Part 2: Doubting Thomas

Part 2: Doubting Thomas

“Christ has risen. He has risen indeed,” this was proclaimed during church service on Easter Sunday . It was a call for celebration.

As the worship started with an upbeat song to celebrate His resurrection, the toll of feeling forsaken the night before weighed down on my heart. I knew what happened next – Jesus was resurrected in victory. But amid the singing, I could understand why Thomas doubted.

He believed in Jesus but looked at what happened – Jesus on the cross. The disciples were being ridiculed and looked foolish for believing a mere man who couldn’t even save Himself. They were now hunted down. They feared persecution for something that didn’t even come true (at that point in time). The nails on the cross also shattered their trust in Jesus as the Messiah.

Doesn’t this come in different forms in our lives? You give up everything to follow Jesus but that ministry didn’t take off and you have to shut it. You achieve nothing in the world’s eyes. Looks like it’s a testimony of foolishness rather than God’s goodness. Or you left your family’s religion to follow Jesus and endured their persecution. In the end, they seem to be doing better than you – thriving in worldly success but you are still ploughing into a non-growing ministry.

Meanwhile, doubts and fears seep into the hearts. It’s very likely the disciples felt this way too – especially in between His death and resurrection. What now? Continue believing or accept it’s all a scam?

Perhaps, the depth of Thomas’s doubt was due to the depth of his love and hope in Jesus. The more one loves, hopes and expects, the greater the disappointment, and the harder it is to trust again.

Once bitten, twice shy. “I trusted so much, yet all I’ve hoped is crushed. How can I trust again until I see concrete evidence?”

And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:26-29 (NKJV)

Jesus knew. So instead of scolding Thomas, “you of little faith“, Jesus graciously asked Thomas to touch Him to believe. I was reminded of the woman who touched Jesus and was healed immediately. In Luke 8:46, “Jesus said, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me.””

Thomas’s heart was healed after he touched Jesus. His doubting heart was transformed into a believing heart. I believe that the deeper the doubts went, the deeper the beliefs would be after the life-changing touch of Jesus.

For those who feel doubtful and discouraged, touch Jesus, touch the bible and read it.Jesus is the Word as mentioned in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.

I too have been doubting a lot recently, and I was reminded by the deviousness of the serpent. In Genesis, the serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say that?” 

To answer this question, learn from Jesus – when the devil tempted Him three times, he responded with God’s word each time. The Word of God is also the Sword of the Spirit (spiritual armour in Ephesians 6:17). It is both defensive and offensive.

Above all else, guard your heart, and not let doubts and fears seep in. Be vigilant because the devil walks about like a roaring lion to seek whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Proverbs 4:23

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