As Harry Houdini, the Budapest born American by adoption stunt performer who is best remembered for his sensational escape acts, lay dying in November 1926, he made a deathbed pact with his wife Bess. He told Bess that he would try to reach her from the other world. For ten years, Bess kept a candle burning below Harry's picture in their home. Each year on the anniversary of his death, Bess gathered in some friends and held a séance hoping she would hear from her late husband. Needless to say, she never once heard a word from him. In 1936, she snuffed out the candle and declared, "That's it! Death is the end. There is nothing more. I now know that for sure because my Harry didn't speak."
If you miss church you can miss amazing things! Disciple Thomas missed meeting with Christ's people and as a result he was, in some ways, like Mrs. Houdini. After the crucifixion of Jesus, Thomas sat cheerless, lifeless, hopeless, down-spirited, and helpless as he gazed into death's darkness. Jesus was gone. Thomas witnessed it firsthand. What's more, it was the talk of Jerusalem on that Friday afternoon when the sky's darkness blanketed the earth. For Thomas, Jesus was no more. His master was dead! Kaput! Lifeless! Deceased! Finished! Thomas did not meet with the other disciples when they kept the Lord's command to keep on meeting, even as we do each Sunday that we might encourage each other in the faith Jesus gives us.
Why did Thomas not meet? We can merely speculate but it seems that a good guess would be that Thomas reasoned, "What's the use? He is gone." Whatever it was, Thomas was convinced that Jesus was dead -- never to live again. Thomas was afflicted with that ultimate, indescribable despair that sees no benefits in tomorrow.
It was not the first time that Thomas stood alone from the other disciples. In John 11:1-54, when Jesus, despite imminent danger at the hands of hostile Jews, declared his intention of going to Bethany to heal Lazarus, Thomas alone opposed the other disciples who sought to dissuade him. "Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with him' " (John 11:16). On the eve of the passion, it was Thomas who led off the discussion with that now well-known question, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" (John 14:5). Jesus spoke directly to Thomas with an answer that has directed Christians and new converts for 2,000 years now: Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him" (John 14:6-7). Thomas, more than any of the other disciples, had an enquiring mind.
When the others went to Thomas and said, "We have seen the Lord!" (v. 25), Thomas, ever the doubter, could only mutter, "That may be good enough for you but I will not be drawn into your emotion-laden fantasy. Dead people do not rise!" His actual answer -- crude, rude, gory, unbelieving -- set a materialistic three-step test: He said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands (step 1), put my finger in the mark of the nails (step 2), and my hand in his side (step 3), I will not believe" (v. 25). Please understand, Thomas was no atheist. He was a momentary agnostic. He was, I suspect, thinking, "I saw Jesus' body, lifeless and limp, on that cross. I watched him buried in a tomb. I saw the stone rolled across the opening. I just cannot believe it. Dead people do not rise!" He was afraid to hope that Jesus had defeated death. So Thomas sits in the hall of human history cheerless and gazing into the darkness, his name synonymous with doubt for two millennia, because for that moment in time he refused to believe in the possibility of the resurrection of the Lord of glory. For Thomas, Jesus was over and his wonderful promises ended up on a rough Roman cross.
Dear friends, can you see that doubt, unbelief, and negativity never make us better? You will never see a monument to a doubter. No doubter ever built a successful business, found a cure for disease, conquered depression, or motivated people to rise above their circumstances and take hold of life. If you want to live a victorious Christian life you must stay away from negative people. "Doubting Thomas," we call him; just "Doubting Thomas."
Doubt and negativity! They are everywhere around us. Some of us may be waiting for a pathology report on a loved one or ourselves. Perhaps some of us are wondering if we are going to make it financially. Others may be wondering if our marriages will survive, or perhaps if the marriages of our children will endure. These are all real concerns, but I must tell you that we will not find the answers or any comfort if we wrap ourselves in doubt and negativity.
A pastor friend of mine was once called to a large city church that experienced a rapid turnover of pastors. He was not there long when he encountered Peggy who called herself the "church mother." Peggy led a series of Bible studies in the church and from that platform, she cast doubt on successive pastors and the programs they promoted. Finally my friend saw no way to deal with this situation other than to confront Peggy about what she was doing. She received his caution with great anger and threatened to leave the church. Soon after that she did leave. When word of her leaving reached the members of Peggy's Bible studies, some of them wondered if the church would survive without her. It was not long before they saw that not only could the church survive; it actually began to thrive and grow. Peggy never realized that the seeds of doubt and negativity do not produce a healthy harvest.
Apparently somewhere in the context of that first conversation with the other disciples, or perhaps in a follow-up conversation, Thomas the doubter was persuaded that he had nothing to lose if he met with the other ten (remember Judas the betrayer was dead by now) one more time the following Sunday. When the first day of the new week came, Thomas was there among the other remaining disciples. The group locked the door. Suddenly there was an epiphany, a visitation from heaven filled with ecstasy and unbelievable delight. But there was also a confrontation. For the Lord, who the Psalmist reminds us in Psalm 139, hears every word before we say it, had heard what Thomas said. The resurrected Jesus turned Thomas' crude three-step test back on him: "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe" (v. 27). Can you imagine the embarrassment and the shame that Thomas must have felt there before them all? Interestingly, there is no record that Thomas did what Jesus gave him permission to do. Seeing the risen wounded Lord was sufficient for Thomas. Jesus responded, "Have you believed because you have seen (notice, not 'touched') me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" (vv. 29-30). There is not a page in the Bible that has a good place for unbelief or despair in life.
What I just said about doubt is true for all our lives! Unbelief, lack of faith, and despair never make us better. This doubt never makes a home better. It can make it bitter for all who live there. It never makes a church, business, or educational program better. Search the world over and you'll never find any great lasting thing that was born out of unbelief, faithlessness, and unwillingness to trust. Don't you know that when Thomas heard those words of his falling from lips of the risen Jesus, it surely must have crushed the doubter? I can imagine that he felt ashamed and that in his shame his dark deadness turned to life's light. He found the will to repent and confess, "My Lord and my God" (v. 28). Thomas surely would never again allow doubt to drive his way through life.
Those words, "My Lord and my God," mark the great pinnacle point of human declaration in John's gospel! They mark the turning point in the life of Thomas. In that moment when Thomas saw that indeed Jesus was raised from the dead, he also saw something of what that would mean for the rest of his life. That affirmation becomes the turning point in anyone's life who utters those words because no one can look at the resurrected Lord of Calvary's cross and be the same again. For Thomas, life would never be the same again. Thomas ultimately became a martyr for his faith. As Jesus laid down his life for Thomas, so one day Thomas would lay down his life for Jesus and the gospel.
Christian tradition holds that in 52 AD, Thomas arrived in Kerala to begin the establishment of the Christian church in India. He preached faithfully for twenty years and established seven churches before he was speared to death for preaching the gospel in December 72 AD. Today, you can visit San Thome Basilica in the city of Chennai (sometimes called Madras) in India. That church is believed to stand on the very spot where Thomas shed his life's blood rather than deny his Lord and God.
Jesus said to Thomas, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" (v. 29).
Thomas once believed that seeing was believing, but Jesus teaches us that believing is seeing. Michael May was blinded when he was only three years of age and for the next 42 years he lived his life in total darkness. Then, when he was 45, he was given the possibility of seeing again through a revolutionary transplant surgery. Before Michael's sight was restored perhaps only 40 people had experienced new sight and some with mixed degrees of success. For many of them, moving from a world of total darkness to a world of color and light involved a major learning curve. Before their surgeries, they did not need to understand concepts of height or depth or three-dimensional shapes. Nor could they read facial expressions or body language. Often family members could not understand this. They also needed to learn that the change often took time. Michael's case was different. As his surgeon finally removed the bandages from his eyes, just like the other patients, Michael could not identify distance or height or the other things prior patients could not identify. The difference, however, was this: Michael refused to be discouraged. He entered his new world of sight with a spirit of a child going on a great adventure. Like a child, he peppered the people around him with questions. "What is that?" Is that a tree? Is this a flower? Is that a car? May I touch it? Like a child, nothing excited Michael more than riding a hotel elevator and he rode it up and down repeatedly. He played ball games and Frisbee with his son, missing a lot before he got the hang of what was happening and was able to coordinate sight and hand. Things that sighted people assumed, Michael thought of as all part of his adventure -- like a speeding car or motorcycle -- and that the leap of new sight was not really adventuresome if everything felt safe. As a result, every day had its mixtures of success and failure, but most important this constant stream of new opportunities to see and experience allowed Michael to grow and change for the better.
The same is true when we come to Jesus. We will see all of life with new eyes. Paul writes,
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints. (Ephesians 1:17-18)
Thomas did not know resurrection hope because he was afraid to hope.
Who can blame Thomas? We have all experienced our moments of unbelief because of doubt. There have been times in all our lives when we were afraid to hope.
Let me tell you about the fear of hope. It stands against everything Jesus taught. It prefers ignorance and death over light. It hinders growth in people everywhere; even people in the church. Many well-intentioned modern-day Thomases unwittingly give too much space to doubt and darkness. Living with too many old memories, such church members believe bad news over good news. Many church people are even now held hostage by old hurt, disappointment, prejudice, hatred, cynicism, doubt, fear, ignorance, low expectations, hostility, and tension. Their song of faith goes something like this:
Backward Christian soldiers
Fleeing from the light,
With the cross of Jesus often out of sight
Christ our rightful Master stands against the foe
Yet, forward to the future we're afraid to go!
Crowns and thrones may perish,
Kingdoms rise and wane,
But our cross of Jesus, hidden will remain.
Gates of hell should never, 'gainst the church prevail,
We have Christ's own promise, but we're scared we'll fail.
Sit still then, ye people;
Join our useless throng.
Blend with ours your voices
In our feeble song.
Blessings, ease, and comfort
Ask from Christ the King
With our kind of thinking,
We won't do a thing!
Call it what it really is: S-I-N! In the name of Jesus Christ the Lord over the cross, come away from that kind of thinking and believe the good news: Jesus lives! Thomas believed it could not be and, so for him it would not be. Before you can believe good news you must hope it. Then let hope give way to belief. Act as though the good news is true and it will come true through you.
Thomas had to learn the good news that doubt is not true. Only this is true: Jesus Christ is alive. He is risen and we can face whatever comes our way with the confidence and peace that comes from knowing he lives in us and "we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). What a wonderful Savior!
Do you see him now? If you do, go out and show him to your world. Live like you have seen him! Talk like you have seen him! Laugh like you have been in his company. We are the resurrection witnesses for this generation! All the rest are disciples of dread darkness and doubt. Only the people of Jesus worship a living Savior with joy unspeakable and full of glory no matter what else happens.
I believe that this unbelieving world is looking for a life that is filled with hope, certainty, and joy. That life is only found in the one who Thomas called "Lord and God." Let this world see from your face that you are one of his. Let them see him through how you live.
And if you have been straddling the fence of doubt and unbelief, then I invite you in his name to get off now and never mount the fence again for Jesus' sake and for the sake of your own soul!