Celebrating Thomas

After Judas, Thomas is the disciple that gets a bad press - Doubting Thomas - but I don't think that is fair.

It is the day of the empty tomb and in the evening Jesus appears to a group of disciples in a locked room, Thomas we are told wasn't there. Cue questions about his commitment to the group, ideas that he was on the fringe, not in the core cluster.  But people react differently to grief and stress and fear, so Thomas was maybe an introvert, someone who needed a bit of space alone to get his head around all that had happened.  It is okay to take some space away from the crowds, it is okay to gather together with others - neither is an indication of commitment, merely different personalities.

So Jesus appears to the gathered group - from the first accounts of the empty tomb that morning and rumours of resurrection it had been a confusing day. Jesus appears and says 'Peace be with you', they have this encounter that helps them as they try to make sense of all that has happened in the past few days.   They later tell Thomas all about it, and he says he can't believe until he sees, and from this he gained the nickname of Doubting Thomas.

But what if Peter or Andrew or brothers James and John were the ones missing that night? Why do we expect more of Thomas than of any of the other disciples? They are convinced because they have had a direct encounter with the risen Jesus, an experience of seeing the impossible that allows them to believe the apparently impossible. Thomas is not a terrible doubter, but has a normal rational response. We are not designed like Alice in Wonderland's White Queen who believes 6 impossible things before breakfast, and our faith doesn't need us to do that. Thomas is just a normal man asking realistic questions.

It is an encounter with God that draws out our faith, other people's experiences and stories of their encounters have a place but we cannot expect others to take on board a 2nd hand experience.  A  week later Thomas would have his own direct encounter with the risen Jesus, and believes totally- 'My lord and my God'.   He is with the group then, his questions and not yet believing has not separated him from spending time with the others.

Thomas should be celebrated, he shows us important things about our faith - that we can take the time we need, that questions are not a barrier to faith but can be a path to it. That however wonderful our own story is we can't expect it to be enough to create faith in someone, though it may get them thinking. That we are not to be divided by differences in belief, or unbelief - we still travel together.