The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
April 22, 2001

From Doubt to Shalom
John 20:19-31

How would you like to be remembered? What would you like to be known for? If you could write your ideal eulogy or obituary, what would it say? I went seminary just outside of Washington, DC. I would scan the Sunday Washington Post obituaries from time to time and notice how they described people. They always had headlines that described the deceased as a Teacher, Plumber, Fireman, Businessman, or Homemaker. The Post almost invariably defined someone by his or her life’s work. Sometimes I would wonder how those people would have described themselves. Was the plumber a man defined by his plumbing business, or would he have preferred to be described as a soccer coach or a Boy Scout leader. What about the Teacher? Perhaps that was her life’s passion, but maybe she was an avid gardener who lovingly coaxed orchids to their showy best.

This is the Second Sunday of Easter, and each year the reading is the same for this week. We always hear the story of the Apostle remembered for his doubts. Thomas is known through all time as Doubting Thomas. Now there’s a nickname for you. His lifetime of achievements as an Apostle, Missionary and death as a Martyr are practically forgotten. We remember Thomas’ doubts. He didn’t get to be Thomas the Great, Thomas the Just, or even the ever-popular Thomas the Tank Engine. He is Doubting Thomas.

That’s pretty tough in our culture. We honor people who are sure of themselves. Farragut is remembered for shouting the order, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” Would we remember Farragut’s orders during the Battle of Mobile Bay if he had said, “I doubt we can make it through the torpedoes, we better stop here.” No chance. We honor people who have it all together. We honor people who are sure of themselves.

Well, the Apostle Thomas was sure. Thomas was sure that unless he could see the marks of the nails in his hands and put his finger in the mark of his hands and in his side, he would never believe that his friend and teacher Jesus had been raised from the dead. Thomas was crystal clear about what he needed. For a week straight, Thomas lived with that doubt. Thomas was surrounded by the disciples who hadn’t been out on an errand the previous week. They had each had a chance to see Jesus and to hear him speak the words, “Peace be with you.”

Jesus appeared to the rest on Sunday evening, the same Sunday of the resurrection. All through the week, the disciples would have tried to persuade Thomas that Jesus was truly back from the dead. Yes, he had really suffered and really died, but God had raised Jesus from the dead and he was back in the wounded flesh to prove it. Thomas never wavered in his demand, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and in his side, I will not believe.” Thomas had conditions for his belief and he would not be swayed from them.

Thomas speaks in only two other verses of scripture. And they don’t necessarily give us a picture of a rock-steady Apostle. In the story of Lazarus being raised form the dead, Thomas is there at Jesus’ side when Jesus says they are going to the outskirts of Jerusalem to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus’ endangers all their lives by going to Jerusalem at this point as powerful people in Jerusalem want Jesus dead. Thomas knows this and says to the Apostles, “Let us also go to Jerusalem, that we may die with him.” Thomas could mean, let us go so that we can die with Jesus or with Lazarus. What is clear is that Thomas doubts that the group can go to Jerusalem and come out alive. Is Thomas ready to die, or is he trying to get the gung-ho group to slow down and see what the cost of discipleship might be? We can’t be sure, but given what else we know about Thomas, I wouldn’t want to dismiss the possibility that he is being facetious. Jesus says, “Let’s go to Jerusalem.” And the not quite so fool-hearty Thomas says, “Let’s all go to Jerusalem so that we can die with him.”

Once in Jerusalem, Jesus is having a farewell talk with his disciples. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” And Jesus goes on to say “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you there myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the place where I am going.”

Thomas is the first one to raise his hand at this point, waving it in the air to get the teacher’s attention. Thomas says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus replies “I am the way, the truth and the life.” I’m not sure if that answer was enough for Thomas.

That’s all we have of Thomas though. Once Thomas said, “Let’s all go up to Jerusalem and die.” Another time Thomas asked, “How can we know the way?” And the third time he demanded some physical proof to believe. These three scenes sketch a portrait of indecision that gets Thomas labeled as the ultimate doubter. Whether that distinction is fair or not, that’s the label Thomas the twin is stuck with.

We do know that Thomas was waiting in an upper room in Jerusalem. Afraid of the Romans and the Temple leadership, doubting the story the other disciples told, Thomas was waiting on a sign. Then into his doubts and confusion comes Jesus. The doors of the room are locked, but Jesus appears among them. Jesus has flesh and bones, but his risen body is no longer bound by the laws of physics which confined his earthly ministry.

Jesus looks Thomas in the eyes and says, “Peace be with you.” Well what he really said was “Shalom be with you.” The Hebrew word Shalom means more than our word “peace.” Shalom is well-being, health, happiness, and peace. Shalom is better understood as wholeness or completeness. In the Old Testament, the fullness of Shalom could only come as a gift from God. This is the gift that Jesus brings as he enters into the doubt, indecision, and confusion to offer shalom—God’s wholeness and well-being.

Jesus then speaks to Thomas saying, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt, but believe.” Jesus does not make fun of Thomas doubts. Jesus offers Thomas what Thomas needs. If you need to see and to touch to believe, then see and touch and believe. Jesus offers Thomas a way from doubts to shalom. Jesus offers Thomas his own wounded body.

However, Thomas no longer needed the proof he thought he had to have. Thomas does not reach out his hands to touch his risen Lord. Thomas says instead the ultimate confession of faith. Thomas looks back at Jesus loving gaze and calls his friend and teacher, “My Lord and My God!” No one in all of scripture has confession of faith to top Thomas’ My Lord and My God! Jesus, who he knows to be human, is also divine and Thomas knows it without a doubt.

Jesus offers Thomas what Thomas needs without making fun of his doubts. And Thomas was certainly not alone in the doubt and fear department. Before the other disciples encountered the risen Jesus for themselves, they too doubted. None of them could understand or believe the story the women brought back from the tomb. They all heard and they all doubted. They needed something more to believe. Sure Thomas could have come to faith in the risen Jesus without touching him. But the other disciples could have also come to faith in the resurrection through the story the women told as they returned from the empty tomb. Each of the disciples had their doubts.

Doubts are OK. In fact, I think doubts are to be encouraged. Doubt is a sign of an active faith. Lay your doubts out there. Own up to them. Then give all your doubts to God in prayer. Even if you doubt God can hear and answer prayer, pray about that. Look at what you believe and why, then take your disbelief and give it over to God.

Decide what it would take for you to believe. Do you need some more facts? Do you want to know more about this Jesus to decide? There are some very good book’s that can help you sort through the facts of Jesus’ life and death like Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ. That book examines the evidence for faith. Or do you need to see God working in your life. Ask God for God’s will in your life, test out belief that God can do it and see what happens. The Bible tells us, “Taste and see that God is good.” Try God out. Taste God and see if God will not be good to you.

God revealed God’s own self to us through Jesus the Christ. God continues to work in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. God is working toward Shalom in your life no matter what doubts you have.

Know that Jesus loved Thomas, not in spite of his doubts and fears, but perhaps because of them. Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” Jesus is talking to us in this verse. Jesus turns away from the disciples and looks out at us gathered here this morning and says, “I know that you have not seen me as Thomas could, but I am just as real to you now as I was to Thomas then and I will bless you for believing in me, though you can not see me. I want to take your doubt and give you shalom.”

I don’t know what headline Thomas would have written for his own obituary. Maybe he would have described himself as an Apostle or Martyr. But, Thomas could have been proud that he had been unashamed to lay his doubts out in the open. Maybe he would have called himself Doubting Thomas. Doubting Thomas is not such a bad name after all. Because it was through facing his doubt that Thomas found the answer he was really searching for—God’s shalom.

Shalom be with you. Amen.