“DOUBTING Thomas” has been looked down upon age after age by many a superficial keeper of Easter who had reason himself rather to complain of the unbelief of his own heart. Thomas was by no means one hardened of heart, who fell short of faith. See how at length in holy ecstacy he falls down upon his knees, and worships his Savior as his Lord and his God.
If presently Thomas had not appeared as a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, how could Jesus have allowed him a place among the twelve of His holy apostolate.
Neither is it true, that the other apostles have not looked upon the marks of the nails and spear, and Thomas alone did.
John 20:20 clearly states, that the other apostles as well, by seeing the marks, were filled with great joy.
For thus we literally read: “And Jesus saith unto them, Peace be unto you, and when He had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side, then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”
So the difference lay not in this. Yea, to look upon the spear and nail wounds was so little wrong, that Jesus Himself, as you see, at their first meeting of His own accord pointed to them.
For Thomas however seeing was not enough; he also wanted to touch. “Except,” said he, “I shall put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
And in that urge, not merely to see, but also to touch, there was nothing sinful by itself. John too enthusiastically exclaimed: “What we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled of the Word of life, that declare we unto you.” (1 John 1:3.)
Neither did Jesus make any remark about it. Jesus made even no mention of it. He did not say to Thomas: “Because you have handled, you have believed;” but: “Because you have seen, you have believed.”
Jesus rather Himself came to Thomas’ aid in that handling, and when He appeared a second time to His disciples, of His own volition He invited Thomas, to let finger and hand reinforce the look of the eye.
No, all Jesus’ rebuke is concentrated in one point.
Thomas should have believed, that Jesus was risen, at the saying of his fellow-apostles, and that he refused to do so, and would only be convinced by his own observation, therein and therein alone lay his weakness.
What was there wrong in this?
But do you believe, that your Savior ever forgot His church, that was to come, the church of the future, which presently would confess Him?
And is it not evident then, that Thomas’ refusal, to believe on hearsay, threatened to become a stone of stumbling to those confessors of Christ who were to come after?
Presently our Lord was to ascend into heaven.
Then He would no longer be on earth. Then no single one of His redeemed here on earth would be able to know Him after the flesh.
And if, by Thomas’ refusal, those later confessors would allow themselves to be tempted and enticed, not to believe, before they had seen and handled, would not the faith on Jesus’ resurrection be lost?
Not for the sake of Thomas therefore, who now truly did believe in His resurrection, and worshiped Him as his Lord and his God, but with an eye to the church of the future, with an eye to those later confessors, who would not be able to believe otherwise than on hearsay and not otherwise than on the witness of the apostles, the danger that threatened in Thomas’ refusal, had at once to be nipped in the bud.
It had to be watched against, that the example of Thomas should not be contagious.
And therefore Jesus addresses him so sharply, saying: “You have now believed in my resurrection, because you have seen the marks in my flesh; but presently let my whole church know, that seeing of those marks is not indispensible, that presently my redeemed may believe in my resurrection, without having seen these marks and having handled them; and let my word go out, throughout all the world, that in believing without seeing, in that faith on apostolic witness, there is, no less, but rather a higher blessedness.”
“Blessed are they, that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (St. John 20:29.)
The rebuke directed to Thomas, should meantime be brought back within its just limitations.
From his nature and by reason of his office as apostle, he was not called to believe without seeing.
The other apostles have not done so either.
On the contrary, the peculiar position of an apostle brought with it, that he himself should see, in order that he might be able to bring the witness to others, of what he had seen.
If the apostles had built their faith on suppositions, or on hearsay, we should have missed their apostolic witness regarding Jesus’ resurrection.
Therefore Jesus has been on guard, that this should not so happen, and He Himself has given them the tangible proofs of His oneselfness with the crucified on Golgotha, by showing them the prints of His wounds in hands and side.
Considered from this side, Thomas’ doubt has even become profitable to the church, insofar as too great a readiness on the part of the apostles to believe at first sight, might readily give rise to doubt about the accuracy of their observation.
Since, instead of being a man who was easily led to believe, Thomas was a man who was not readily persuaded, and would not even be content until he had handled the prints, the entire trustworthiness of the apostolic observation is thereby greatly strengthened.
There was only this shadowside to his attitude, that, by accidentally being absent the first time, he heard the witness of ten apostles, and rejected that witness as insufficient.
Presently he would himself go out into the world, to demand that the redeemed should believe in Jesus’ resurrection on his apostolic witness; and in connection with this how could it be possible for him to refuse to yield before the witness of ten apostles?
This therefore had to be gently rebuked in him, that the glorious truth, “that faith comes by hearing and hearing by preaching,” (Rom. 10:17) should suffer no loss.
And therefore Jesus said so positively and so significantly: “Faith on my resurrection shall henceforth not depend on seeing, but on acceptance of the apostolic witness.”
“Blessed are they, that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
For this, with imperturbable assurance, you should hold fast to the Holy Scripture.
For Jesus’ claim, that since He went to heaven, you should believe in His resurrection, without seeing Him after the flesh, purely on the witness of the apostles, includes of itself, that you must have this witness before you, that you must have it in possession, that you may believe it. And where else do you find this witness except in Holy Scripture?
At present this is taught differently, but upon that different teaching follows irrevocably the punishment, that it becomes faith in Jesus’ spiritual resurrection, and presently vanishes.
It is said: “It is the Spirit Who declared, that in the hiddenness of the heart, fellowship is practiced with the risen Savior. That He had to rise, was self-evident. He could not be holden of death. And so apart from apostolic witness and outside of Scripture, it was known that Jesus must have risen.” Yea, they were not wanting, who gloried in believing apart from seeing, and rested only on the internal address of the Spirit.
This much was true in it, that real faith can not remain standing at the fact of the opened grave, but with Paul seeks to enter into the rich full significance of the Resurrection, and counts all things loss, yea, dung, to come to the spiritual knowledge of Jesus and of the power of His resurrection.
But the fact itself of Jesus’ rising must first have taken place, must have been seen, and on the witness of those who saw it, be certain.
See, how the same Paul, who highly exalts the spiritual significance of Jesus’ resurrection, nevertheless in 1 Cor. 15, puts the facts in the foreground first, and from those facts proceeds: “That he was seen of Cephas; after that of the twelve; then of five hundred brethren at once; then of James; then of all the apostles; and last of all of himself.”
So speaks and writes the spiritual Paul, and thereby condemns all over-spirituality, that neglects the appearances and does not count the facts.
Pitiful results show, that where it began with being so overspiritual, it generally ended in utter unbelief.
The Spirit can not save you, except your starting-point lies anchored in the Word.
Strive therefore against your own heart, among the members of your own family, and in your circle, to make sure the faith on the Scripture.
He who weakens Scripture, wrests therewith the foundations of higher life. And they, who with the high pretence of their sense of truth, tear out one page after the other from the Word, shall bear the judgment before God, that with millions upon millions they have undermined the foundation of the faith and of the moral life.
On witness things must be believed. That is human. So it goes with the judge, so it goes before the tribunal of history, so it goes with education, so it goes in all matters of trust. And so it must proceed in the matter of faith.
Not every one, head for head, is able, on his own ground and for himself to investigate the facts.
Were this the case, Jesus would have to appear in the flesh to every one, head for head, and declare the Gospel to each individual severally. But this is not His holy plan.
He appeared once, not only in behalf of those who then saw Him, but in behalf of all. And His will, His plan, His holy ordinance is, that what has happened once, should be delivered unto us, should be declared unto us, and that we, not seeing, but hearing that witness, should believe on that witness.
Hold fast therefore to your Easter-Gospel.
Attach value and significance to every one of Jesus’ appearances.
And then, be not unbelieving, but believing, because the holy apostles have declared it unto you.
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