04.16.23 | Can Doubters Be Christians?
“Can Doubters Be Christians?”
The Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring, Senior Minister
Eden United Church of Christ, Hayward, California
Second Sunday of Easter; Apr 16, 2023
The protagonist in today’s gospel reading is a character commonly referred to as “Doubting Thomas.” Many of us identify with him because we are skeptics by nature, or we go through long periods of doubt about the existence of God or the divinity of Jesus, or a whole bunch of other things that we think we are supposed to believe.
If you’re one in that number, then this sermon is especially for you.
So that there are no surprises, I adamantly disagree with the assumption that doubting is incompatible with faithfulness. On the contrary, I believe that doubts and questions are essential to the development of a mature and authentic faith. They are grist for the mill. Asking and exploring questions are a way by which we can grow in the faith, rather them being evidence of a lack of faith.
Doubting and questioning also put us in good company with Jesus’ first followers and Christians throughout history.
Furthermore, the Apostle Thomas has been largely misunderstood in popular culture, and as a result, he has been inappropriately maligned for his willingness to articulate the doubts and questions that were, and often still are, on most people’s minds.
II
Some notable examples follow of how Thomas has been misinterpreted followed by a correction to these misinterpretations.
The Apostle Thomas has most often been characterized as a flawed apostle. This view is based on a narrow, literal reading of John’s gospel that isolates chapter 20 from the rest of the fourth gospel and from the three Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) altogether.
This narrow reading of John seems to filter the interpretation of Thomas through the readers’ own self-doubts and fears of inadequacy, so that readers and hearers alike hold onto sentences that reinforce their sense of inadequacy and the idea that Thomas—and anyone who doubts anything about Christ or the Christian message—is a “failed believer.”
Those who hold this view of Thomas as the flawed apostle and as a failed believer tend to focus on chapter 20, verse 29b: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Thus they (and perhaps we) see Thomas as a man of weak faith, and anyone who desires physical proof of the resurrection as a flawed Christian.
While it’s easy to understand how eyes and hearts gravitate toward this negative view of Thomas, several leading biblical scholars--most notably Raymond Brown--argue that John had a larger purpose in mind when he put these words on Jesus’ lips in John 20:29b. John was written 50 years or more after Jesus’ death. The scholars explain that John was not criticizing Thomas; but, instead, offering a word of encouragement to an entire generation who had lived fifty years or more after the death of Jesus, and who, consequently, could never have had physical proof of the resurrection. 1
Do you hear how differently these words from Jesus seem when we understand that this message in John 20 was aimed at the entire Johannine community, rather than at an individual apostle named Thomas? Furthermore, can you hear how differently these words from Jesus sound when we posit that this message was conveyed to an audience who lived a generation or two after Jesus walked the earth?
Now that you know more about the historical context of the Johannine community, listen again to Jesus’ words: “Blessed are you who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Do you hear John’s meta-message of encouragement in Jesus’ words? “Bless your hearts, you people of faith. Bless your hearts for believing without seeing.”
Do you hear how John is encouraging a fledgling Christian community, rather than wagging his finger (or his tongue) at a doubting apostle?
To embrace this nuanced understanding of Thomas, we must let go of literal interpretations of the gospel, because John never claimed to be writing a historical record of Jesus’ ministry and mission.
Instead, John was writing a testimony about the meaning of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, rather than “just the facts” associated with his life, death, and resurrection. Again, the purpose of John’s gospel was not to document history, but to encourage a group of persecuted Christians, living under siege in Israel during Roman occupation.
Understood in its proper literary and historical context, the character known as Thomas played the role of an “Everyman” in the Johannine community. John wrote the scene with Thomas as though John had witnessed the interaction between Jesus and Thomas. However, John created that story as a foil. In a sense, John is saying, “Look, even people who witnessed the resurrection had a hard time interpreting what had happened. So, it’s no wonder today you wrestle with this event!” In John’s story, Thomas was like most of John’s contemporaries who struggled to make sense of Jesus’ life and ministry, even though he (and they) had never met him or witnessed first-hand his preaching, teaching or healing.
III
Because of the popular, and inaccurate, view of Thomas as the flawed apostle, Thomas has become—in modern progressive circles—the hero of skeptics. To intellectual skeptics, Thomas is one of the “bad boys of the Bible,” with whom they (we) take great pleasure in identifying.
Progressives love Thomas, because he gives canonical legitimacy to their (our) search for truth. To them (to us), Thomas is a protagonist who questions all the answers, and demands tangible proof of the resurrected Christ. For them (for us), he's our kind of guy. Thomas is a biblical character with whom we can finally relate!
Seen in this light, progressives imagine Thomas as a prototype of Albert Schweitzer, or one of our current-day Jesus Seminar types, who have striven to unearth the historical facts about Jesus’ life, and who strive to dispel myths and falsehoods perpetuated about him over the eons.
Both characterizations of Thomas—that of the flawed apostle and the hero of skeptics—are interesting and enriching in their own right, but I don’t think that either fully expresses how John saw Thomas. And I think further assessment of this story can provide grounding for our own faith more than 2000 years after Jesus walked the earth.
IV
My own study of John has led me to believe that John saw Thomas as an exemplary apostle who, according to chapter 11, was the picture of fidelity and courage, and whose faith was later rocked to the core (in Jn. 20) by the reality of Christ’s passion—and by the threat of death that the Apostles and their community faced at the hands of the Roman occupiers.
This third interpretation of Thomas as the “exemplary apostle” reveals a complex, three-dimensional man who grappled mightily with his faith, his doubts, and his role as an apostle. Taken in this light, Thomas and Jesus become more authentic, accessible and believable characters for all of us.
When we study Thomas in the larger context of John’s gospel, we see that he is less of a skeptic and more of a devotee whose faith was forged by controversy, crucifixion, and compassion.
In chapter 11, for example, John suggests that Thomas may have been the most courageous of the twelve, because he was willing to lean into the threats and challenges waged against Jesus, rather than to flee from them. Here in John 11:16, Thomas says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Thomas, more than any of the other disciples, anticipated Christ’s passion and death, and seemed more able to embrace the challenges of discipleship. Similarly, Thomas was determined to reserve his highest allegiance for the one who suffered and risked everything to be true to his purpose, so he said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
“A week later,” John says, “[Jesus’] disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.” Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”
What happens next is unclear. Maybe Thomas reached out and touched Jesus’ wounds and believed. Or maybe it wasn’t a touch. Maybe the sheer profundity of hearing Jesus’ voice soothed Thomas’ soul and resolved Thomas’ doubts. Or maybe both.
Here’s what I think happened: I think Thomas felt the real presence of the risen Christ when he saw Jesus’s wounds and realized that he was familiar with human suffering. I imagine this recognition made it possible for Thomas to lay down the burden of his own suffering and embrace renewed hope in his life and the life to come carrying on Jesus’ message and work in the world.
V
In as much as this recognition and transformation happened for Thomas, I believe that it can also happen for us. I believe that it is possible for us to discover that Christ came for one and all, that he suffered a very human existence, and that the empathy he experienced for human beings--and our awareness of that empathy--can and is the basis upon which we modern Christians can experience healing and new life, in this life, and the next.
The kind of empathy that Thomas encountered in his meeting with Jesus could have taken many forms, then and now. Such empathy could be expressed through a one-to-one mentorship between a 12-step sponsor and a newly sober addict, or a support group for survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Such empathy could be felt between expectant parents who have lost pregnancies, or whose babies could not survive outside the womb. Or such empathy could be discovered by Red Cross volunteers who recovered from their own disasters and come to the aid of others. Or, such knowing could be realized when a friend comes to visit us at the bedside of our dying parent, and we know that they have already been through this rite of passage with their own. And the list could go on.
The contexts in which empathy may be shared can vary tremendously, but the meaning and importance of recognizing and acknowledging our own and the suffering of others can be life-giving and transformative regardless of the context. This recognition and acknowledgement is what allows us to let go of pain and suffering and embrace the Easter hope—trusting that suffering is not our purpose, that healing is possible even when a cure is unavailable, and that death is not the end.
Through experiences of empathy and solidarity in which our deepest wounds are acknowledged and our burdens are shared, true healing can occur, and we (like Thomas) can discover—without a doubt—that Christ is alive and living among us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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1. C.f. Raymond E. Brown, The Community of the Beloved Disciple (Paulist Press: Mahway, NJ, 1979) and Fred Craddock, et al., Preaching Through the Christian Year: Year C (Trinity Press: Valley Forge, PA, 1994, 236−237).