Courageous Thomas

Scripture Reading: John 11:1-16

Let us also go, that we may die with him.

              It is funny how one incident in a person’s life can put a label on him that he carries forever. Thomas is a case in point. As we all know, after the resurrection, when the other disciples told Thomas Jesus had risen from the dead, Thomas declared he would not believe unless he saw for himself and even touched Jesus’ scars. Bam! “Doubting Thomas.” It is as if that is the only thing he ever did or said.

              There are two compelling reasons I won’t refer to him that way. First, my decades-long connection to India. I have friends in Chennai, India. That is where Thomas was purportedly martyred. I’ve been to the place where tradition says he died and to the tomb where he was buried (both of them). The Indian Christians think of Thomas as their Apostle. He is the guy who left Israel and ended up in India preaching the gospel unto death. Sounds like a guy lacking faith, doesn’t it?

              The other reason “doubting Thomas” is not a tag I will put on him is the Gospel of John. We wouldn’t know anything about Thomas were it not for John. John is the one who lets us hear Thomas speak. And what we hear is not just what he said that tagged him as “doubting.” Thomas speaks in chapter 11, chapter 14, and chapter 20. It is not incidental either. It is central to John’s gospel. John tells us he wrote it so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing we might have life in His name (see the end of chapter 20).

              John goes to great effort to help us understand what he means by believing. Some call John “The Gospel of Belief.” It is. And he brings his book to a climax by using Thomas as an illustration of belief. In chapter 20, right after Thomas says what everyone knows he said and uses as an eternal bludgeon against him, he looks at Jesus and says, “My Lord and My God.” John is pointing to Thomas and saying, “There it is. There is the saving belief I’m talking about.”

              Earlier, in chapter 11, we find Thomas responding to Jesus’ determination to return to Jerusalem despite the clear and present danger there, by saying, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Not exactly a positive, sunny sentiment, but it is a courageous one. Why, then, don’t we call him “Courageous Thomas” instead of “Doubting Thomas?”

              Here is my point…

              One moment, one failure of faith, one outburst of unbelief does not define a life. Now, it might in the minds of men. You might forever be tagged by everyone with a defaming label because of a particularly unsavory moment in your life. And that may not be and probably isn’t fair to you. But you don’t have to let that label define you. You can move forward as a man or woman of faith. You can serve Christ with excellence. You can have a fruitful and fulfilling life.

              You can’t necessarily get rid of the label. You might be “typecast” for life. But you can forge a new life in Christ that is nothing like what the world has tagged you with. You can be “Courageous Thomas” in the eyes of heaven. And those eyes are the ones that matter.