Benefit of the Doubt – Second Sunday of Easter (John 20: 19-29)
A story that is traditionally on the lectionary for the week after Easter is the story from the Gospel of John about the disciple named Thomas. Better known as “Doubting Thomas,” the story is found in John 20: 24-29. This story follows Resurrection Sunday because it shows us more of what it means for Jesus to be resurrected, and how people are going to react to that miracle. At this point, Jesus has already revealed himself to the disciples, but Thomas was not with them that day. So, he comes back and hears the story of Jesus’ return after the fact, but he is reluctant to believe. He needs proof. He claims that he must be able to touch the wounds that Jesus suffered at the crucifixion. He wants to be able to put his finger where the nails were hammered in and touch the wound in his side. A week later, Jesus appears before Thomas, and he offers him the chance to touch the nail marks and the wound on his side. Thomas declines because he no longer feels the need for that. Seeing Jesus standing before him has led him to believe in Jesus as a risen lord. He now sees and believes in Jesus as a representation of God’s love made manifest in the world.
This story shows us the origins of the nickname, “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas doubted that what he was being told about the resurrection of Christ could be possible, he needed proof. However, Thomas is not the only one doubting in this story. When we meet the disciples, they have some doubt as well. It manifests as fear for their safety, they worry that in the aftermath of Jesus’s crucifixion the authorities will come after them next, and so they hide together in one room. It is there Jesus reveals himself to the frightened disciples, assuring them that it is him by showing them the wounds from his crucifixion, on his hands and feet and on his side. The wounds from the nails are proof to the disciples that this resurrected Jesus is also the Jesus that was crucified and died on the cross. He is the same, and he is different, but it shows us that Jesus was and continues to be a human and divine being. He was a miraculous thing standing before them at that moment, but the wounds were proof that he is what he had always been. Resurrection and death did not change Jesus, but it did change the world. As we read this part of the story, we are given reassurance that Jesus can still make himself known to us, even in fear and doubt. What makes things a little more difficult is when that doubt is based on feelings of trust in our own self-sufficiency. And that is where Thomas speaks to us.
We see Thomas putting limits and conditions around his faith. Which is what doubt does, it sets a limit on what we are willing to believe, and that is usually based around our own understanding of things. For Thomas, the problem is he insists on submitting the revelation of Jesus’s return to his own criteria. This is how he limits himself through his doubt. To believe more Thomas thinks he must see certain evidence, specifically the wounds from the crucifixion. This kind of skepticism can be healthy, and it would make Thomas good at a lot of things, a doctor, a lawyer, a researcher, a teacher, and so on. There is value in not taking everything that is presented at face value. It can lead to deeper and greater discoveries. People can benefit from doubt (as opposed to giving the benefit of the doubt). Doubt can simply be part of how an individual’s mind works. Doubt can help make a path in our minds that can lead us to belief.
If we take a closer look at Jesus’ actions in this story, we can see that maybe Jesus understands this as a part of Thomas’ personality and who he is. When Jesus arrives, he does not shame Thomas. He does not reprimand him for limiting his faith to what he can touch and see. After all, Thomas only asks Jesus for what was freely provided to the other disciples – to see his wounds and know it is really him. So, that is what Jesus does, he offers himself to Thomas. He invites Thomas to do what he needs to do. To touch scars and feel the wounds. Jesus gives of himself, generously and abundantly, to Thomas. This care for Thomas’ needs and well-being is prioritized over any other concern on Jesus’s part about some kind of blind faith, or right belief and Thomas’ faith grows because of that generosity.
It is unfortunate that Thomas is isolated in this story. It has the effect of making his doubt seem like the problem to be addressed. Thomas’s doubt is not the most important thing in this story, though. That is what we tend to make it about, doubt. Can you have faith while also having doubt. But Jesus is in this story too. In the text, Jesus offers to show Thomas the wounds. Sometimes Jesus’s offer here is interpreted as sarcastic or as meant to shame Thomas for his doubt. There are other ways to read and interpret Jesus’s words here. It would be more helpful for us and our theology if we were to read it as an act of generosity by Jesus, not a judgement or a test. Think about it. If we were to meet Jesus on the road today, would sarcasm from him make us feel as if we had a revelatory experience? If you walked away feeling shamed, would you feel as if you knew the true Jesus now? Would you want to learn from him and follow? And yet too often that is what people of faith offer to the world. Skepticism and judgement based on some kind of test of our own making.
However, this story is not about doubt as a litmus test for our faith, or anyone else’s faith. It is about Jesus’s love and generosity and care for us, all of us, even those who have doubt. Even those who have not seen and touched and come to know Jesus as his first disciples did. Jesus has not limited himself to his earliest followers. He never has, but is available and knowable to anyone who would seek to know and believe in him. And yes, Jesus also says that those who do not see (or touch) but still believe anyway are blessed. But is this blessing something bestowed on those people by God as a reward for the virtue of their belief? Or could it be something else? Perhaps those who believe before they have seen are blessed because, for them, the world has opened up to possibilities. Perhaps these were things they could not see through their doubt. They are blessed to not look at the world through a lens of scarcity. Maybe it is a blessing to believe without being able to see because then we are able to reach out to others who believe differently. If you can believe in Jesus without seeing him or touching him, if that kind of thinking is no longer a limitation for you, then surely someone else’s beliefs, or doubts, will not be a limitation either.
In this story, Thomas is acting from a place of scarcity. He has put limits and conditions on his faith. Believing he needs to see something, or he needs to touch something. Jesus, however, makes no such requirements. He does not even require Thomas to repent of a lack of faith. Instead, he offers Thomas what he needs. Jesus acts from a place of abundant love. As he did with the other disciples huddled together in that room, he simply presents himself and makes himself fully available to his doubting disciple. Jesus was making it possible for his work and his example to be carried out and lived into even after his death, even after his ascension to heaven. Jesus’ abundant love for us has made it possible for us to live out the Christian witness without having been in that room where he first revealed his risen self.
As the Church, how often do we act from a place of abundance? Do we show up generously, as Jesus did, or do we put limits on what we believe is possible, as Thomas did? Do our doubts limit us and stop us from going further? Or do we let our debts lead us into deeper questioning and more discovery? Because there are important questions for us to wrestle with as Christians. We want these questions to lead us on a path of curiosity and discovery rather than fear and judgement. And we want to direct those doubts and questions at ourselves and our communities and our leaders, and the assumptions about the faith we all make. The story of Thomas shows us that we don’t have to question Jesus because he is who he says he is, and he is always there for us.
Unfortunately, that Jesus is faithful and always there for us is something creates a great deal of doubt for many people. Some don’t believe because, like Thomas, they have not yet seen any proof. Others don’t believe because they have seen too much evidence to the contrary. Death, sickness, poverty, and war. How can they believe in a good God when they gave seen so much horror? The church John the gospel writer speaks to has seen some of these things that cause doubt. They live in a time where their people have been persecuted and oppressed. Still, John writes to urge the community to see itself as a community that has seen, heard, and touched Christ. The Christ who lived, suffered and died, then rose again. He wants them to know the true and complete picture of Jesus. Today, we are also invited to know Christ in this wholeness and completeness. Even with all evidence to the contrary.
And there is a lot of evidence to make us doubt. No denying that. Still, we are invited to know Christ, however we come to it, and we are called to make that knowing available for other people’s lives. The story of Thomas reminds us that we can’t make Christ available and knowable today through tests of faith and belief. We can make it known through service, prayer, and engagement with scripture instead of using Biblical knowledge as a test or a bludgeon for non-Christians. We make it known by meeting people where they are, as the hands and feet of Jesus. If that feels like a big ask, and you doubt yourself and your own capabilities or worthiness to show people a part of Jesus, just remember this. The hands and feet of Jesus are wounded and scarred. It was the wounds and scars that Jesus offered to his disciples so that they would know him. All his disciples, even Thomas the doubter. It’s all part of Jesus being present to us in this world.
As we go from this place, into the season of Easter, let our wounds and scars, even our doubts, make a way for Jesus to be revealed in the world. Amen.