The most famous doubter in all the Bible is a guy named Thomas. He missed Jesus’ first resurrection appearance to the Apostles, and upon hearing about it, he said in John 20:25…
“Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
While Thomas clearly communicated a lack of belief in Jesus’ resurrection here, it’s born not so much out of a broken faith as a broken heart. To understand Thomas’ statement, we need to look back at the other two occasions he specifically factored into the gospel narrative.
Thomas’ first mention outside the list of Apostles is in John 11:16. At the end of John 10, Jesus left Jerusalem because some people were trying to arrest Him (John 10:39). He set up shop in the wilderness where John the Baptist had previously operated (John 10:40). While there, He learned that his close friend, Lazarus, was sick (John 11:1), but instead of immediately leaving to visit Lazarus, Jesus stayed put for another couple of days (John 11:6). When Jesus finally decided to go to Lazarus, His disciples discouraged Him because Lazarus’s family lived in Bethany which was a suburb of Jerusalem and going there would put His life at risk again (John 11:7-8). That’s when Jesus explained to His disciples that Lazarus had died (John 11:15), and this prompted Thomas to say in John 11:16, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Why did Thomas say this? It’s important to note who Thomas was addressing. The text tells us that he said this “to his fellow disciples” rather than Jesus. So, it is possible that the “him” he was referring to when he said this was Jesus rather than Lazarus. Apparently, Thomas had concluded that if Jesus stepped foot in or near Jerusalem, He would be killed, and being aware of how much Jesus loved Lazarus, Thomas was ultimately saying, “If Jesus wants to go mourn Lazarus, then let’s go with him, and if He gets killed in the process, then we’ll die with Him.” As one author pointed out, Thomas “did not want to live without Jesus. If Jesus was going to die, Thomas was prepared to die with Him.”1 Ultimately, Thomas’ words on this occasion were a declaration of His devotion to Jesus.
And this devotion reappears in the only other account that specifically mentions Thomas. After the Last Supper, Jesus launched into a multi-chapter discourse in which He presented some final words to the Apostles. It was during this discourse that He explained that it was time for Him to go. In John 14:2-3, He told them that He was going “to prepare a place for [them]” and that He would return to get them. Upon hearing this, Thomas spoke up and said in John 14:5, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Thomas’ chief concern at that moment was not to be separated from Jesus. In his limited understanding of what Jesus was saying, he was worried that he wouldn’t know where Jesus was going and, therefore, wouldn’t be able to follow him. In other words, Thomas “had become so attached to Jesus in those years that he would have been glad to die with Christ, but he could not think of living without Him.”2
With that understanding of Thomas’ love for and devotion to Jesus, it seems best to understand his refusal to believe that Jesus had appeared to his peers as an I’m-not-going-to-get-my-hopes-up type of response. It’s as though Thomas was so distraught over the loss of Jesus that he couldn’t let himself believe that He was back.
While Thomas’ previous appearances in the Gospel narrative may help us understand his mindset, the important thing to notice about his moment of doubt is how Jesus treated him. Jesus didn’t criticize or condemn Thomas for his doubts. Instead, Jesus saw in Thomas someone who was so devoted to Him that he lost his way when he lost his Lord. He saw someone who was hurting, someone who was struggling with the heartache, grief, and pain that accompanies loss. He saw someone whose faith wasn’t necessarily lost, but his life’s purpose, direction, and meaning were. He saw someone who needed to be consoled, comforted, and encouraged. Eventually, Jesus appeared to the Apostles when Thomas was present. He invited him to touch His wounds, and the result was a confession that only a true believer could make: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
Jesus saw more than Thomas’ doubts, and He expects His followers to see more than doubts in people today. That is why the church is instructed to be a community that will “[welcome] the one who is weak in faith” (Romans 14:1) and a community that will “have mercy on those who doubt” (Jude 22). As “ambassadors of Christ,” it’s our job to treat people as more than their doubts, just like Jesus did.
- 1 John MacArthur, Twelve Ordinary Men (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2002): 160.
- 2 John MacArthur, Twelve Ordinary Men (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2002): 162.