Evidence and Faith: What Thomas Discovered About Miracles & Belief (pt. 2)

This is the second post in a 4 part series entitled Evidence and Faith: What Thomas Discovered About Miracles & Belief. Part 1 is available here.

First, People Often Desire Evidence Before Faith - John 20:24-25

24 “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

Thomas was absent the first time the disciples met together. He is described here as one of the Twelve. The 12 were a definitive group known as Jesus’ closest disciples since the time Jesus hand-selected them earlier in His ministry. (See Matthew 10:2; 19:28; Mark 3:14; John 6:70; 1 Corinthians 15:5.) Thomas is also called Didymus, that means “twin.” So Thomas likely had a twin brother or sister somewhere. Most notably for this account, though, Thomas was not with with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared after the resurrection. Perhaps he was absent from the first meeting of the disciples the week before because the death of Christ had affected him the worst. The times we get a glimpse of Thomas in the four gospel accounts, he is portrayed as the pessimist of the group. So it is reasonable to conclude that after the public and brutal crucifixion of Jesus, he was in no mood for gathering with the others. He had isolated himself. He was feeling gloomy and without hope.

The other disciples still loved and valued Thomas. They knew where Thomas was staying, and they came to him and tried to reassure him. They told him, “We have seen the Lord (alive, after His crucifixion)!” They were joyful and confident as they spoke. Each one was testifying what he saw.

This is a good place to point out that skeptics have wrongly claimed that belief in the resurrection of Jesus came later in history, over a long time (like a legend). They claim the early Christians did not believe in the resurrection from the beginning. You can see that is historically inaccurate. The historical evidence proves that the Christians believed adamantly in the resurrection of Jesus from the earliest date. In fact, it was belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus that kept them together and persuaded thousands of Jews to become followers of Jesus. The letter of 1 Corinthians, for example, in chapter 15 is strong evidence of this. Even rank skeptics have admitted that 1 Corinthians was written very early, in the mid 50s A.D. In that letter, Paul mentions that by that time (just 25 years after the resurrection which occurred in 30 A.D.) there was already a strong, detailed, and continuous tradition of the resurrection handed down to him. Paul testifies that there were over 500 eyewitnesses of the resurrection, most who were still alive at that time. The book of Acts is another historically accurate book confirmed with dozens of archeological facts. It documents the preaching of the resurrection by the 12 Apostles from within 50 days of its occurrence. They preached the reality of the resurrection early and continuously. So there is consistent evidence that the Christians believed in Jesus’ bodily resurrection from the earliest times, and that it was not a story made up by later generations.

But Thomas was not yet buying it. Thomas demanded empirical proof of the resurrection before he would believe. Like many people today, Thomas adamantly did not believe their testimony. In his response, he uses a double negative, which in Greek is a reinforcement of the negative. It means, “I will not by any means believe unless I see and touch.” Dr. Carl Laney in his commentary on John’s Gospel points out, “Thomas has often been criticized as a doubter and a skeptic for refusing to believe the bodily resurrection of Jesus without tangible proof. It should be remembered that none of the disciples had any concept of the resurrection prior to the event. Thomas was no exception. The reports were fantastic. But Thomas was a careful and calculating person. He had to be sure. He did not want to place his faith in a bogus resurrection.”

This is why Thomas has been labeled “Doubting Thomas.” However, the other disciples, except possibly John, did not fair much better in their expressions of faith in the resurrection. They were slow to believe in Jesus’ resurrection, Luke 24:25. Thomas is presented in the New Testament as a realist. Earlier in their travels, he was the one who thought that things would get bad for the band of disciples if they returned with Jesus to Bethany. He thought that they would die with Jesus if they entered that town near Jerusalem, John 11:16. Yet Thomas was willing to go, because he was loyal to Jesus. His love for Jesus was strong; his faith in Jesus was weak.

So also here, after the crucifixion, Thomas required seeing. He did not want the testimony of anyone else. He wanted to see for himself. The desire to see before believing is the very attitude Jesus condemned in John 4:48 when speaking to the Jews … “So Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.’” Nevertheless, Thomas would not be swayed by the disciples’ enthusiasm. More than seeing, Thomas required putting his finger in the place of the nails. He required touching his side where the spear was thrust, John 19:34. The Greek verb used there is “ballō,” and implies he wanted to thrust his hand into the side of Jesus — shove it in there. He wanted to make sure they were not seeing a ghost or spirit.

Merrell Tenney comments, “Thomas would be satisfied by nothing less than material evidence. His incredulity is testimony to the fact that the resurrection appearances were not illusions induced by wishful thinking.”