Eastertide Week 2: Remembering the Resurrection

Day 6: A Line in the Sand

On Resurrection Day it is recorded that Jesus appeared three times, though it could have been more and we aren’t told. In the morning one or more women saw Him; on the road to Emmaus later that day it was to two disciples that He appeared; and in the evening after dark, He appeared in the locked room with a larger group of fearful hiding disciples.

Significantly, one of the eleven was absent from the Sunday evening group. His name was Thomas.

The next day the disciples, with great joy and enthusiasm, told him they’d seen Jesus! “He’s really alive,” they all said. But Thomas famously, stubbornly, replied, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe” (John 20:24-25).

Reputations are difficult to change. Thomas will always be known as “Doubting Thomas” for his adamant (or was it disappointed?) unbelief. Regardless, do you see again in his reply that belief is a choice? The words “will never” are emphatic. His no was as determined as was Martin Luther’s yes when he nailed his theses to the Wittenberg door, refuting the church for its heresy.

There was no maybe in Thomas’s stance.