Article Tools
- Text Size
- Add a comment (1)
- Print this article
- Email this article
Thomas knew with a certainty that Jesus was dead.
All of Jerusalem knew that the rabbi from Galilee had been crucified and hastily buried. How then, he reasoned logically, could he possibly give any credence to the other disciples’ report that Jesus had returned to life and appeared to them (John 20:19-20, 24-25; see also Luke 24:36-43)? Though Thomas was a brave man, one who had been ready to accompany Jesus into danger when the Pharisees were hunting him (John 11:8, 16), he was also a realist who moved only when he was sure of the way to go (14:5). He was a man who would only believe what he could see with his own eyes, who wanted to handle the evidence with his own hands before he would be convinced of anything and commit himself to it wholeheartedly. Thus, it’s become common in colloquial speech to refer to a skeptic as a “Doubting Thomas.”
Thomas set stringent conditions for belief—”Unless I see in [Jesus’] hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). Given these strong terms, we might think him callous and faithless. Yet Jesus had first shown his wounded hands and feet to the other disciples as proof of his identity and to calm their fear: “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see: for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:38-39). Absent on that occasion, Thomas had heard his friends’ report of it (John 20:24). Finding it hard to believe that Jesus was indeed alive, he demanded the same assurance the others had been offered.
Once Thomas saw Jesus with his own eyes, his response was total surrender and belief. He was convinced and overwhelmed, perhaps not so much by the proof he saw in Jesus’ wounded hands and side as by the love and understanding that Jesus had for him. This risen Lord had already known Thomas’ thoughts and unhesitatingly offered the doubter his wounded side. A striking description of this encounter is given by Ronald Brownrigg in Who’s Who in the Bible:
In that moment Thomas must have seen both the body on the cross, hanging by hands and feet, the side opened by the soldier’s spear, and his living friend and master. As these two figures fused together, so Thomas leapt the gap between loyalty to a friend and adoring faith in God himself. His ponderous pessimism and lonely doubts disappeared, and he identified his friend as both “My Lord and my God!”
Kyrios theos—”My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)—is the Greek translation used for Yahweh ‘Elôhîm, the Hebrew term for the God of Israel. In Thomas’ mouth, it’s also a complete acknowledgment of Christ’s nature and one of the most definitive assertions of faith recorded in the gospels. With this response, Thomas left no room for doubt of Jesus’ identity. Since he realized that Jesus had read his heart and known of his bold demand, his reply was not just a profession of faith but an act of adoration and an expression of deep sorrow at his own brashness and unbelief.
Scripture scholars note that the Gospel of John originally ended with the account of Thomas’ encounter with the risen Lord and his proclamation of faith. (Chapter 21, considered by most scholars to be a later addition to John’s Gospel, has been fully accepted in the canon of Scripture since the earliest days of the Church even though it may not have been written by John himself.) Through Thomas’ proclamation of faith, John was affirming Jesus’ resurrection for his readers and establishing it as a fact. The evangelist concluded his work with the statement that he had written his Gospel so that his readers would come to the same belief in the Messiah as Thomas did and have life in Jesus’ name (John 20:31).
Just as Jesus was gracious to Thomas, he is gracious to us. Thomas’ doubts serve to confirm our own faith in the risen Lord, noted St. Gregory the Great in his Homilies on the Gospels, and his testimony strengthens our belief:
Do you really believe that it was by chance that this chosen disciple was absent, then came and heard, heard and doubted, doubted and touched, touched and believed? It was not by chance but in God’s providence. In a marvelous way God’s mercy arranged that the disbelieving disciple, in touching the wounds of his master’s body, should heal our wounds of disbelief. The disbelief of Thomas has done more for our faith than the faith of the other disciples. As he touches Christ and is won over to belief, every doubt is cast aside and our faith is strengthened. So the disciple who doubted, then felt Christ’s wounds, becomes a witness to the reality of the resurrection.
Jesus readily gave Thomas the assurance that he had sought by being physically present to the doubter and showing his wounds to him. But he especially commended those whose belief was gained through faith rather than sight: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29). As St. Gregory further explained,
Faith is the proof of what cannot be seen. What is seen gives knowledge, not faith. When Thomas saw and touched, why was he told: You have believed because you have seen me? Because what he saw and what he believed were different things. God cannot be seen by mortal man. Thomas saw a human being, whom he acknowledged to be God, and said: My Lord and my God. Seeing, he believed; looking at one who was true man, he cried out that this was God, the God he could not see.
What follows is reason for great joy: Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. There is here a particular reference to ourselves; we hold in our hearts one we have not seen in the flesh. We are included in these words… .
Peter, who was probably present at this scene, later encouraged Christians who had become believers with words similar to those Jesus had spoken to Thomas: “Without having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9). Blessed are we, too, when we believe without seeing!
Jesus’ resurrected body “possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 645). With this body that had been tortured, crucified, and raised from the dead, he was able to pass through locked doors (John 20:19) and eat fish (Luke 24:42-43). Yet Jesus’ glorified body retained its wound marks as a sign of the high price paid for our redemption.
These wounds are still visible as Jesus, the lamb slain for us, stands glorified before the Father (Revelation 5:6). Reflecting on the wounds of Christ, St. Ambrose wrote,
He chose to bring to heaven those wounds he bore for us, he refused to remove them, so that he might show God the Father the price of our freedom. The Father places him in this state at his right hand, embracing the trophy of our salvation: such are the witnesses the crown of his scars has shown us there.
Tradition tells us that Thomas’ love for his crucified and risen Lord later led him to carry the good news to India, where he died a martyr’s death by the spear.
1. What do Jesus’ wounds indicate to you about his risen body? Describe some of the other properties of Jesus’ body after the resurrection. Why do you think the evangelists emphasized these qualities so much?
2. Do you think Thomas’ request was unreasonable? Why or why not? In what tone of voice or with what attitude do you imagine he said it? Bewildered? Challenging? Tentative and searching? Demanding?
Jesus as God still wants us to BELIEVE that he has deafeated the power of death.He knows that as man we sometimes are limited in faith by our physical sight which actually- sometimes drives our mind.
The work that was ahead of the apostles was one that could only be done - not by their might nor just preaching the gospel with mere words- but with words and strenght that are borne out of every convinction of both their spirit and mind(which could be greatly influenced by sight) that Jesus is RISEN.So it was not just Thomas - other apostles needed to see those marks as well.
For us today,we know that Christ is always willing to give us testimonies of our own, if only we can trust him so that when they come like St Thomas we will exclaim My Lord and My God -but not as a result of our disbelife but in praise and thanksgiving to God for his graces and Love for us.