(If you have found this sermon useful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org or www.ChristianWisdom.info.)
When we think of the Apostle Thomas, we sometimes think of him in a somewhat negative light. The event involving Thomas in John 20:19-31 has given rise to the phrase, “Don’t be such a Doubting Thomas”. The incident involving Thomas’s refusal to simply take the word of other’s that the Lord had risen is often held up as an example of weak faith. This, however, is not the attitude in the Orthodox Church tradition (Greek, Russian, Bulgarian and so on). The Orthodox Church’s viewpoint is that through his doubt, the blessing of faith was granted to all generations after him. That’s pretty high praise for someone who distrusted the reports of the other apostles and had to see for himself before he would believe. Perhaps we might learn something from those churches which associate Thomas with strong, enduring faith, faith built upon personal experience.
Is doubt a sin? No one should be belittled for asking tough, insightful questions. Reason and facts are an important part of our faith tradition. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21 we read, “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” I think this understanding explains why Thomas is not dubbed “Doubting Thomas” in the Orthodox Church tradition. In fact, a hymn containing the line “O Good Unbelief of Thomas” is song for Thomas Sunday Vespers in some of those churches. Human nature is lazy and takes the lazy road at every opportunity. Rather than searing for clear instructions from God leading to a true spiritual foundation, people tend to hang on to their pre-conceptions often based upon the ideas and experience of other persons. Thomas refused to do this.
Epistemology is system by which someone determines something is really true. Most modern epistemologies are built upon scientific observation involving sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. These senses are our bridges to the world around us. Those who seek confirmation in science lay the foundation for a firmly grounded hypotheses and established theories. Those who look for confirmation in their belief system, their religion, should also lay the foundation for a firmly grounded faith. Those who merely accept the doctrine or beliefs of others uncritically without any epistemological evidence are more likely to abandon their faith, and less likely to work to advance it. This, I suspect, is why in some Christian churches “O Good Unbelief of Thomas” is sung.
Thomas is the empiricist among the apostles, the one who measures, who sees, who touches, who knows through use of the senses rather than simple trusting what others have said. One week before the events described in John 20:19-31, the other apostles had gathered together. The risen Lord presented Himself to them and showed them the wounds in his hands and feet, but they still doubted as it seemed too good to be true. The others may doubt (see Luke 24:36-41) but Thomas tests. On the surface this may appear to be the same thing as doubting. But it isn’t quite the same. After experiencing irrefutable evidence, Thomas’s faith became unshakable. Tradition has it that he went on to become a dedicated missionary founding the first Christian churches in India. To have accomplished this in such a hostile land required unshakeable faith, faith based upon experience.
Some Christian theologians have insisted that submission to church doctrines; i.e., subordinating one’s personal opinions, allowing others to tell the individual Christian what to believe, and so on, is necessary for salvation. This approach to maintaining doctrinal integrity is a mistake, not representative of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and a weakness in our church tradition. It is a weakness because it defines and limits spiritual growth, and robs the believer of authentic spiritual experience. It is a mistake because it is contrary to Scripture. Jesus taught, “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree brings forth good fruit, but a bad tree brings forth bad fruit” (Matthew 7:15-17).
The New Testament, and Christianity by extension, does not seek to contradict or limit empirical epistemology, nor common sense. On the contrary, Jesus uses metaphors which reference our human experience as a means of communicating otherwise transcendent truths. He also gifts us with the Holy Spirit which helps us understand His teachings through reasoning and intellect. The Holy Spirit also helps us apply His teachings with what we are experiencing in day-to-day living. A faith that is based upon the integration of reason, experience guided by the Holy Spirit, and New Testament teaching is a much stronger faith, a faith not likely to wilt in the scorching sun, or dry up in the deserts of life’s many difficult experiences. Faith based upon unambiguous biblical teachings, the interpretations of which are measured by the illumination of the Holy Spirit which uses personal experience as a teaching device, in other words “the faith of Thomas”, builds a solid foundation for the Christian faith.
And so, in Thomas we are not seeing the weakest of the disciples, but rather a paradigm or model for the strongest faith. Thomas experienced convincing faith because his faith was built upon a solid epistemology. And really, that is the only way that any of us can really know in a convincing manner what is truly true. We watch for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we study God’s Word, and we strive to remain receptive to any experiences which through the influence of the Holy Spirit speak to us and help us deepen our understanding of some truth that God wishes for us to understand, some brick to be incorporated into the solid foundation that is being built for us.
If your faith sometimes seems insufficient, if it seems to be on unsteady ground, no amount of assent to doctrine will strengthen that faith. Instead, you must watch for and be receptive to the experience of God’s grace built upon the solid foundation of Christ’s teachings and strengthened through sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell and the influence of the Holy Spirit. Seek to become more and more aware of the risen Christ present among us.
As I mentioned, tradition has it that Thomas became the apostle to the nations east of Israel, and that he died a martyr’s death in India. All of this because he placed his fingers in the nail print’s in Christ’s hands, and placed his own hand in the wound in the risen Christ’s side. Because Thomas steadfastly hung onto his trust in and reliance upon his God-given empirical epistemology, Thomas experienced the blessed assurance of unshakeable faith.
Jesus presented the marks of his death, the marks of His love, to his disciples so that they might believe and go forth as His apostles baptizing and making disciples of all the nations. We share that same commission today. But rather than the marks of his love being shown in His physical body, they are shown, or are meant to be shown in us, in the people of His church, which everywhere is called “the Body of Christ”.
There is something that we can show to convince the world of our genuineness, a hallmark that others can look for and find in us that proves that we indeed have fellowship with God and with the risen Christ. The hallmark which gives testimony to the genuineness is the light, the love, the truth of Jesus Christ living in us and emanating from us. When others experience this in and through us, then, and probably only then, will they be brought to convincing faith. The most notable part of the hallmark of Christ that we bear when we are truly in Him, and He in us, is our love, our moral and ethical compass, and our acceptance of and concern for one another.
One preacher describes his experience of being led to Christ. It happened for him while he was attending college. There was at time a group of Christians called Campus Crusade for Christ who set up a table in the Student Union Building to do what they called witnessing for Christ. This man, who later became a preacher, confesses that he loved to go to that table and make life hard for them. He sort of believed in God, the way so many people do nowadays. But he also sort of believed in astrology, and sort of believed in reincarnation and the like. But of one thing he was certain. He did not accept Jesus has his Savior and Lord. As he relates it, the reason he didn’t accept Jesus is that he really had never experienced any direct contact with the risen Lord. Here is his story:
Those crazy Christians sitting at their table tried to tell me about the resurrection and about salvation through Jesus, he says, but he in turn asked them why innocent people suffered and why God allowed war and all those other things that are so difficult to answer. Somehow those arguing for Christ using intellectual arguments could never convince him.
But then something changed. A strange thing happened when these Christians invited me to their homes and apartments, when they gave me a cup of coffee, and when they fed me meals, and prayed for me.
They treated me as a friend even while I treated them as people out of touch with reality. I was a stranger. They didn't need me, they didn't know me. And yet I experienced in them something that convinced me that they wanted something good for me. They were patient with me, they were kind to me, they helped me, and they forgave me. They answered my questions, and they made me feel welcome in a way that no-one else did.
In short they showed me something that I had never seen before. They helped me experience the risen Lord present in and among them. Within six months, because of this experience and how God used it in my life, I became a Christian.
After that, I never had a problem believing in the resurrection because I had experienced the marks of Christ in His body, in the people who claimed his name and who walked in his light and who lived as well as they could by His law of love, and His compassion.
No, we cannot argue people into becoming a Christian. Most persons, like the Apostle Thomas, need to experience the risen Lord for themselves. We can lead them to that experience by being Christ to them. Look for the nail prints in yourself, and pray that they may be seen by others. Pray that God will purify you and place his seal of salvation upon you that others may come to Him through experiencing Him in you.
The Apostle Thomas needed an empirical experience in order to find convincing faith. He should not be thought less of because of that. On the contrary, Thomas provides us with a reminder that all true faith is ultimately based upon experience. We are to treat those who do not know Christ as Christ himself treated Thomas, for ultimately we are all like Thomas. Though the experience that leads us to convincing faith will not be the same as that of Thomas, though we do not have the opportunity to place our finger in the wounds of the Lord, there will be other experiences interpreted for us by the Holy Spirit which lead us to convincing faith. For this, and for our salvation, we give thanks to the Lord.
(If you found this sermon helpful, please visit us at www.HeritageRestorationProject.org)
