What a Nickname

John 20:24-27

Watch on YouTube

Our lesson for today is from John chapter 20, verses 24 through 27.

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:24-27)

Have you ever had a sleepless night? The kind of night where you catch yourself tossing and turning for hours on end. Until eventually you just give up and you say, know what? I’m going to go out into the living room and watch some TV. You turn on the television and flip through the channels, and there’s one thing that’s on pretty much every channel, and that’s the infomercial.

An infomercial can be for any product, but it always seems as if they have the same kinds of lines, the same kind of jargon and lingo. You’ll hear things like, don’t wait! Limited stock. We’re running out! Only for easy payments of $19.99, or perhaps one of the classics, “but don’t take my word for it.” Then they go to a customer who is, of course, if you read the fine print, compensated for their time to give a testimony about this product. About how good it is about how helpful and important it is in their lives. Why is it that infomercials cross the board do that?

Well, it’s because there’s something powerful about an eyewitness testimony, right? Somebody saying, I saw it, I experienced I know that it’s important. Now with an infomercial, that might not be true, but with the gospel it is. In our lesson we see Doubting Thomas. What a nickname, Doubting Thomas. Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus appeared and the disciples, they saw Jesus. He appeared to them, they were certain of it. And they were eyewitnesses. And they told Thomas Jesus was here. He’s alive. But Thomas doubted. Thomas didn’t believe.

It’s easy to wag our finger at Thomas and say, how could he not believe? These are the apostles! They’re telling him, why would he doubt? But before we were too hard on Thomas. I think we need to think about ourselves. There are times in our lives where perhaps doubting could come before our name. There are times in which things are happening in our lives. We have struggles in our lives, we have difficulties, and we think, what are you doing, God? We are in that moment doubting his plan, doubting his love, doubting the resurrection joy that we should have.

And we can make excuses and say, well, he had the disciples, we don’t have that, but we do, don’t we? In the scriptures, we have the eyewitness testimony, the same testimony that Thomas had. There’s a tremendous comfort in this lesson. When Jesus enters the room and sees Thomas, what does he say? Does he crush him and say, how could you doubt me after everything I’ve shown you? After the eyewitness testimony? No. He says, peace be with you. Peace be with you. He offers more reassurance. He says, look, look at my hands. Look at the wounds in my side. He doesn’t take Thomas in his struggling faith and crush it. No, with his words, he builds Thomas up in his faith.

So those times when we find ourselves doubting, doubting God’s intentions, doubting God’s plan. Remember what he says to Thomas. He says, peace be with you. Find answers. Find guidance. Find true peace in your Savior. Amen.