Poor old Thomas! Condemned to go down in history as ‘Doubting Thomas’, for demanding proof of the risen Jesus. Yet how many of us would admit to a sneaking sympathy for Thomas? How many of us would have done exactly the same thing in his shoes? In our defence we come to the story from a slightly different angle to that of Thomas’s; we come with a twenty first century agenda. We have been brought up in a culture where science rules the day and physical proof is all important. We live in a society where belief in the spiritual is viewed as naive; eccentric even. Yet we are expected to believe.
The story of ‘doubting Thomas’ is comforting to our twenty first century ears and perhaps that’s what John, the gospel’s writer, intended. Surely John must have known that faith, or lack of it, would be an issue especially for those without the benefit of first hand evidence. So what are those of us who are struggling with our faith to take from this story?
The most important thing to notice is that Jesus doesn’t condemn Thomas for not believing. He simply offers himself as proof. He helps Thomas to believe. Perhaps Jesus does not rebuke Thomas because he knows how much Thomas loves him, and how badly he wants to believe. Doubt might feel like a very negative emotion, but in actual fact, doubt is a sign that we are struggling to find answers and that has to be better than apathy or outright disbelief. Very often doubt is a prelude to firm faith. In fact, a faith besieged by doubt but based in a deep train of thought can be ultimately better than a faith built on little or no thought whatsoever.
In our struggle to find faith we should first take heed of today’s story and acknowledge that doubt is ‘normal’ and not necessarily a bad thing. Next we should acknowledge that the faith others have isn’t just some warm and fuzzy feeling, but a conviction and a commitment. It’s all too easy when we cannot determine a faith of our own to decry the faith of others as delusion, but this is to simply dismiss out of hand the thinking of centuries of intelligent and gifted men and women.
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus applauds those who have arrived at their faith, but for those of us who are still struggling we are promised the Holy Spirit to point us in the directio