By Brother Brian Shimer

Read John 20:24-29

Next to Jonah, Thomas is one of my favorite Bible characters.

We often refer to him as “doubting Thomas,” a moniker he received because of his honest incredulity at the disciples’ nonsensical news that they had seen Jesus alive! And because Jesus later told him, “Stop doubting and believe.”

I love Thomas’ honesty in John 20. He’s not going to be taken in by some slight of hand! His doubt is what makes the resurrection all the more plausible! Had the disciples been making the whole thing up, the resurrection scene would have been written up to look more like a Cecil B Demille movie; everyone would be singing, “He Lives!”

But instead, the other disciples first disbelieved news of the resurrection as if it were an “idle tale” invented by the women! So, when honest Thomas tells his fellow disciples, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:26), no one objected. They seem to get him.

Thomas didn’t just want to see Jesus but to find out if Jesus was solid. His word for “put” also meant “throw”.  He wanted to “throw” his finger into the wound and his hand into Jesus’ side, asking, “Are you real?”  

Here, as elsewhere, Thomas is not described as the doubter, but by his nickname, Didymus, the twin.

Pastor Tyler Staton* noted how perhaps this nickname is repeated to underline how much Thomas is like us. He is our twin. As we walk the tightrope between doubt and faith, so did he. As we keep searching for enough, for meaning, for significance, found only in Jesus, Thomas understood, saying “My Lord and My God!”

“Do you ever doubt?” the 17 year old youth asked me, sitting across from me on a park bench in 2015. That day, I did not know how to even form a response. Ten years later, Thomas had taught me how much faith and doubt are part of every human heart. So, I called up this youth, now a man of 28, whom I hadn’t seen or spoken with in all those years. I asked if he remembered our park bench conversation. He didn’t. But when I reminded him of it, he was stymied. “I cannot believe you just called! This must be God! I was struggling with doubt this week. Could I tell you my story?” Thus began an opportunity to mentor him.

When you encounter doubts, remember your twin, Thomas. And remember how Jesus met and embraced Thomas in his doubts, as he embraces us. The same Lord who equally commissioned the disciples with doubts and those without (see Matthew 28:16-20), sees and commissions you and me.  

*see: Searching for Enough, Tyler Staton