Doubting Thomas, Whose Twin is He? Ours!

If we were to do a “Word Association” game, some words would we could probably guess without trying to hard. Others, perhaps not.

If we said Peter, what would you say?
Faith? Disciple, Deny?
If we said Judas, you might say: Betray
& If you said Thomas, most people would probably say: “Doubter”

It sort of unfortunate that he’s gotten that label, as that’s not the only thing about him.

Tradition has it that he spread the church to India. So, clearly he was faithful.

He is mentioned several other times in the Gospel of John before our passage today…

In fact, when Jesus says that he is going to Jerusalem to die, everyone tries to talk him out of it except Thomas. Thomas steps to the plate and says, “let us all go and die with him”.

Then in another place, He also is bold enough to ask Jesus: “How can we know the way?” When Jesus says: “You know the way where I am going” predicting his own death.

To which Jesus says those famous and words…. “I am the way the truth & the life, no one comes to the Father but by me”.

Beautiful, yet troubling to the modern mind because of the implication that only believers in Jesus can “Know the Father”.

For the modern person like us,

We might like the way the poet Tennyson put it:

"There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds."

In this, we would say….. Doubt is not the opposite of Faith, but a part of it.

These and other lines, make it clear, that Thomas, called the Twin, is our Twin.

You see, the text refers to Thomas as Dydemis, which means Twin.

But….Whose twin was he a twin of? Was he the Twin of Jesus? Or of another named or un-named disciple?

Very possibly. But for sure, He is our Twin.

We too are doubters so often. We too are the ones who want critical evidence. We too are the modern scholars who pick apart the text and wonder how it could all be.

Indeed…Thomas is our Twin. We look like him & Act like him. Just like twins look & act alike.

And, that wouldn’t be so bad…as long as….
We close the loop like him.
Thomas misses Jesus the first time and says…I won’t believe until I see the wounds in his hands and side. Until I touch, I won’t believe.

But then, a week later, Jesus again appears when Thomas is with them.

Now, Jesus invites Thomas to see & touch & believe.

Thomas’ response: “My Lord & My God!!”

That’s what I mean about closing the loop. I trust that we will be as the Gospel writer says that Jesus said: “you believe because you see, but blessed are they that believe, even if they don’t see.”

That is really closing the loop. Not seeing, but believing.

So my question to us today: Are we Thomas’ Twin? Perhaps in our doubts, but Hopefully in our Belief.

And in our actions.

Thomas went from there and eventually spread the Gospel message to a whole new continent.

Can we be Thomas’ Twin?

Wyvetta Bullock, in Must We See to Believe? Relays this story….

There is a story about a pre-civil rights African American community in Florida . The story says that during times of political elections, this community would rent a voting machine and go through the voting process. Now, they knew that their votes would not be counted, but they voted anyway. When asked by members of the white community why they did this every year, they replied, "Oh, just practicing. Just practicing."Believing in what is not yet seen means we practice or behave as if it is already exists. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said,

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."
This is what leaders and visionaries do.
They believe in something bigger than themselves and they begin to act as if it is so.

Thomas was a visionary & leader. Are we his Twin? I end with this other story that I think says it all…..

As told by Leslie Flynn, it is of a
small boy being raised in a frontier city by his grandmother. One night the house catches on fire. The grandmother, trying to rescue the boy who was asleep in the bedroom upstairs, is overcome by the smoke and dies in the fire. This frontier city doesn't have much of a fire department. A crowd gathers around the house and they hear a small boy crying out for help. The lower floor is a wall of flames and no one seems to know what to do. Suddenly, a man pushes through the crowd and begins climbing an iron drainage pipe which runs to the roof. The pipe is hot from the fire, but he makes it to a second floor window. The man crawls through the window and locates the boy. With the crowd cheering encouragement, the man climbs back down the hot iron pipe with the boy on his back and his arms around his neck.

A few weeks later, a public meeting was held to determine in whose custody the boy would be placed. Each person wanting the child would be allowed to make a brief statement. The first man said, "I have a farm and would give the boy a good home. He would grow up on the farm and learn a trade."

The second person to speak was the local school teacher. She said, "I am a school teacher and I would see to it that he received a good education." Finally, the banker said, "Mrs. Morton and I would be able to give the boy a fine home and a fine education. We would like him to come and live with us." The presiding officer looked around and asked, "Is there anyone else who would like to say anything?" From the back row, a man rose and said, "These other people may be able to offer some things I can't. All I can offer is my love." Then, he slowly removed his hands from his coat pockets. A gasp went up from the crowd because his hands were scarred terribly from climbing up and down the hot pipe. The boy recognized the man as the one who had saved his life and ran into his waiting arms.

The farmer, teacher and the banker simply sat down. Everyone knew what the decision would be. The scarred hands proved that this man had given more than all the others.

The scarred hands of Jesus say it all to us. In his death, we have life. This day, don’t doubt, but Believe!!