Doubting Duplicate Toys

Suggested Reading: John 20:19-29

One year for Christmas our son received a toy as a gift that he already owned. Looking at the gift, neither my wife nor I could remember him having it. My wife took my son’s word for it, but I am notorious for not believing things unless I verify them myself. My son forgets lots of things but at a moment’s notice he can recall the smallest toy in his toy box and all of the accessories that go with it. Still, when he kept insisting that he already owned the toy and my own stubbornness refused to accept something I couldn’t remember seeing, I commented that I would like to see the one he already had. Twenty seconds later, he had retrieved the toy from his room and placed it right next to the identical toy he had received as a gift. We offered to exchange the toy for something else but he liked the idea of having two of these particular toys. He just wanted me to believe him.

Based on that story alone, you can probably guess that I would fit right in with the disciple Thomas. Once Jesus had returned from the dead, he began appearing to the disciples and while all the other disciples had somehow seen Jesus, Thomas hadn’t been with them. For Thomas, it didn’t matter that all of the other disciples had seen Jesus and talked with him and eaten with him. Thomas insisted, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:24, NIV). When Thomas finally did get to see Jesus and fell on his knees before him, Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29, NIV).

Jesus' assertion was not that people should simply believe blindly whatever they are told about him, but that trust is more rewarding than insisting on verifying everything yourself. Honestly, when ten other grown men you have learned to trust start telling you they’ve seen something with their own eyes, refusing to believe isn’t healthy skepticism but, rather, it is unbelief and arrogance. Jesus didn’t tell Thomas that he should have believed in spite of evidence to the contrary. He simply understood that faith in spite of evidence is a very different thing than faith without evidence or than faith based on the word of someone you trust.

If you belong to Christ, you have already begun to trust, but trusting God with some things is harder than trusting God with others. Believing some parts of God’s word is easier than believing others. God’s desire for us is that we trust Him based as much on His character and Spirit moving in us as on the evidence we hope to find. Finding evidence is great. Being able to believe because we trust the One speaking to us is something even greater. 

Turning the World Upside Down with Doubters

Suggested Reading: Matthew 28:1-20

Sometimes, looking at what the apostles accomplished in the years after Jesus rose back into heaven, it is easy to compare ourselves to them and wish we had as much faith as they did. I mean, these were the people who, according to Acts 17:6, were accused of turning "the whole world upside down" (HCSB). These were men who performed miracles and cast out demons. These people preached great sermons that led thousands upon thousands of people to faith in Jesus. It's easy to look at the apostles and decide that we simply don't have the kind of faith to do things like that.

But then we read a passage like Matthew 28. Jesus has not only risen, but he has appeared to the disciples. Jesus has shown himself to the women who came to the tomb to treat his body. The disciples have gone to Galilee like Jesus instructed them and they have met on a mountain where Jesus has promised to meet them. Matthew 28:17 tells us, "When they saw him, they worshipped him--but some of them still doubted!" (NLT).

Hold on, that can't be right. They are standing in front of Jesus, speaking with him and interacting with him after he died and came back to life and some of them still doubted? But these were the men who taught thousands of people. These were the men who healed the sick and cast out demons and raised the dead. These were the giants of the faith. And they doubted? Where does that leave us?

With an awful lot of hope.

If these men, the men who had walked with Jesus on a daily basis for three years, who had seen the miracles he performed, who had heard him predict his own death and resurrection, who were now standing in front of Jesus, looking at him and hearing his voice, if these men still doubted, then there is definitely hope for us. These men show us that we don't have to have everything perfect. We don't have to have everything together and be paragons of faith and virtue before God can do anything with us. If God can use these men who had been witness to so many of Jesus' miracles, who had heard Jesus' own predictions about his death and resurrection, who were now standing in front of the risen Christ and yet were still doubting, if God can use these men, then God can certainly do something with us.

In John 20:29, Jesus told his disciples, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (NIV). If the disciples had trouble believing even in the midst of all they had seen, Jesus reminds us that the more blessed  faith is the kind that all of us have today, who have believed but have never seen with our physical eyes. If God could work miracles through these men who doubted even as they stood before the risen Christ, God can use us.