Flipping A Cliche

            “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in His Name.”

            Thus endeth the Gospel of John. 

And here we have the thesis of the Gospel.  And this thesis spins the Doubting Thomas story.  In a nutshell, he wasn’t there when Jesus appeared to the disciples and he rejected their truths outright.  Would not even consider belief unless he was able to invest in a physical examination of the resurrected body.

It never struck me before, but in his brief denial, Thomas doubles down on NOT believing what his colleagues told him.  Thomas will not even, pardon the pun, give them the benefit of the doubt.  Won’t even consider the miracle in what they say.  For Easter, we looked to Luke, where the disciples called the witness of the women coming back from the tomb an “idle tale”.  Thomas will not let that go.  

Many have speculated on why Thomas is so close-minded about what he is told.  I am not qualified to speculate on what his issues were.  However, as an observer of sinful, human nature, I have seen that almost creepy desperation to cling to "his" reality.  He will not only deny any possibility of truth in what he is being told, but he is going to have to ‘see the body’ to believe it.  And not only see the body but do some weird forensic examination of Jesus’ “resurrectedness”. 

To which Jesus, on his next appearance, says, "Well, okay then."  It is ALWAYS dangerous to call Jesus out.  If Jesus was of a certain attitude, he might have called out Thomas as a blowhard for his doubling down.  Rather, the truth that Jesus speaks is far more cutting.  “You have believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

And that is the hook into the thesis of the entire gospel.  “…these are written so that you may come to believe…”  You, the plural "you", we, who are reading God's holy word.  

Pastor Pete