THOMAS AND THE PHYSICIAN

THOMAS

John 11:16; John 14:5‑7; John 20:24‑29

A volume full of interest, and I think of instruction, might be written on the misunderstood men and women of the Bible, misunderstanding arising, I have no doubt, through faulty exposition at some time or another. To me among the most conspicuous of such is Thomas. We ever associate him with one word in our mind, and that is the word doubting. It is not long since a man of somewhat cynical and critical attitude of mind on things generally, said to me, "I am a bit of a Didymus." I think I astonished him when I said, "Where is the other?" He asked me what I meant, and I reminded him that Didymus meant Twin, just as Thomas means twin in our language.

Now, as a matter of fact, this man was a man to be thankful for as a friend. Do not let us forget that Jesus appointed him an apostle, and that therefore he was in that inner company to whom our Lord said at the close of His ministry:

"No longer do I call you servants . . . but I have called you friends."

We admit, however, at once that there are senses in which Thomas was a difficult man, but the only thing that proves is that he was worthwhile. The dealing of our Lord with him is a radiant example of His perfect understanding and His perfect method.

We ask, then, what do we know about Thomas? As in the case of Philip, Matthew, Mark and Luke name him once, and once only. Luke names him in his Gospel, and in his Second Treatise. He is named by these evangelists as being of the number of the twelve. This was, of course, necessary, because he was thus chosen and appointed by our Lord. If, however, we want to know anything of Thomas, as in the case of Philip, we have to turn to John.

We have six occasions when Thomas is referred to. Five of these are in John, and one in Luke. There are three principal occasions upon which he is seen, and it is at least suggestive that every time we see him, the day is one of almost appalling gloom. We have no picture of Thomas, or account of anything he did or said in the day of sunshine. In this case it will be well for us to pause long enough to read the actual statements as they occur.

In John 11:16, we read:

"Thomas, therefore, who is called Didymus, said unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him." In John 14:5, we read:

"Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; how know we the way?"

At chapter 20:24, we read:

"But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples, therefore, said unto him, we have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, except I shall see in 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."

In the same chapter (26-28):

"And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace unto you. Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing."

The twenty-first chapter opens with these words:

"After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias; and He manifested on this wise. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana, in Galilee, and the two sons of Zebedee, and two other of His disciples."

Luke tells us in the Book of the Acts (1:13), that Thomas was among the number of those who foregathered in the upper room. There is yet another reference, Revelation 21:14:

"The walls of the city had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."

Of these Thomas was one.

As we glance over these references we see three outstanding occasions upon which this man is revealed, and as we have already said, in each case it was a day of gloom. The first is in the account connected with the death and raising of Lazarus. He was on the other side of Jordan in the company of Jesus and the other apostles, when the message came that Lazarus was sick. He was there also when the further message came, declaring that Lazarus was dead. When this news came, our Lord turned toward Judaea, and His disciples unquestionably did their very best to discourage Him from going. They knew perfectly well the attitude of the Jews, and that if He went back into Judaea, every human probability pointed toward His arrest and even His death. It was then that Thomas said:

"Let us also go, that we may die with Him."

We see him next in the hour when Christ was giving to that group of His disciples His final instructions. The account occurs in those marvelous chapters which record the intimate conversations that our Lord had with these men. The first part of His instructions to them consisted of His dealing with difficulties raised by His disciples. In every case they were the expression of difficulties showing how perplexed these men were by the circumstances in the midst of which they found themselves. Peter, Philip, and Jude, and also Thomas spoke on that occasion.

Peter had asked Him, "Whither goest Thou?" He had replied to him, and the last thing He said in the reply was that declaration that in His Father's house there were many abiding places, and indicating that in His going, He was not leaving the Father's house, but only passing to another abiding place. He told them that He was going to prepare a place for them, and said, "Whither I go, ye know the way." Then the voice of Thomas was heard, literally contradicting the Lord, as he said:

"Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; how know we the way?"

There can be no doubt that Thomas, in common with the others, had grasped the fact that when our Lord spoke of the Father's house He had referred to the whole universe, and he realized that He was passing out in that universe to some other realm, in order to prepare a place for them. Thomas then said:

"Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; how know we the way?"

And his statement meant that they were ignorant of the facts concerning that larger spiritual world, and therefore they could not know the way to any sphere therein. To me it was a great word that he uttered, and probably was expressive of much in his own mind. The one fact was that they had no certainty concerning the worlds or the abiding places lying beyond the earthly.

When Jesus was next with the apostles, we find that Thomas was not there. It is at this point that he is criticized, and I think probably justifiably. Nevertheless, it may be best for us to attempt to understand the real reason of his absence. I believe the only answer can be found in the fact that he was so appallingly perturbed by the horror of the thing he had seen, he had no desire to talk to Simon or John, or any of the company. He wanted to escape from the old associations. I do not think there was any intentional disloyalty revealed in his absence. I think it was the outcome of an appalling agony.

Then eight days after, Thomas is found in the company. Somewhere in the interval he must have returned to them, because we have the record of the fact that they declared to him, "We have seen the Lord"; and it was then that he revealed the whole agony of his soul as he said:

"Except I see in 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 cannot read that saying as the revelation of cynical unbelief. It was rather the outpouring of the heart of a man who had been so filled with horror at the sight of the wounds of Jesus that he declared he would not believe that He was alive, until His identity was demonstrated by those very wounds.

We see him next on the shore of Tiberias listening to Jesus. John names him as being present, but not a word is recorded beyond that. He was there a silent listener as the Lord talked to Peter.

The next place in which we see him is in the upper room at Pentecost, waiting for, and in the Temple courts at that point receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Thus he passes from our view.

There are many legendary stories, undoubtedly many of them well founded as to where he went and what he did. The ultimate picture, as we have seen, is that of his name inscribed on one of the foundation stones of the city of God.

What sort of man was this? First of all, quite evidently he was practical. That is evidenced by his revelation of a sense of hopelessness as Jesus had decided to go into Judaea. He had calculated the situation carefully, and knew perfectly well, and he was quite right on the human level, that if Jesus went there, they would apprehend Him and kill Him. Equally we see the practical side of his nature when he dared definitely to contradict the Lord, saying when Jesus told them that they knew the way, that they did not know where He was going, and consequently could not know the way. He was not going to pretend to understand that which to him was fraught with mystery. The demand he made to the other disciples after his absence on the first resurrection day also shows his practical outlook on life.

The same set of incidents show him to be a man of perfect honesty. He would not affect a faith which he did not possess. Thomas was not the kind of man who would profess admiration and understanding of something that baffled him.

And again his loyalty shines through all the account. It is, perhaps, most clearly seen in the account of his words, "Let us die with Him." The intention was good. If his Lord was going into Judaea to certain failure, then he wanted to be associated with Him in that failure. It was an expression of extreme loyalty. We know that in the sequel he broke down and fled with the rest, but at the moment, when he contradicted Jesus, he did it in the profoundly respectful words, "Lord, we know not whither Thou goest." Confused and bewildered, he still spoke to Jesus as to his Lord.

It is, of course, equally evident that he was a man of courage. That courage necessarily flames into clearest vision in the great confession which he ultimately made, "My Lord and my God."

As we have twice already said, the highest revelation of the man comes in the midst of circumstances of gloom and of darkness. In such we see him a man moved to the depths of his soul in each case, and blurting out the truth concerning his consciousness at the moment. He was a great emotional soul. He is spoken of as being skeptical, and there is no doubt that it is true. It is best, however, that we ask ourselves what we-really mean by that word. We have used it for a generation and more as applicable to flippant unbelief, but the flippant man is never truly a skeptic. He lacks the skeptical ability. The skeptic is one who looks carefully into things, determined to question as to their deepest meaning.

We now come to the great subject of how our Lord dealt with this man. In order to discover this, we pass over the same stories again. We may remind ourselves that we have no account of how Christ first met him, or of how he came to be a disciple of Jesus. His introduction to us is found in the fact that our Lord selected and chose him among others from the larger company of His disciples to be with Him, and to serve Him in a special way.

The method of Jesus with him was wholly that of adopting such means as would strengthen him at the point of his weakness. When he said, Let us go up with Him and die with Him, Jesus allowed him to go, and in Judaea gave him, of course in company with the rest, the ultimate revelation of His mastery over death. Our Lord had said to him, again necessarily to the rest also, concerning the death of Lazarus:

"I am glad I was not there, to the intent ye may believe."

Thomas then travelled with his Lord to the grave, and saw the One with Whom he had come up to die, Master of death. Standing at the tomb of Lazarus, he heard Him speak to the world that lay beyond, and call a spirit back. One wonders if Thomas did remember that when a little later he declared that he had no certainty concerning the world beyond, that Jesus had proved Himself to have knowledge and certainty as He addressed that world, and called the spirit of Lazarus back.

When he had declared that he did not know to what place the Lord went, and could not know the way, Christ answered him with infinite patience, and uttered a word in the midst of his doubting and questioning, which had in it an element of revealing light, as He had said:

"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life."

When Thomas, gathered on the second first day of the week it is, I think, perfectly clear that our Lord's appearing was especially on his behalf. As He had done on the resurrection day, He greeted the company with the words, "Peace unto you," and then, addressing Himself directly to Thomas, He offered him the demonstration of His identity, which he had declared to the disciples that he must have. Personally I do not believe for a moment that Thomas stretched forth his hand, but the offer was made. In connection with it our Lord spoke to him, "Be not faithless, but believing." These words would be more accurately rendered, do not be unbelieving, but be trustworthy.

It is very arresting to notice the different method our Lord employed with Thomas and with Mary of Magdala. When she would have taken hold on Him, He told her not to do so. She had been satisfied with the earthly presence, and she had to learn that there would be a new relationship, independent of earthly contact. Thomas on the other hand, questioning the supernatural, and only able to find it through the natural, was offered this contact. Our Lord's method depended entirely upon the character of the person He was dealing with. Mary of Magdala had to be taught the reality of the spiritual, even when there was no possibility of physical contact. Thomas needed the demonstration of the spiritual in the realm of the natural, and Jesus offered it to him.

We may summarize the method of Jesus by saying He had confidence in Thomas; He believed in him; He chose him for an apostle; and proved His faith in Thomas all the way through. Second, He corrected each blunder with infinite patience. Third, He gave him opportunity for advance. At last His victory was complete when He received the great confession: "My Lord and my God."

The account is full of value for all, but of especial value to some. It teaches us that firm foothold for faith has often to be found by fighting. There are those who seem never to have difficulty. They may be happy, and thank God. There are others who cannot avoid the critical and skeptical spirit.

Such an attitude produces a great seriousness of mind which is always sad. It is the attitude of a man who wants to believe, and yet must be true. Almost inevitably we recall the words of

Tennyson about Arthur Hallam:

"He fought his doubts and gather'd strength,

He would not make his judgment blind,

He faced the spectres of the mind

And laid them; thus he came at length

To find a stronger faith his own."

Any merely flippant person in these curious days in which we live, who imagines he or she has some relationship with Thomas, and says smilingly, "I am an agnostic," is not for a moment to be considered in the same category.

We, then, remind ourselves of that to which we made earlier reference, that Thomas made his gravest mistake when he was absent from the assembly of his comrades on the resurrection day. I think the reason of his absence, as we have already referred to it, was true, but it was a mistake. In the hour of darkness we should never forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

The whole account appeals to the faith-assailed man to deal with the Master directly. There may be varied methods of making that personal contact, but it is the secret finally of full assurance of faith.

Let those who find faith easy rejoice, and live in that last beatitude of Jesus:

"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

It is important here to remember in saying that He was not speaking of the other apostles. They had seen. He was rather referring to all who believed, without the vision of the physical.

Let all such, however, wait patiently for Thomas. Upon one occasion, Dr. Simpson, referring to this subject said, the blame for his absence was not wholly on him. If Thomas was not there on the first occasion, they ought to have gone out and found him. Well, perhaps they did. In any case the whole truth is this, when this man arrives by whatever means, his confession will not be behind any made by those who have had no struggle in faith. He is the man who at last will say, "My Lord and my God."