Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church

Doubting Thomas, Believing Thomas

John 20:19-31

First Sunday after Easter

March 30, 2008

“Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus.”  We in the Anglican Orthodox Church don’t talk about “saints” very much, for two reasons.  First, we don’t believe they are in any way mediators between ourselves and God.  Some believe the saints were so good, and lived such exemplary Christian lives that they earned their way to Heaven. In fact, they were so good they more than earned their way to Heaven, and their extra goodness, or, “merit” can be deposited in our spiritual accounts, to help us get to Heaven too.  We, in the Anglican Orthodox Church, can’t find that teaching anywhere in the Bible, so we are not going to trust in saints to get us to Heaven.  We believe there is One Mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the only begotten Son of God, who purchased Heaven for us by bearing our sins on the cross.  So we don’t venerate saints.  We don’t pray to them.  We don’t  expect them to work miracles for us or intercede for us.  Second, the word “saint,”  as it is used in the Bible, does not mean a person who is morally superior to another.  It does not refer to someone who by his own nature or will or effort has achieved a superior level of goodness. The Bible uses the word to describe those who have believed in Christ, those who have accepted the forgiveness of sin He offers as the free gift of His grace.  All who have believed in Christ as Savior are saints, because He has made us holy. Therefore, we look at the great saints of the past as examples. They are examples of men and women struggling to keep the faith and live the Christian life, sometimes in great tribulation, sometimes in great weakness, sometimes in overwhelming victory.  But they face the same struggles and temptations we face, and sometimes they fall under them, but always they persevere, and we can learn something from them.  That is the way we honor saints.

St. Thomas, of course, is the famous “Doubting Thomas,” who would not believe Jesus was raised from the dead unless he saw and examined Him in the flesh.  Thomas was one of those people who simply could not see beyond the physical world.  He could not see the transcendent Kingdom of God.  Thomas was concerned about life in this world.  This was where he lived.  He wanted help in the daily struggles of life.  He wanted a God who would help him with his problems, and he was convinced most of his problems would be solved if God would simply drive the Romans out of Israel.  He wanted the Messiah would do just that.  That was the heart of his religion.  So even his religion was about this world and about Thomas.  That’s important, for God, in his mind, had one job, to make the world safe for decent people to offer the sacrifices and keep the rituals and laws, and live in peace.  Thomas was a zealot, a group of Jews who believed in revolution.  Like Barabbas, he wanted war with Rome to liberate Israel.  The major difference between Thomas and Barabbas was that Barabbas believed himself to be the Messiah, while Thomas believed Jesus was the Messiah.

Let me say again, Thomas’ problem was that he couldn’t see beyond this world.  He was tied to the physical world, and could not see the spiritual reality beyond it.  In this sense he was like many people today.  Most people are just trying to make it through life.  They’re not worried about theology.  They don’t want to know about the differences between humanistic thought and Biblical Christianity.  They want a practical religion.  “Tell me how to deal with a problem child, or a problem job, or a problem marriage,” they say.  “Don’t talk to me about the Trinity.”  This is remarkable to me, because, I think, we are in an age when people believe in God again.  I remember a time when belief in God was considered silly, by the “intellectual” people.  Nowadays I hear almost everyone talking about God.  He’s back in style again, like bell bottom jeans. Thomas believed in God.  But in the three years Thomas spent with Jesus, three years of seeing water turned to wine, the blind receive sight, the lame walk, and the dead raised from the grave, Thomas saw not God, but the fulfillment of his hopes for a free Israel.  Likewise the belief of many today is either only for this world, or it is so entirely disconnected to real life it simply reduces Christianity to a feeling, an emotional high, and even that is a religion only of this world.  When they “turn to God” they are really looking only for the realization of their pre-conceived ideas of what God “ought” to do for them.  They are really only embracing their own hopes and convincing themselves that God is there to fulfill those hopes.

When Christ says to Thomas, “be not faithless, but believing,”  He is not just asking him to believe in the resurrection. He is asking Thomas to change his whole way of thinking about God, and about life.  He is asking Thomas to see the spiritual realities that are actually more real than this world, and more real than mere feelings and emotional experiences.  I am not talking here about Heaven or hell or even the providential work of God in our lives and in this universe.  I am talking about seeing more than just the “Invisible Hand” that created and upholds all things.  Thomas believed in that, as do a great many people today.  So Christ is not asking Thomas  to turn from atheism to theism.  He is asking Thomas to see the truth that transcends the limitations of human knowledge and wisdom and experience.  He is asking Thomas to be willing to relinquish the false hopes and ideas he has cherished all his life, and to accept God on God’s terms, rather than on Thomas’ terms.  More than this, He is asking Thomas to “get on board.”  He is asking Thomas to commit to Him as God.

And here is Thomas’ response, “My Lord and my God.”  This is a total change.  This is complete acceptance.  Thomas is telling Jesus he now understands that it is Jesus who is Lord over Thomas, not Thomas who is Lord over Jesus.  It is not just a recognition that Jesus is God, and, therefore, much more than just a military leader for Israel; it is a commitment to following Jesus as Jesus tells him to.  It is a total mental, moral, spiritual acceptance of Jesus as Lord and God.  God grant that we may do the same.

The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 

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