John 20:19-31 (The Message)
19 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, "Peace to you." 20 Then he showed them his hands and side. 21 Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you." 22 Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said. 23 "If you forgive someone's sins, they're gone for good. If you don't forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?" 24 But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples told him, "We saw the Master." But he said, "Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won't believe it." 26 Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, "Peace to you." 27 Then he focused his attention on Thomas. "Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don't be unbelieving. Believe." 28 Thomas said, "My Master! My God!" 29 Jesus said, "So, you believe because you've seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing." 30 Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. 31 These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.
Be a doubting Thomas! It is a part of healthy faith.
It will keep you honest and open to change; open to God’s will for your life.
It will keep you humble - you will not get so easily caught in the idolatry of certainty. Faith will be a voyage of discovery, often disturbing, yet also fulfilling.
For the terrible truth we are saved from by doubting is, as Alan Jones says, “the persecuting personality (which) is marked by clarity and precision. (In which) there is no room for indecision... no room for guilt... no room for doubt. Such are the distinguishing marks of a totalitarian state or totalitarian church (or totalitarian individual). (It is ) the divided mind, the uneasy conscience, and the sense of personal failure (that is, our own uneasiness and doubt) which brings us... to the place of faith (where we become not blind believers) but one of God’s spies trying to make room for hope (in a world of hopelessness and despair.)” (Soul Making, pp.117,119)
Ellie Wiesel, who lived through the fanaticism of the Holocaust born of the blind belief in the superiority of the Arian race says, “I turn away from persons who declare that they know better than anyone else the only true road to God....My experience is that the fanatic hides from true debate...He is afraid of pluralism and diversity; he abhors learning. He knows how to speak in monologues only...The fanatic never rests and never quits; the more he conquers, the more he seeks new conquests....A fanatic has answers, not questions; certainties, not hesitations,(and ) as the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche expressed it, (it’s) ‘Madness is the result not of uncertainty but certainty’.”
“In a world where there is no room
for doubt, ambiguity, or questioning,
there is no room for genuine faith.”
Alan Jones
Prayer thought for the week: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. Help me to doubt my way into a living active faith. And be one of God’s spies making room for hope in my world, certain only that love is your answer to our problems.”
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