Believing Thomas (12 April)

From our locum, Rev. Len Firth

In John’s Gospel the resurrection account prominently features Thomas. Thomas is often referred to as doubting Thomas, but this is quite unfair. Thomas is understandably skeptical that anyone could rise from the dead after a crucifixion. He wants hard evidence.

But when a week later he sees the resurrected Jesus he makes a Gospel climactic statement of faith: “My Lord and my God!” He is the first to explicitly confess Christ’s Divinity. Belief is a key theme of John’s Gospel. It is written for this purpose, John 20: 30–31 records, ‘Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.’ See also John 1:12.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church reports that “Syrian Christians of Malabar, who call themselves ‘Christians of St Thomas’, have a tradition which they strongly defend that they were evangelized by the Apostle, who later was martyred and buried at Mylapore, near Madras” (modern Chennai). If this is true, and there are very good reasons to think it is, then Thomas gave his life for his belief in Jesus the Messiah. Thomas the apostle was a true believer in the cause of the gospel of Jesus raised from the dead. We thank God for the witness of believing Thomas.