… and in part because we feel it is dangerous… deeply dangerous. The topic is DOUBT. As we’ll see, doubt does not need to be the unspoken dark work that we often fear it is. As someone described…
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away."
(Philip K. Dick, science fiction author, writer of the summer blockbuster Minority Report)
As we continue in our series A Journey with Jesus through the Gospel of John, we have just engaged the first appearance of Jesus appearing to his disciples after his resurrection. They were together in a room in fear of what the religious leaders might do to them… and Jesus suddenly appears. But as we’ll see… one of those twelve disciples wasn’t there.
John 20:24-31
Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 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." 28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." 30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Ever not made it to a gathering or event… and realized you missed something extraordinary… or maybe arrived late and just missed something exceptional. We hear those dreaded words: “You REALLLLLLY missed it.”
As John writes in the first statement of our text…
“Now Thomas (called Didymus) one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.”
Thomas… one of the twelve…called Didymus which simply means ‘twin’ and if he was a literal twin we don’t know with who else… what we do know is that Thomas had reeeeeealy missed it. Stepped out at the wrong time.
The cost?
Well…because of his response to what they told him….he would become known across many cultures… as ‘doubting Thomas.’ His name is simply synonymous with doubt. All you have to do is pick up a Webster’s Dictionary and there it is. Actually, it is in two places: under “d” for doubt and under “t” for Thomas.
He is singled him out as having an inferior faith because he actually expressed his doubt in the resurrection. He made his reservations known out-loud. And because of that he has the dubious distinction of being the poster child for doubt…for skepticism. (Drawn & Adapted from William Nickles)
But if we stand back, I think we we’ll see that we make a mistake by singling out Thomas. He’s not so different from any of us.
Put yourself in Thomas’ shoes for a minute. The belief in some form of resurrection was always about some potential future period of time… no one considered Jesus rising now as a sign of what was already at hand.
He had watched at least part of how Jesus was killed in the most devastating and definitive manner… how he was buried. He was at the funeral… if one could call it that. It was more devastating than any funeral we could imagine… because every hope was buried with it. Three long years of being a 24/7 team to change the world were now left with something that seemed far worse than if they never had happened. All they were proud of… now looks like it had been in vain… the team that was sure to win… had just lost.
So when he shows up and his friends say they had seen Jesus… it’s a hope that he’s not going to accept. He would have to have something more personal before he can put his trust into such a reality.
Yes… he is doubting. But let’s be clear about the nature of such doubt.
He is not doubting Jesus at this point…but rather he simply doubts what his friends have told him.
And he isn’t really different than any of them is he. Before Jesus appeared to the other disciples… they had been hiding in fear. Thomas wasn’t really any different than them… and may not be any different than us. He doesn’t see the dots connecting and he is being honest about it.
The first thing we need to grasp about doubt in general is that…
1. Doubt is a NATURAL part of our finite nature.
As we’ll see… how we deal with doubt can reflect a big difference in terms of what it reflects in our hearts… but there is a basic level of doubt that is natural… that simply reflects the limitations we have in terms of knowledge. As today’s postmodern voices remind us, it is impossible, when dealing with all of reality, to hold certainty about all truth.
It would be better to describe our pursuit as that which seeks a high degree of certainty or meaningful certainty.
As such, Alister McGrath rightly suggests that doubt is not something that we can simply ascribe to determined skepticism or unbelief, but rather in part to our frailty as finite human beings. We are limited creatures… limited by power, knowledge and perspective. We do not see as we ought, and what we do see we often doubt. As the Scriptures attested, “We see through a glass dimly.”
The Scriptures seem to recognize a difference between doubt and unbelief.
Doubt is not the opposite of faith. The opposite of faith is unbelief.
And doubt is not the same as unbelief.
The root of the word for doubt is ‘two’ ….
Doubt refers to finding our mind divided.
Why can we find ourselves in two minds… a part of ourselves feeling God is as real as anything we know… and another part daring to wonder if anything we believe is really true? Doubt can arise when what we experience doesn’t seem to fit what we have believed. When someone we have loved and prayed for dies? When the relationship we thought God had guided us into has become destructive. When God doesn’t seem to act in the ways we would assume He should.
Here is an important truth about the nature of doubt: doubt can flow from several different sources. Doubt is affected by several different dynamics. There are different forms of doubt.
Os Guinness notes a few [2]
Different forms of doubt
Doubt from ingratitude (forgetting to remember what God has done)
The very first seed that was sown to separate us from God… is described as that of the serpent in the Garden of Eden… suggesting to Eve that she could not really trust God. It came with the suggestion that instead of appreciating all the provision surrounding her…. They could find more in their own autonomy.
The apostle Paul would later describe our vulnerability this way…
Romans 1:21 (NIV)
“…although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Doubt from a faulty view of God
Imagine someone coming to pick you up at an airport that has never met you. If their preconceptions are too misguided… they may conclude that you never arrived. The same can happen when what we presume about God is misguided.
Doubt from weak Foundations
Sometimes we think our initial encounter is suffice as a foundation… we dismiss that there are reasons to believe…. And then face challenges that confuse us. Some dismiss or even discourage rationality of faith… but Scriptures affirm that belief is in response to what actually happens.
John 4:53 (NIV) -
Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and all his household believed.
Acts 17:11-12 (NIV)-
“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.”
• If we don’t pursue truth well… we will be easily challenged when we face hard questions we can’t answer.
“Genuine understanding generates genuine faith, and genuine faith in turn generate genuine experience.” (Ortberg, p.87)
Doubt from a lack of real commitment
o We cannot experience any depth of relationship if we really haven’t stepped into it. We might being to wonder why we aren’t experiencing what relationship with God can bear in us… when in fact we haven’t really said we want it. It’s like an unsigned contract. If we don’t see signs of God’s work in our life… it may be because we never really give our lives to Him. Fear of commitment can keep us outside of experiencing real relationship…. because the real issue is trust.
Doubt from emotional fear and anxiety
o You could give me a course in the repelling down a cliff that provides solid information about how safe the equipment is… or how the guardrails at the top of a high ledge of a building make falling virtually impossible. I could believe in the facts… and yet if I stand at the edge of the cliff… or ledge of the building…a strange thing happens… my body doesn’t seem to believe. As Os Guinness says, … “the problem is not that reason attacks faith but that the emotions overwhelm reason as well as faith, and it is impossible to dissuade them.” (p. 125) [3]
This is one of the MOST IMPORTANT FACTS TO GRASP ABOUT THE DYNAMICS OF DOUBT. Doubt is not simply a rational problem… it’s often not related to some new information… but rather something inside us that effects our willingness to trust.
Thomas wasn’t just dealing with facts… but with feelings… feelings of disappointment… fears of trusting.
This leads to the next point regarding dealing with doubt…
2. Doubt can be a destructive posture but a healthy PROCESS.
We live in a time in which the way we deal with doubt can be caught between two strong forces: parts of religious culture that are simply afraid of doubt and denounce all doubts as sin… and a broader culture that glorifies doubt as some sort of higher more honorable place to arrive. I want to suggest that both are rooted in fear. One fears losing God… one fears facing God.
The good news is that God works much more dynamically with our human finiteness.
Consider the contentions of Job… the complaints and questions of the Psalmist… and even the cry of Jesus from the cross…in the limitations of the humanity he was bearing he cries out, “Father why have you forsaken me?’ None seem to prove fatal to the power of faith.
But doubt can also become a way of holding God for ransom. Our lives can degenerate into a fruitless and futile round of "Unless I see, unless I touch, unless I have the experience, I will not believe." Indulged too long, doubt becomes just a parlor game. [4]
What seems to become clear is that…
The nature of doubt is defined by whether we are embracing it as a posture or a process… a refusal to relate to God or a part of relating.
• Job threw his questions at God… but he ultimately stayed in the conversation.
• The Psalms are filled with cries for God to answer why things are hard… but they ultimately grasp the humility to know that much lies beyond their understanding … and they do something we all must do: they trust God with what they do not understand by what they do understand.
• Jesus cried out: ‘Father why have you forsaken me?’… but then in trust committed his spirit.
• Thomas did NOT say he WOULD not believe… he simply stated he needed more.
Doubt can reflect limited perspective… and still embrace trust. It can be a part of the process of our faith. We find another good example in John the Baptist. You may recall that John the Baptist enters the scene before Jesus… and begins to call the people to get ready for God to come in a new way… and then recognizes that Jesus is that coming. He declares to all that Jesus is the Messiah who has come to take away the sins of the world.
But then he is imprisoned. He began to wonder if he had been wrong.. because if so…. He knew that he should be looking for another. So he sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask Him if He was the one to come or should he look for another. When John inquired of whether Jesus was the messiah or not, Jesus did not scold Him. He sent assurance of the fact that He was the messiah.
Matthew 11:4-5 (NLT)
Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.
John had found himself with doubts… in two minds… but John didn’t just park his life there… he pursued finding out what would help him become more clear.
And this leads to something else God shows us about dealing with doubts.
3. Doubt is best processed in COMMUNITY.
John the Baptist sought out others who could offer more perspective than he had.
Thomas appears to have found that his own confusion was potentially driving him away from others. When all the others were gathered together he wasn’t there. It my have just been for some practical reason…but may also have been that he had withdrawn. Disappointment will do that.
When he does come back he feels even more separate… because everyone else has had an experience that he missed. You can imagine how resentment may temp him to withdraw further. But he did something that we can all learn from… he shared his doubt openly.
You can almost feel how uncomfortable the room must have felt. There is some hurt in his words… some hard emotions. And whether he wanted to or not he was implying that they were WRONG.
But notice that no one is noted to have dismissed him or attacked him.
When he first was not with them for whatever reason…they could have just enjoyed the wonderful blessing that they had received…and forgotten all about Thomas.
But that’s not what happened. It appears that they sought him out.
Sometimes we have people that have been with us for months or even years…but they have been missing…maybe they have been hurting… and we can reach into their hurt and share some encouragement even if they are not quick to receive it.
They told him, “we have seen the Lord!” And even if someone is not very outwardly open… it can be a source of hope in the midst of darkness.
There are many ways that we may see and sense God… in creation… in experiences… and we can offer each other windows of faith.
But don’t be surprised if their pain is so great that they just feel that they have to experience it for themselves…
What is notable is that Thomas’ strong response didn’t break relationship.
Where is Thomas a week later? WITH this group of friends.
Those disciples didn’t let Thomas’ doubts interfere in their relationship with Him.
It would have been so easy for them to say… “Fine Thomas…if you want to be that way…we don’t need that kind of negative attitude… we’ll go spend my time and efforts on people who are more responsive.”
But that isn’t what happened…John says “a week later, his disciples were in the house again…AND THOMAS WAS WITH THEM”
The disciples didn’t cut ties…they didn’t shun him…he was welcomed and wanted with doubts.
The truth is that not everyone who is here this morning has the same experiences or developed the same understanding. Some have more effected by hurt and confusion.
I’m glad you are here…What better place for hurting. (Drawn and adapted thoughts from Larry Brincefield)
And how does Thomas ultimately develop a greater faith?
It is important to recognize that the community provides a context … but cannot be the sole source of faith itself. It’s the presence of Jesus that ultimately breaks through.
4. Doubt is ultimately overcome by the presence of JESUS.
Jesus becomes present again amidst of his closest friends… and this time Thomas is there.
Not only is Thomas there but he speaks directly and personally to him.
What happens? Thomas’ response says it all… “He declares “My Lord and my God.”
He didn’t just accept that Jesus had risen… he declared he was Lord and God… he gave him the worth that was fitting. This says a lot about Thomas’ heart. I think the reason that Thomas wasn’t lost forever in doubt is not just because of the presence of Jesus but because of his heart to really receive it… and respond to it.
CLOSING:
What did this mean to his life?
We don’t know of Thomas ever doubted again. Since some forms of doubt are a natural part of our finite nature… I would imagine that he likely wondered about a lot of things.
What we do know is that Thomas became free to trust God and throw himself fully into God’s great mission.
Thomas would become the only disciple to take the good news out of the continent. Much history suggests that he made his way across many lands and reached India by 52AD. Through his testimony many came to know Jesus and several believing communities began in India. It is believed that in 72 AD, he was condemned to death, led out of the city to a hill, and pierced through with spears by four soldiers. A church now lies over his tomb…. where relics of his life lay. I’ve had the opportunity to visit this church and the tomb. [5]
It’s a testimony of a life that is willing to follow whatever God shows them… to pursue truth and be willing to make a decision to follow it.
The presence of the risen Jesus had changed his life. He wants to meet each of us.
We may think Thomas has an advantage because he saw the resurrected body of Christ. But Jesus understands thinks quite differently. In the final verses of our text, we read…
John 20:29-31
Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
In those days in which Christ could be seen resurrected…between when he rose and when he ascended to heaven… God actually suspended the normal dynamics of faith. He didn’t go around and try to prove his existence to the religious and Roman rulers because he has never sought to be the answer to a test in logic….. or an academic deduction… but rather the central relationship of trust.
Philip Yancey makes the observation that miracles, especially in the Old Testament, almost always created distance rather than intimacy between people and God. And those who saw Jesus' miracles and believed hardly come off as unshakable and unswerving in their decision to follow him. In fact, the religious leaders just got more determined to get rid of him.
He even said, before his death, that some would never believe even if one were to rise from the dead. (Luke 16:30-31)
What he did was set the record straight… and then send the Holy Spirit to bear his presence without limitation of time and space.
That is what he desires for all… is to receive his presence that is right here.
PRAYER – Lets come in the open humility of our finiteness… and ask Jesus to make his presence known… speak peace into our hearts.
Resources: William Nickles, Charles Gilbert, Larry Brincefield, Os Guinness - God in the Dark, John Ortberg - Know Doubt, Mark Buchanan article The Benefit of the Doubt
Notes
Regarding what we know about Thomas, David DeWitt in his sermon, How to Survive Your Doubts, notes the following:
1. Thomas was likely a fisherman (John 21:2)
Thomas may have been a fisherman by trade, John includes Thomas with several other disciples who join Peter fishing all night. Now this was no casual fishing trip but rather it was a means of trade and income. In other words, it was work. It also makes sense that Thomas could have been a fisherman because many of the early followers of Jesus came from the area of the Sea of Galilee. Fishing would have been a major source of work in that area.
2. Thomas was a follower of Jesus (Luke 6:13-16)
Thomas was a disciple of Jesus from the earliest days of Jesus’ public ministry. We know this because it was one of the qualities used to replace Judas as an apostle in the book of Acts. Thomas had made a choice to follow Jesus and invested his life into seeking more and more of Jesus.
3. Thomas was an apostle (Luke 6:13-16)
Thomas was chosen by Jesus to be one of twelve leaders within the larger body of disciples. Thomas had become one of the core leaders and spent a great deal of time with Jesus.
4. Thomas was loyal and committed (John 11:16)
Jesus was facing increasing hostility from the religious leadership and as He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead there was great concern that there might be an attempt to kill Jesus. Look at the words Thomas uses when he talks with the other disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him." These do not sound like the words of a skeptic.
5. Thomas was confused (John 14:5)
As Jesus was preparing the disciples for His coming death and resurrection He told them that He was going to prepare a place for them and that they would know the way to where they were going. Thomas very clearly shows that he does not always understand what Jesus was teaching them. Look at what he says: "Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
2. Os Guinness does a valuable work of distinguishing the various forms of doubt in his book God in the Dark.
3. The nature of doubt evolving from less rational dynamics is well developed by Os Guinness in God in the Dark (ch. 8, pp. 125ff) and John Ortberg in Know Doubt (pp. 4—52, 71ff.) As Ortberg notes, our core convictions are reflected in actions and such require genuine trust. I would add that the whole Biblical idea of belief and faith is to be understood as trust…. Which is very different than simply academic agreement.
4. Mark Buchanan article The Benefit of the Doubt states:
Here lies the basic flaw of all doubt: it really can never be satisfied. No evidence is ever fully, finally enough. Doubt wants always to consume, never to consummate. It clamors endlessly for an answer, and so drowns out any answer that might be given. It demands proof, but will doubt the proof proffered. Doubt, then, can become an appetite gone wrong; its craving increases the more we try to fill it. Christ's concluding words to Thomas are not so much an endorsement of "mere belief" as a warning that the quest for "proof" is not the path of blessedness. "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Just what is the connection between seeing and believing? Jesus tells Thomas after he sees him to stop doubting and believe. Belief is still called for, still demanded. Seeing does not remove the necessity of belief: seeing is not believing.
We walk by faith, not by sight.
5. St Thomas in India
St. Thomas is traditionally believed to have sailed to India in 52AD to spread the Christian faith among the Cochin Jews, the Jewish diaspora present in Kerala at the time. He is supposed to have landed at the ancient port of Muziris (which became extinct in 1341 AD due to a massive flood which realigned the coasts) near Kodungalloor. He then went to Palayoor (near present-day Guruvayoor), which was a Hindu priestly community at that time. He left Palayoor in AD 52 for the southern part of what is now Kerala State, where he established the Ezharappallikal, or "Seven and Half Churches". These churches are at Kodungallur, Kollam, Niranam (Niranam St.Marys Orthodox Church, Nilackal (Chayal), Kokkamangalam, Kottakkayal (Paravoor), Palayoor (Chattukulangara) and Thiruvithancode Arappally - the half church. - Wikopedia
