Thomas

How easy it is for us to say “I would have more faith if I was there, If I would have saw Jesus walking around after His crucifixion.”  or “If I was Thomas, I wouldn’t have doubted” Playing a Monday morning quarter back is easy, 2000 years later.

But would we, would we really have believed? Stop and really think about it, give it some time to really sink in…. Two thousand years ago people looked for signs in everything, you read history and we see this. This is one of the main reasons the pagans had so many god’s, they needed ways to explain, what to them was the unexplainable, but to us is just modern science. So would you have really believed something that was so unnatural, something that was truly supernatural? Hard question to answer, but one we all must think about.

We are fast to look at others and to point out their faults, to see others as week or unbelievers, yet are we truly that different than Thomas? Thomas walked with Jesus daily, he ate with him, and broke bread with him. They were friends and spent 3 years together. Thomas hear Jesus speak of His resurrection, saw the miraculous things Jesus did, but he still doubted. Why? Why would Thomas doubt the power of the Lord?

We think we would be different than Thomas, but would we be? Would we really have believed what we saw with our own two eyes? How often do we not believe our own eyes? How often do we not trust what we see? Thomas was human, he too saw with human eyes? So what made Thomas any different than Peter or any of the others? Why did they believe with out seeing, and Thomas did not? 

Maybe Peter and the others who did not see Jesus at the tomb were looking with there hearts and not there eyes? Maybe faith had more to do with our hearts than our minds, maybe Thomas was just to practical to see what was unseeable.  But that’s all of us, it is hard to believe in what we can not see, at one point all us stop believing in magic and look for the reality of it all, how sad.

But what is encouraging is the fact that we have the example of Thomas in the bible. He was there and still had difficulty believing. Thomas, in some ways, is all of us, we all have moments were we ask God to show us proof that He is, just one little sign and we will never ask again. Thomas did the say, he told his friends that he needed to see Jesus, to put his finger in the wounds to truly believe. What one of us has not asked the same? Sure the request may be a little different, we may ask Jesus to show us a sign, but the idea is the same, we want tangible proof, much like Thomas did.

In essence Thomas was saying to God, “Prove it” and than I will follow. Don’t we say that almost daily in our lives, don’t we look for the clues that will prove it to us.

I know I do in my own way, over the weekend the Discovery Channel and NatGeo channel were running shows concerning the bible and the life of Jesus, each trying to prove or disprove bible stores or Jesus himself. I love to watch them, they interest me, but I am sure it is because I am looking for that one clue that will prove it to all, that one find that will tell the world Jesus was and is real and He is the Son of God.

We all look for that proof, it’s part of our fallen nature, we can not conceive of a being greater than ourselves, with out a struggle. Our minds look for evidence, looks for the order in the universe and Jesus tosses a monkey wrench in to that order. Or at least a Jesus who is crucified and raises from the dead 3 days later does. If he was just a great man, we could believe in that, but a God, well that’s something different. Our mind has a harder time think about what is not there, what is not tangible and Thomas was no different in that respect.

Thomas has something to teach all of us, he offers us a view of ourselves in our moments of doubt. We want that proof, but like Thomas, who in the end did not need to place his finger in the wounds to believe, we too, some how find the faith.

Paul