Have you ever wondered about Thomas? Wondered why Thomas wasn’t with the disciples when Jesus first appeared to them? Was his grief so deep that he couldn’t cope with being with the other disciples but needed to be alone to deal with it? That’s the way some people deal with grief. Then when they’ve worked through it, they can come back and relate to others again.
Or was Thomas hiding for fear of the consequences for the disciples? After all, Jesus had been killed. Would the Pharisees and those who were against Jesus come after his disciples next? Maybe it was self preservation on the part of Thomas. We don’t know. We can only speculate.
A lot is made of the fact he was ‘a doubting Thomas’– where the term actually came from. But put yourself in his place. How would you have felt if the other disciples claimed to have seen Jesus and you didn’t have the experience? Wouldn’t you have felt left out and cheated?
So often as Christians we want to lump people all in the same category and insist they have the same experiences. But that’s not quite the way it works.
I’ve always related to Thomas. I suspect I’d have been the one who’d have gone off to handle my grief alone too. The trouble is sometimes, when we do that, we can miss out on a valuable experience as Thomas did. But Jesus graciously didn’t leave Thomas in that state of unrest, stubbornly refusing to believe what he had not seen himself.
Eight days later Jesus appeared. He knew all that Thomas felt and every word that Thomas had said. Jesus wanted Thomas to have a first hand experience of Him, asking him to touch him and know indeed that He was real and alive, verse 27.
But Thomas had no need to touch. In an instant, he knew. ‘My Lord and My God!’ Thomas exclaimed, verse 28.
We might have expected this great statement of faith to come from Peter, John or one of the other disciples. Instead it came from Thomas, the one whose doubts had separated him for a time from the other disciples. Thomas went from doubt to the greatest statement of faith.
The words that Jesus uttered when he entered the room, ‘Peace be with you,’ became far more than the standard Jewish greeting. They became a prophecy fulfilled and the truth that Thomas found. Peace. His doubts, his fears, his questions put to rest by the appearance of Jesus, his Lord and his God.
Have you had a first hand experience of Jesus? Will you allow Jesus into your current situation, whatever it may be, to bring peace to the doubts and questions that plague you?
Bible verses from The New American Standard Version
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