Quit Picking on Thomas (or How to Read the Bible)
Thomas gets a bad rap. We call him “Doubting Thomas” and preachers use him as a kind of lazy example of stubborn unbelief. But in John 20 (the one gospel account we have of Thomas’ doubts), John is up to something different. He isn’t revealing Thomas as an outlier to everyone else. Rather, he reveals Thomas to simply be the climax of a whole progression of unbelief coming from basically everybody in the chapter.
Much lauded Mary sees an empty tomb, but doesn’t recognize her resurrected Lord. Peter and John see an empty tomb, folded linens and a removed face cloth, but still have no idea what they are seeing (John, being a bit cheeky, tells us that they - including himself - did not understand the Scriptures.) The disciples, having heard of Mary’s encounter with Jesus- the New Gardener in the Garden, still don’t know what to make of it and have locked themselves in a room hiding when Jesus finally comes to them. And then there is Thomas, having heard from his friends who’ve all now seen Jesus, refuses to believe they aren’t barking mad until he’s “put his finger into the mark of the nails…” It isn’t that there is a flood of belief from Jesus’ disciples until we get to Thomas who stubbornly refuses to believe the news. It is a cascade of unbelief - blinding unbelief, such that even if Jesus is standing right in front of you, you won’t see him.
When an author tells you what he is trying to do with something he’s written, it’s always good to listen to him. At the very end of John’s account of the resurrection in John 20, he turns aside to his audience to clue us in to why he’s written what he’s written. John has written, “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John isn’t writing as some sort of passive observer, dutifully recording the history. He is partisan. He has an agenda and his agenda is that we might listen to what he has to say (or rather see what he has to say) and believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Its an odd moment in John’s gospel, as its the first time he’s spoken directly to his audience since turning to his account of Jesus’ own ministry at the end of chapter 1. Its also notable as you follow the progression of chapter 20.
John turns to an audience who hasn’t seen Jesus. But he’s just told us about people who saw Jesus and an empty tomb and had failed to believe. The problem isn’t seeing, it is a matter of believing. We are created by God to believe in Jesus, to believe specifically that he is the Son of God, the King and Lord. Or to confess with Thomas concerning Jesus, “My Lord and My God.” It is faith in Jesus that sees and John has told us precisely what he’s told us throughout his gospel so that we might believe and in believing. have life in his name.
Our age prides itself in its cynicism. We count ourselves clever by not being taken in by anything. We read the papers this way, we read tweets this way, and when we turn to the Bible, we carry those habits of readings with us. And so we listen to John’s stories with a cynical ear. Withholding judgment on the text’s veracity until we’ve reasoned it out, or concluded that his voice is worth listening to. And even then, we listen in order to make our own judgments about what of his words will give us life. This isn’t how the bible is supposed to be read. We are to read with faith. We are to come to the Scriptures believing and it is this believing that makes us able to see all that John wants to show us. We come to the Bible to receive, not to evaluate and parse out what we like or don’t. We come to the words of our guide John in order to confess the Lordship and Glory of Jesus. This makes the Bible a uniquely scary book.
Imagine booking a table at a restaurant where the menu is selected for you and you don’t get to pick the chef. We’re used to making dinner choices based on our own desires, tastes, and who we trust. But you can’t approach the Bible this way. We come to almost every other thing we read waiting to partake, to consider whether what’s being served is worth eating. Not so with John’s gospel or the rest of Scripture. The only way to come is to come eating what is served, believing what is confessed, trusting what is commanded, learning to love what it calls us to love and hate what it teaches us to hate. This is what faith is. It is a faith committed to the veracity and glory and wisdom of what God has given us in this book. This is how to read John. This is why John has written and it is these kinds of readers who will reap the blessing promised by Jesus after Thomas’ confession. So come to the Bible, committed to trusting whatever is served up in its pages, for this is the only way to see and to confess, “My Lord and My God!”