April 19th, 2020: Defending Thomas

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” 

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 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.

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There’s a story from my childhood that I remember clearly, but there were no witnesses, so over the years I’ve grown doubtful whether it really happened, or whether it was something I made up and started to believe. Do you have any stories from your childhood like that?

Here’s the story: after watching Mary Poppins one day [GRAPHIC 1], I was so inspired by her ability to fly around with her umbrella that, in a stroke of genius, I decided to try myself. So I got out a ladder, grabbed an umbrella, and climbed up on the roof of my family’s one-story rancher. I opened up the umbrella, held onto it with a vice grip, took a deep breath, and jumped off the edge of the roof. You know what happened, right? That umbrella folded up given the force of the wind beneath it, and I landed—THUD!—on the grass below. As it turns out, people can’t really fly around with nothing more than an umbrella and a prayer.

Now that I’m a couple of years removed from this incident (assuming it even happened as my memory tells me it did), I recognize that I was either: [GRAPHIC?] a) an idiot, b) a budding scientist, or c) a little of both. I saw something on television, I wanted to know if it was real—if it was true—and the one way I could know for sure was to experiment—to personally experience floating around with an umbrella myself. (“Experiment” and “experience” have the same root word, you know!)

Turns out Mary Poppins was a fraud.

So when we get to the story of Thomas—often dubbed “doubting Thomas”—I get him. Thomas is told something out of the ordinary, that Jesus has risen from the dead, which is about as common as seeing someone flying around with an umbrella. He needs to experience the risen Lord firsthand before he can believe. I get Thomas. I don’t like to call him “doubting Thomas.” Rather, I find myself defending Thomas.

The story from the Gospel of John goes like this: the disciples are still in Jerusalem after the Passover, and after Jesus is arrested, crucified, killed, and buried. That was Friday. Saturday was the Sabbath, so nothing much happened. Then Sunday morning came, and Mary Magdalene discovered the stone had been rolled away. She ran and told Peter and John, who came and verified her claims, discovering the linens that had presumably been on Jesus, with the facial cloth neatly folded. Peter and John left. Mary stayed behind. And that’s when she encountered a resurrected Jesus, who instructed her to tell the disciples, what she experienced, so that’s what she did. “I have seen the risen Lord,” she told them.

That all happened first thing in the morning. And now it’s evening. Hours have passed since Mary Magdalene made her outlandish claim that she had seen the resurrected Jesus. The disciples (sans Thomas) are locked behind closed doors because they were afraid. What do you think they were discussing? No doubt Mary’s claim was at least the elephant in the room if not the focal point of their conversation. “Was Mary delusional? Did she have a dream? Could she be lying? Could it be . . . true?” And then Jesus showed up, somehow, though the doors were locked. He presented them his hands and his side. And they believed.

They told Thomas what they had experienced, but what they told him was so far beyond reason, so outlandish, that he couldn’t quite wrap is mind around it. “Were they delusional? Did they have a dream? Could they be lying? Could it be . . . true?”

Let’s stop here for just a moment, while I seek to defend Thomas.

There is nothing wrong with seeking truth. In fact, I happen to think that truth-seeking is a strength rather than a character flaw. And when something runs contrary to reason—like, say, floating around on an umbrella or seeing dead people—it seems prudent to seek verification.

How do we do that? What’s the litmus test for determining what is true in the life of faith?

There’s a handy rubric from the Methodist tradition that helps us when we want to know what’s true and what’s false, whether to doubt or whether to believe. It’s called the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” basically four tools to employ if, like Thomas, you want to verify claims made by others. You can think about it like a four-legged stool you can trust, once all four legs are in place of course. Or perhaps like the four bases on a baseball diamond. Round all four and you score! What are the four “legs” or “bases?” Reason, Scripture, Tradition and Experience. Different traditions within Christianity tend to emphasize one “leg” over the others: Charismatic traditions tend to emphasize experience, Catholics like to emphasize tradition, Evangelicals prefer to emphasize scripture, and Mainline Protestants often emphasize reason. But when seeking truth, a balanced approach that takes all four “legs” into consideration may be just the right method of discernment.

Let’s take these four components of the “Quadrilateral” in light of Thomas’s process of discerning truth.

Let’s start with “reason.” Honestly, Thomas’s doubt is “reasonable.” How often have you seen people raised from the dead? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Using reason, Thomas deducts that people don’t usually resurrect from the dead. Logically, it makes no sense. There must be some explanation. But Jesus rising from the dead is illogical. It makes no sense. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” 

Employing the tool of reason leads Thomas to doubt. But what about Scripture? What does Scripture have to say to Thomas? Well, Jesus has talked about rising from the dead on a few occasions, but remember, Thomas doesn’t have the New Testament for handy referral. He has only the Hebrew Scriptures, what we often call the “Old Testament.” What do the Hebrew Scriptures say about the Messiah rising from the dead? Not a whole lot. One verse from Hosea 6:2 might point that direction, but it certainly isn’t clear. So scripture just doesn’t help Thomas as he seeks the truth about a risen Jesus. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” 

Reason makes belief difficult for Thomas, and scripture doesn’t have much to say on the subject of a risen Messiah, what about tradition? Frankly, we just don’t know if there might have been some prophetic tradition related to the messiah dying and rising after three days. In the year 2000, there was a discovery of an ancient tablet, now called “Gabriel’s Revelation,” that contains some reference to a rising on the third day. But the context of this ancient tablet is lost to history. We simply don’t know if tradition factors into Thomas questioning the veracity of his friends’ claims about a resurrected Jesus. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” 

With little support from tradition or scripture, Thomas leans on reason. Reason tells Thomas that people just don’t rise up from the dead. So Thomas is going to need more proof. The fourth leg of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral is “experience.” Thomas needs to experience the Risen Lord firsthand for him to believe. That’s what he communicates when he says, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” 

So one week later, Jesus gives Thomas the proof he needs.

The disciples are once again gathered in the house, this time Thomas is with them. And Jesus shows up. “Put your finger here and see my hands,” he says to Thomas. “Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 

That’s all it took. “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaims. Experience trumps reason. Doubt becomes faith in one powerful instant.

What does all of this have to do with today?

Like the disciples, we are locked up in fear, but for us it’s fear of a virus. Maybe you personally aren’t afraid, but the epidemiologists are afraid as well as the policy makers. Like Thomas, we’re getting information that’s hard to wrap our minds around. Without firsthand experience of the virus, many “reason” that social distancing mandates are ridiculous. There are lots of conspiracy theories out there—people misappropriating reason as they try to make sense of it all. Our minds are drawn to these theories—we attach to them—in the words of my Southern heritage—“like a tick on a hound dog.” It’s not healthy.

Here’s why I am “Defending Thomas” today. I think it’s important to use every tool available to us to determine what is true and what is false these days. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral helps in determining theological truths. What about current events and conspiracy theories, especially all of the swirling information about COVID-19 and the government response?

Here’s what I’m calling a “COVIDIAN QUADRILATERAL” to help us determine what’s true and what isn’t in these confusing days. This “four-legged stool” is: credibility, quality, timeliness and sourcing with simple fact-checking websites as a shortcut—they do the work for us![1]

The first tool is credibility. Vet the author and the publisher. If you couldn’t include this author or publisher in a master’s thesis, then don’t consider it a reliable source. What else has this author published? What is the author’s point of view? Be wary of unusual website/domain names.

If the article you’re reading begins with, “This is not a hoax!” guess what? It’s probably a hoax. Look out for superfluous exclamation points!!!! spellllllllinggg errrrorrs and ALL CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Always check the date on an article. Sometimes an article that was once legitimate is recirculated as if it is current, misleading readers.

Where did you find the article? From a reputable news site or on your social media feed? Who does the author cite and can you find the original source? Is the information available on other reputable sites?

And again, there are several fact-checking websites out there to do this work for you. Easy peasy.

So back to our biblical story and why I’m “Defending Thomas.” Thomas was a truth-seeker. Be like Thomas. And like truth-seeking Thomas, we might just learn: if something is too good and also true, it must be Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[1] My thanks to Harvard University writer, Christina Nagler, for her “4 Tips for Spotting a Fake News Story,” https://www.summer.harvard.edu/inside-summer/4-tips-spotting-fake-news-story