Every so often I have a flash of doubt about the resurrection of the dead. In particular it involves persons who have been dead for a long, long time or those souls who have been cremated and their ashes scattered to the four winds. I realize the God of the bible created the universe from nothing, but nonetheless at times I’m really challenged.
When this happens I turn my thoughts to the story of the Valley of the Dry bones, Ezekiel 37:1-14. God says to Ezekiel that He will cause these dry bones to live again. God will enter them and make them alive with tendons, and flesh and cover them with skin. My doubt suddenly has an amazing counter to it – God’s word given to us.
Time and time again the bible illustrates God’s power over every aspect of life and death that we virtually have no control over. I admit that it’s amazingly hard to wrap my mind around God’s power to reassemble or create life from such dead, dry bones. Yet I believe He can and will.
Faith is a mystery. It does not always come with on the spot empirical proof. That’s why its faith. It takes faith to place our hope in faith – that’s a spiritual gift from God.
Jesus said to Thomas, “Do not doubt but believe.” We’re going to look further into this in just a moment but for now I want us to understand that many commentators hold the belief that doubt is not necessarily a sin nor is it the prelude to total loss of faith.
Doubt in many cases is a useful a step along the road to a strong lively faith. I have met countless persons who have confessed to struggle and momentary doubt about one thing or another but overall hold tight to their faith in Christ and His Church.
Healthy doubt will lead to study the scripture and search for truth; Unhealthy doubt can lead to loss of faith.
I think we can divide doubt into three types: Factual Doubt that wonders if facts, figures, stories, etc are true. Was there a real Adam and Eve? Did the flood really happen? Were the walls of Jericho really felled by the blast of horns and yells of the people of Israel? Was Jesus born from a virgin mother? Did Jesus really rise from the dead and ascend into heaven? Did He really walk on water, heal the sick and turn water into wine? Is the bible really true? Can I believe what it says?
Emotional Doubt involves our moods and feelings, very often tied to our concerns about being saved or not. Is my faith sufficient? Am I going to heaven when I die? Will God forgive me for doing this or that? Will my thoughts condemn me before God? Does grace really cover my sins?
Volitional Doubt. This is the most serious form of doubt because it usually involves weak faith and a real lack of motivation to follow Jesus. The discouraged, burned out churchman who is disillusioned with the Church denomination, the Pastor or her local congregation. This person is disinterested or lazy – clearly unmotivated – and has stopped praying, stopped reading scripture, and stopped worshipping. They’ve turned antagonistic toward the formal church.
As we can see doubt covers a pretty big territory.
Scripture gives us a picture of several notable characters who have faced most difficult times and walked away from the challenges with a stronger faith: Abraham, Job, David, Jeremiah, Judas, and to some degree every apostle at some point or another but in today’s Gospel Thomas is highlighted.
We sometime look for reasons why someone may have doubts about God and their faith:
Who can say that they have suffered more than Job did? Not anyone that I know of. God allowed Satan to buffet Job to such a degree that he started to despair even of life and the day of his birth. His so called “friends” accused him of sin, his wife told him to curse God and die and Job never did find out the reason why God allowed him to suffer so much loss. Job really struggled with his suffering. Would not any of us?
Even after David had been anointed king and chosen by God, he still had to run for his life for the next 7 to 10 years. Imagine yourself in David’s place. God has chosen you to be the next king of Israel. You had been anointed king already. Time and again you had the chance to take Saul’s life but didn’t. He was chasing you continually, wanting to kill you. Would not you question God or ask “Why?”
To this list we could add Abraham, Sarah, Moses, The people of Israel while they wandered through the desert, Peter, Judas and Thomas who we will look at in depth in a few minutes.
Life is complex, sometimes unsure, dangerous, unrelenting and oppressive. We may go through periods of calm and contentment that can change at an instant to heart ache that lasts a long time. We can begin to question long held beliefs, or we may feel uninspired to believe anything – just going from day to day taking it as it comes. It is common to find some form of doubt when it comes to the human condition.
The Apostle Thomas is experiencing Factual Doubt. Are the facts of faith presented to Him true? He has the unfortunate honor of being labeled as “doubting”. He is almost always referred to as “doubting Thomas”. Doubting in this instance is associated with not believing the disciples story that Jesus appeared to them in the upper room the first Easter night while Thomas was away. Since Jesus said “Do not doubt but believe” the assumption is that Jesus is chiding Thomas. I think that’s not what Jesus was insinuating at all.
Was there something wrong with needing proof? Must the Christian always have an absolute, steel trap faith or is there room for proof or assurance or for that matter a period of doubt?
Have we developed a kind of lust for unsustainable certainty? Would Thomas be considered rebellious or without faith in today’s culture?
I’d suggest the label is unfortunate and if truth be told one which is more common among Christians than we might want to recognize. A few years ago during worship I asked my congregation to raise their hand if they had ever taken anti-depressants. Over a hundred hands went up – about half of the people there acknowledged they had. It turned out to be quite freeing because many of who have taken anti-depressants believe they’re alone – they wrongly think no one else goes through what they’re going through.
I suspect the same might be true with doubt – the vast majority – I mean vast – of people experience their doubts about God, the Bible, its validity and trustworthiness. BUT they might just feel a certain amount of shame or guilt if they admit it. Well, the cats out of the bag – we’re not alone.
Even among some of the greatest saints such as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Lisieux (who died at the old age of 24), St. John of the Cross, and Thomas Merton and many others all had extremely dark days of doubt. Indeed, the first chapter of Joseph Ratzinger’s “Introduction to Christianity” is all about doubt vs. belief. “The believer is always threatened with an uncertainty that in moments of temptation can suddenly and unexpectedly cast a piercing light on the fragility of the whole,” he writes. Suddenly the believer is not just questioning the literalness of biblical stories — whether, say, Christ really walked on water — but facing “the bottomless abyss of nothingness.”
Some of the best-known and widely read novelists of the 20th century — Graham Greene, Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Mary Gordon — created characters that swing wildly between faith and doubt with a recurring theme: Faith is so hard to maintain in a brutal, unjust world; doubt comes easily.
Most famously Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose letters were released in 2007, expressed doubt and despair about God. Her “dark night” lasted almost 50 years, with rare reprieves, up until her death in 1997.
Thomas looks into the realm of possibilities and comes up with the need to have some physical proof – as the others did – since he wasn’t there. Did they just imagine they saw Jesus? Is this a joke? Was it really Jesus, since he looked so differently after he was resurrected? If Thomas wasn’t open to believing their claim he would have said something like regardless of what they said or what evidence he saw he would not believe Jesus stood in the room with them. He’s not closed minded on the subject – he just wants to see what they saw. . . Jesus standing in front of him showing him the nail marks on his hands and feet and side. He just wants to level the playing field.
It’s not an unreasonable request. Or is it?
I recently came across this illustration, “Consider a student taking an important exam. She passionately wants a good grade, has studied hard, and gives what she believes to be the correct answer to every question. Once she has finished the exam, and double checking her answers, she hands it in to the teacher. Typically, this is when most students experience doubt. She has given answers that she believes to be correct; but what if her beliefs were not true? The more that student wants to pass her exam, the greater her anxiety will be; a student who has little invested in the course will not lose much sleep over her result. So the student, who paid most attention to the questions, who read over each several times, and who gave what she earnestly believed to be true answers, based on diligent study of the material, is much more likely to experience doubt than, say, her boyfriend who took a casual approach to the exam. It doesn’t matter to him if his beliefs were true or false.”
Those that are most invested, care deeply and want to embrace belief with a firm and unfaltering grip may very well go through seasons of doubt and have the purest motives for the doubt they experience. Other may not care or may reject matters of faith out of hand regardless of the evidence.
To say the least Thomas is highly invested in Jesus. Again, Thomas was not asking for anything more than what the Apostles’ in the room had received – they saw Jesus, heard Him speak to them (which included His blessing) and saw His hands and feet (Jn. 20:20) so they had every reason to rejoice! Thomas says that he too will believe (pistos in Greek) when he has the same experience.
When Jesus came to Thomas the following week He appeared to Thomas and the others even though the doors were locked, spoke to Thomas and showed Thomas His hands and feet. . . . then Jesus went one step further – He asked Thomas to put his finger in the Lord’s side where the spear had pierced Him.
Thomas had the opportunity to examine the wound and touch Jesus. Jesus did not ask Thomas not to touch Him as He said to Mary when they spoke near the tomb (20:17).
Thomas has all the proof the others had plus and Jesus then tells Him to believe.
“Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”
Thomas clearly expresses his belief when he responded saying, “My Lord and my God.”
Jesus went on to say, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed.” This was not a condemnation of physical evidence but a foretelling of the power of the Holy Spirit and the Testimony and signs the Apostles’ and future generations would see regarding Christ.
When the Holy Spirit comes and faith is imparted to God’s people it will be as if Jesus Himself stood before them to convince them of His trustworthiness. Christ’s spiritual presence will be as powerful as His physical presence through the Holy Spirit!
When we run into season of Factual Doubt we have several avenues that we can take that will be helpful:
1. Turn to the scripture and soak your questions in God’s Word.
2. Speak to a priest and seek counsel and encouragement.
3. Search out books on theology or archeology or doctrine to give you more background and information about the latest trends in scholarship.
We’ve only briefly touched upon Factual Doubt this morning. Emotional Doubt and Volitional Doubt have their own unique qualities that need further treatment. However, the six tips above can very well be helpful to these types of doubts as well.
When we run into questions and doubts about our faith because we’re uncertain about the facts it does not mean we’re on the road to ruin or damnation. It’s an opportunity to dig deeper into the Christian faith and find out the truths that it offers.
Christianity is a revealed faith – it is open to scrutiny and examination. It is not afraid to be examined . . . in fact it welcomes examination and scrutiny and questions and yes, even our doubts.
