The Common Sense of Thomas

John 20:19-30

 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’Jesus and Thomas
 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

I have come to believe that Thomas has gotten a bad rap over the years. "Doubting Thomas." Can you imagine a worse nickname, especially for a loyal follower of Jesus? Jesus comments, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." Is he saying that Thomas is unbelieving because he wanted to see and touch Jesus? Might it not be possible that touching and seeing is a different way of faith? Didn't Jesus show his hands and side to the disciples, resulting in their happiness/gladness? How is it that Thomas gets all the bad rap?



So in some ways it is puzzling for Jesus to respond to Thomas's request with "Do not be faithless but believing." Does this indicate that Thomas is unbelieving in his request to touch and see, or is it actually an affirmation of faith by means of touching and seeing? That to touch and see is indeed a way to be believing?



If Thomas could speak in his own defense, I imagine that he might say this:

"I've always been a hands-on type of person. I go out fishing, I feel the wind against my face and I know how to steer my boat. I watch the way the water flows and swells and falls and I know where the fish are probably going to be. I feel the net against my hands and I know its age and strength. I pull at its ropes and I know my success for the day. You might say I'm a sensible sort of person. And what I mean is that I use my senses, the basic five: tasting, touching, smelling, hearing, and seeing. I've always learned by using my senses, and so I need to try things out by using my senses. 

It's hard to get hold of an idea. An idea has no form. But show me first the form, the thing to touch, to grasp, to roll around in my hand, and then I will talk with you about its idea. I know a thing exists by using my senses. I don't know a thing unless I sense it somehow. Think of this: try describing the smell of a rose to someone who has never smelled one. Or the taste of ripe strawberries to someone who has never tasted them? How do you describe a Redwood to someone who has lived in the desert all their life?

But this doesn't mean I don't use my imagination and think of things I haven't seen or heard or whatever. Oh no, I do use it all the time. And it is Jesus who also uses my imagination. You see, he is always saying things to us in parables and stories. We ask him impossible things like, what is the Realm of God like? Or, How many times should I forgive somebody? Or, Who is my neighbor? He doesn't tell us things we can't understand. Instead he says things like, 'the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.' Now I've seen seeds. I've seen them sprout and grow. I've watched in amazement over time as a speck of a seed grows into an immense cedar. Or he says, 'The Kingdom of Heaven is like a measure of leaven... or is like a wedding banquet... or is like a shepherd looking for a stray sheep... or like bread for drinking and wine for drinking.' I can begin to grasp what Jesus is talking about in some small way because I've seen bread rising, I've danced and ate and drank at many a banquet, I've even been out scrambling among the rocks and thorns and brambles looking for straying sheep. I've seen and done these things.

But this stuff about rising from the dead is like nonsense, if you catch my drift. I mean it has no sense - or at least nothing I have ever seen or heard or touched before. What does it look like? Or taste or feel or smell or sound like? That is what I want: I want to feel Jesus risen from the dead like feeling the wind at my back and smelling the breeze through the Olive trees at night and feeling the dripping wet nets as they are hauled full of slippery, flipping fish into my boat. That's all I ask."

Thomas is an empiricist. The thing about an empiricist is that once they understand or believe in a thing, they are apt to say, "Let's do it." A thing doesn't become an idea until it has first been handled, tasted, looked at, etc. But there is something else important about this sort of empiricist. And that is the fact that once it is an idea that is understood, then it needs to be given a physical expression, it must be expressed in the realm of the senses, not just in the mind or in words. A person like Thomas is someone who will say, "Okay, let's go to Jerusalem."

This brings us to another puzzlement. Jesus shows his wounds to the disciples gathered in the room. He wishes them peace, and then let's them see and perhaps touch, although the text doesn't give details on this. Thomas is really only asking for equal treatment, isn't he?

I believe that Jesus's actions and words here provide the clue to resolution. First, He shows his wounds to the other disciples. Then to Thomas he shows his wounds after Thomas basically has asked to see them, or more to the point, has expressed his need to see them. It is precisely at this point of responding to Thomas's need to see and touch that Jesus then says "Do not be faithless, but believing." I do not take this to be scolding or disapproval, but rather an affirmation of the need to use the senses in order to have faith, to be believing.


What this suggests for us is that it doesn't require special superhuman achievements or abilities in order to experience the Gospel. All that is needed are the ordinary senses of taste, touch, smell, hearing and sight. Recall 1 John: that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands."


This is why we are a faith that is based in the sacraments. There is a deep and important and inseparable connection between faith and the senses, between the act of sensing and spiritual knowledge. A sacrament is simply the way the divine is communicated to the human, the way spiritual reality is revealed to creatures living in physical reality. This was basically John Wesley's argument for frequent if not daily communion. A sacrament is a tangible means whereby God's Grace is given to us. It is the sensual means whereby God trains us to perceive and receive the Divine that is hidden in everyday physical forms.


What it means for Jesus to show his wounds for Thomas to see and touch and then to say "Do not be faithless but be believing" is that it is good and it is okay and it is right to be human creatures. Being made to see and touch and taste and smell and hear is not an inferior way to have faith. Rather it is the very way and stuff of faith.