Thomas, called
Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other
disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
But Thomas said to
them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger
into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his
disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the
doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with
you."
Then he said to
Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and
put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Thomas answered and
said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him,
"Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those
who have not seen and have believed."
Thomas Merton said,
"Jesus is the only name we need for God." I wonder if Jesus is the
only name we truly have for God. I think
ancient Hebrews had it partially right. There can be no name for what cannot be
named. The Hebrews were afraid to give a name to Yahweh for fear of offending
him. We can't give him a name because no name could really capture the expanse
of God which is beyond our ability to comprehend. We will come back around to
this topic later and see if we can tie what Thomas Merton and Saint Thomas
together to create one thought.
Doubting Thomas did
not get his nickname for nothing. There are few places in scripture where we
find such a dramatic example of doubt. Consider this. Thomas walked with Jesus,
lived with Him, witnessed His works, heard His many promises to return and yet,
when offered testimony Jesus was not truly dead but was resurrected, his
response seems bitter, beyond skepticism and may even have ventured well into denial
and disbelieve. Despite the depth and breadth of his knowledge of the gospel
lived and preached by Jesus and despite the fervent assurances of his friends
and fellow disciples of the resurrection, Thomas makes it very clear that Jesus
would have to do something extraordinary to bring back him, Thomas, back to
belief.
What is missing in
the gospel is context. It is possible that in just a couple of days Thomas had
lapsed from believer to atheist or, to a lesser degree, agnostic. I don't think
we are getting the whole picture. If Thomas was truly embittered and beyond acceptance
of the resurrection, he might have just wandered off to live out his life in
shattered anger and bitterness. Surely countless others did just that or
something similar. The crowds who cheered a messiah on one day saw the same man
crucified a few days later. Thomas could have written Jesus off as just another
failed prophet among the many who were scattered throughout the land. I think
it is significant he didn't vanish. He stuck around and stayed close to the
others. Maybe, just maybe, he may have wondered, is it true? Is Jesus really
back from the dead. His faith may have been shaken but he did not completely
give up.
I think Thomas
wanted to believe but he could not just take a hold of the new reality lest it
also proves to be just another disappointment. I get that. There have been times
in my life when I rejected good news because I did not want to get my hopes up
only to have those hopes dashed on the rocks of disappointment if, and when,
the news proved wrong. This is how it is for so many of us for far too much of
the time. We have been given everything we need and yet we stumble through life
wondering what we need or where we can find it.
When Thomas finally
touched the nail marks, he shouted out, "My Lord, my God." He clearly
got the message and was back to being in all with the others, if he really ever
was not with them. The words he chose are highly important. He looked at the
risen human body of the man Jesus, the man he knew before the crucifixion and
addressed the man as his Lord and his God. For Thomas, the only word he needed
for God from that moment on was Jesus. Through his profession, Thomas gave all
of us a name for God. Jesus.
Let me take you back
to the first words of the Gospel of John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
Who was he? Who was
the Word who was with God in the beginning? Jesus.
Everything we need
to know about God we can learn from Jesus, a man to whom we can relate, a man
who was like us and lived a died a human existence but through that humanity
came the divine gift of God, Himself. Jesus is God. Jesus is our name for God
because we can comprehend the man even if we cannot comprehend the divine
beyond the human. Jesus.
