Mensa Otabil - Doubting Thomas
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John 20:24 — 25: Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, «We have seen the Lord.» He said to them, «Unless I see His hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.»
I like the Bible because the stories are real, and if you were Thomas, you would probably behave the same way as the disciples. After all, they didn’t believe until they had seen Jesus Christ. But this is very important because this story has deep implications for all of us. For every other believer after the first-century Christians, every believer who has come to believe in Jesus has believed without seeing Jesus.
So, Jesus had to make a very important point with Thomas’s situation here. Thomas heard that Jesus had resurrected, but he said, «I’m not going to believe it.» Yet he believed that Jesus was dead. How did Thomas know that Jesus was dead? He was not at Calvary; he didn’t see the crucifixion. How did he know Jesus was dead? He heard people talk about it; he had the report that He was dead, and he believed it without evidence. So, he could believe that Jesus had died without seeing His dead body or being present at His crucifixion. Many people can believe the negative without evidence like Thomas, but they struggle to believe the positive without evidence.
So, he believed Jesus was dead although he was not there. He believed Jesus had been nailed in His hands; he didn’t see it; someone told him. He believed Jesus’s side had been pierced; how did he know? He wasn’t there; someone told him. And when the same people told him that Jesus was resurrected, he balked at it. So, he didn’t believe the witness of His resurrection but believed the report of His death. We see that Thomas has a selective belief system; he selects what he can believe and what he cannot believe. He selects what is convenient to believe and what is inconvenient to believe.
You know, there are many people like that; they select what they want to believe about God. They select what they want to believe in the Bible. They would say, «Well, this is God» in the Bible, and another part of the Bible says something else, and they say, «No, I don’t want to believe that.» The same Bible-somebody will go to a service and say, «Oh yeah, I believe that God is speaking to me through the message.» Oh, but this one is not for me because it’s not comfortable for me; it’s not convenient. It pierces me too deeply; it demands too much from me. You cannot be selective in what you believe.
Thomas would be credible if he said, " I don’t believe in His death because I didn’t see it, and so I don’t believe in His resurrection because I don’t see it.» But you cannot say, «I believe in His death, which I didn’t see, but cannot believe in His resurrection, which I didn’t also see.» You can’t be selective; you can’t choose your faith. You can’t choose what is convenient for you and what you want to apply to your life, and that’s a very important conversation we should have.
It’s a very important warning for all of us: don’t be selective in what you want to believe about God. The Bible is entirely the word of God; it is God’s full counsel to us. Jesus is entirely who He says He is; you can’t choose to believe that and disbelieve the other. That is the problem with Thomas. Strangely, he is called a Twin; he’s double-sided. He can’t really have one focus about his belief. I pray that God will help each of us to arrive at the complete and full understanding of the word of God.
Let’s pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, Your written word is You speaking to me. I receive the fullness of Your word as truth. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, I’ll catch you again tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.