Doubting Thomas?

I doubt that. It has become an obsession of mine, this doubting Thomas nonsense/gibberish/comedy routine. We all know the story. It was taught to us as kids. It is one of those stories that just is because people say it is so. Plus, who doesn't love a cool nickname, especially when we start to confuse the fact that these men in the bible are real and not just some characters to help the story along.

So who is this Thomas that we mock throughout church history? He is believed to have taken the gospel across the Roman empire. It is also widely believed that he took the gospel to India, where he challenged widely held beliefs of Hinduism. It is also understood that he was martyred in southern India. Oh and he also did the little thing of saying yes to Jesus and dying to himself and following the Lord for the entirety of His ministry.

So how about that for a man who is mocked as having doubted. Which I guess is fine except that the Bible does not show this to be truth. Careful examination of the Word of God shows if anything, that Thomas was faithful to the end. In John 20 and in Luke 24 we can see the events play out.

Jesus has risen from the dead. He is cruising the earth and visiting folks. He is traveling around in His resurrected body. In Luke 24:36 He stops in to talk with the disciples. If we know our accounts we know from John that as Jesus makes this first appearance to the disciples Thomas is not there. (Hint: this is the super important part where we learn something new about Thomas and stop making fun of a man who followed and died for the King of Kings.)

Beginning in verse 36 the 10 (minus Thomas) are astonished. We are told"they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a Spirit."(37) In verse 38 Jesus asks them, "Why are you troubled and why do DOUBTS arise in your hearts?" IN verse 39, "See my hands and my feet it is I myself. Touch me and see. For a Spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." Verse 40, "And when He had said this He showed them His hands and His feet. And more astonishing in verse 41, "And while they still disbelieved He said to them, "Have you anything to eat?" Time out. Stop, breath, Jesus is hungry. What is up with that? In verse 42 they give Him some fish. And in verse 45 He goes ahead and "opens their minds to understand the scriptures." That's pretty cool.

On to John just to make a really long point. In John 20:20 He shows them His hands and side and then the disciples are glad to see Him. In verse 24 it is made clear that Thomas is not there on that fine day. In verse 25 is where all the pulpit comedians get their jokes and doubting Thomas is born because he doesn't believe all these yahoos who, as we have seen, were shown hand, side and feet holes and still were not believing. (Return on back to Luke 24:41). They are all excited in John 20:25 about seeing Jesus and Thomas says, "unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side I will never believe."

So there you are, we have been taught a million times that Thomas does not believe it is really Jesus when really what he does not believe is that these guys, who he has been hanging out with, have conveniently seen Jesus, while he was out doing some stuff, running some errands, who knows. Eight days later Jesus shows up again. He comes to Thomas and says, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe." Okay, another stop and wait moment. Jesus repeats what Thomas had said eight days earlier to the disciples. Cool. But here is some more crazy stuff where our retelling of the event is based on tradition and not the Holy Word of God. We are always taught that this declaration of Thomas not believing and Jesus' proof of the truth all happen in one sequence. We are taught that Thomas says this not believing stuff to Jesus but again he says it to the disciples because he does not believe them. And why should he really? This crew of ten has done nothing but doubt, including some ongoing disbelief after the hole in the hand, foot, side demonstration. And don't forget the yummy broiled fish. They thought Jesus was a Spirit. They didn't think it was Him so He ate some fish. They were clueless.

But here we have Thomas and Jesus says touch and see that I am really Jesus but Thomas never does touch. He just stands there and knows what he is looking at. He knows he is in the presence of not just Jesus the man he walked with but he knows that he is with God. (Critical truth). He says to Jesus, "My Lord and my God." No doubt, he is fully sure of the truth of not just Jesus rising from the dead but Jesus as the Messiah, as the God. Thomas is quick to know he is in the presence of the one who came to save. He doesn't have an instant of doubt when he sees the Messiah standing in front of him. The other 10 had to be convinced with some fish eating.(this fish eating thing is just nuts)

I want to punch walls with that truth. The other 10 were so filled with unbelief that Jesus had to eat some fish and yet Thomas, upon seeing the beauty of this man is undone. He is so sure that he is in the presence of the most high God. So sure he is going to go to his death. No fish demonstration needed, thank you very much. Of them all he knows what he sees when it is clear the rest had no clue.

You have got to be kidding me with how theologically inaccurate the entirety of the church is on this Thomas stuff. Sometimes I am sure I am going to lose it. Maybe it's just me. I doubt it. See what I did there?

10 Minutes

Saturday night at IHOP KC: It is not my favorite time here. It is crowded at the Forerunner Christian Fellowship building. Add to that the truth that anything could happen at any minute. I am not super comfortable in those kinds of settings. I have seen many things on a Saturday night, in this warehouse, over the last five years.

Just so we are clear Saturday night is church night. It lasts four hours plus ministry time and prayer room added to the back end. One can spend six hours at church. Of course that is Saturday. You also go to church on Friday.  But for some reason it is always on Saturday when Jesus shanghais me.

To make it clear Saturday goes something like this: Worship for 1 hour sometimes more. At this point the healing time begins. For some reason healing time at IHOP and announcements at Southlands make me uncomfortable. I cannot connect the two but trust me I feel equally strange during both times. For the record while announcements may stretch to 10 minutes, healing at IHOP can last several hours.

I am not against healing. I think I’m pretty much for it. But nonetheless I get really nervous during that time. It could be the pressure I begin to feel. All these people who need healing and I feel the tension and pressure for them to get healed. Who knows?

So let the healing begin. Wes Hall stands up and begins to ask everyone who needs healing to stand and you know it is almost everyone. I usually get out my Bible, look like I am an outsider, and hope it all goes away. So wouldn’t you know this guy stands up next to me. “You have got to be kidding me,” is what I am thinking. Oh well someone will come and pray for him, they always do. But not this time. Nope he is standing and I am pretending I can’t see him. Oh this Jesus, I can’t believe that I have to stand up and lay my hands on this guy. And by the way, nobody ever comes. It’s just me. This poor guy is stuck with me.

So there are rules to engagement at IHOP. Ask the person’s name. Ask what they want healed. Stay with it until said healing occurs. Or at least until somebody falls down. When you fall down you get a brown blanket. I am still hoping for that day. So I do not follow the rules. I put my hand on his shoulder and no questions will be asked. No eye contact, no names. He is on staff. I can see his badge. He knows that I am not following protocol.There is no way this will go well.

And so I continue. I thank God for how amazing He is. I praise Him for His goodness. I completely forget to ask for the guy to be healed. I am speaking in gibberish. I’m starting to feel sick. My head is hurting. I am so hot. I am sweating. I notice that my arms are hurting that my legs ache, that my back hurts. I could be having a heart attack. It is not clear. But I keep praying. In my head I know his knee is the issue. God just tells me. I keep it to myself. I am so afraid of this stuff. I hope he doesn’t notice that I might be getting sick.

This lasts about 10 minutes, the length of a classically delivered announcement at Southlands. I can’t take much more. I am pretty sure I am going to need a blanket and that will totally blow the whole thing since the guy I am praying for is supposed to need the blanket if I nail this thing. I finally sit down. I put my head between my legs. I am for sure dying. My arms hurt and I can barely breathe. There is no way anyone will call 911 if I start convulsing, the best I can hope for is that blanket. I take a look over at the guy while my head is between my legs. He is moving his knee around. He does this little stretch kind of thing two or three times. He is doing little exercises. He is following protocol. He goes for a walk. He is healed; He knows it, I know it. Just another Saturday night at IHOP KC.