Thomas' Doubt

 

Thomas' Doubt

 

John 20:25 The other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But Thomas said to him, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

Thomas did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus was resurrected and appeared to the disciples, Thomas was not there. When the disciples told Thomas that Jesus had risen, he did not believe it. Of course, the other disciples did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus at first, but Thomas did not believe it even after hearing the other disciples' story of Jesus' resurrection. If another disciple had been in the same situation as Thomas, he would not have believed it. This is because they could not believe in the resurrection of Jesus when they saw it with their own physical eyes. It is difficult to understand how someone who had died could appear to someone like that before.

"The words that the other disciples spoke to Thomas" are because they spoke as if "Jesus' dead body" had come back to life. John 20:19-20 "Then on the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." This means that Jesus appeared to the disciples without Thomas present. And in verse 25 of chapter 20, it is the scene where the other disciples speak to Thomas.

However, in Luke 24:36-40, the resurrected Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples. "While he was saying this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.' They were terrified and frightened, and supposed that they were seeing a spirit. Jesus said to them, 'Why are you afraid? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.' When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet."

When Jesus appeared to the other disciples without Thomas, Jesus showed them his hands and side, and the disciples were happy, but when there were eleven disciples with Thomas, they were all surprised and afraid, and thought Jesus was a spirit. So Jesus showed them his hands and side and said, “A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” In context, the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Luke seem to be contradictory. Clearly, the content of the Gospel of Luke precedes the content of the Gospel of John, because the Gospel of John is written in the absence of Thomas.

Based on the Gospel of Luke, why were the disciples afraid when they saw the resurrected Jesus again? In the Gospel of John, the ten disciples except Thomas saw the resurrected Jesus, saw his hands and side, but Jesus disappeared immediately. They saw the resurrected Jesus and told Thomas, but they began to doubt. They said that the resurrected Jesus was not a body but a spirit. So when Jesus appeared to the disciples again, including Thomas, they said, “I am not a spirit, but I have a body.”

This situation is expressed more specifically in the Gospel of John (20:26-29). 『After eight days his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas with them. But the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood in the middle. And he said to Thomas, 'Peace be with you.' Then he said to Thomas, 'Reach here your finger, and see my hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Do not be faithless, but believing.' Thomas answered, 'My Lord and my God.' Jesus said to him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'』 In summary, it emphasizes that Jesus is not a spirit, but has a spiritual body.

The other disciples first doubted the resurrected Jesus because they thought it was a spirit, not a body. Thomas doubted the resurrection itself. Jesus clearly showed the disciples that it was a body, not a spirit, through his hands and side. However, Jesus showed Thomas his transformed spiritual body.

Luke 24:39 says, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” In the Greek Bible, 『 πόδας μου ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι αὐτός· ψηλαφήσατέ με καὶ ἴδετε, ὅτι πνεῦμα σάρκα καὶ ὀστέα οὐκ ἔχει καθὼς ἐμὲ θεωρεῖτε ἔχοντα.』

Here is the translation: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. He who handled me and saw that I am a spiritual body, and I see you, having bones, and yet have no bones." What Thomas saw was not the nail and spear marks from Jesus' dead state, but his surprise at seeing those marks transformed. Likewise, the disciples were probably surprised and delighted because of the resurrection, just like Thomas. The body is a spiritual body (πνεῦμα σάρκα pneuma sarka). And it has no bones. In other words, it is not a body like the one in this world where people need bones to move.

Jesus is said to be the first fruit of the resurrection. If most church people think of resurrection as the body coming back to life after death, I cannot help but mention the three miracles Jesus performed while he was alive. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, raised the dead son of the widow of Nain, and raised the dead daughter of Jairus, a synagogue leader. These people died and came back to life, so why doesn’t the Bible say they were resurrected? It’s because they are different from Jesus’ body. The bodies of the three people are mortal, but Jesus’ body is a spiritual body that never dies, and therefore he is the first fruit of the resurrection.

In other words, the Bible shows that the body received from parents cannot be transformed into an eternal body. The body must die (baptism by water) and be reborn as an eternal body from heaven (baptism by the Holy Spirit). That is why Jesus said through Nicodemus that unless one is born of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nevertheless, believers today claim that the resurrection is the rebirth of a dead body. That is why they do not believe in the present resurrection. There is no true gospel for them.

Today, in the church community, there are three groups of people who doubt the resurrection. Those like Thomas doubt the present resurrection itself. They do not believe in the resurrection while alive. They believe in the resurrection after death. And there are those like the other disciples who think of the resurrection as a spirit. They do not believe in the resurrection of the body. However, there are a very small number of people who believe in the present resurrection of the spirit body. Ultimately, most believers do not believe in the present resurrection or the resurrection of the spirit body. This is because the resurrection is viewed by humans as if the dead body came back to life.

The present resurrection is the resurrection of the dead spirit from the dead, and the return to the previous state of the spiritual body. Although it is not visible to the physical eye because of the body, it can be known by the spiritual eye. Faith must come from heaven, and it becomes a faith that can be achieved despite the impossibility. If you cling to the existing body while living in this world, you can miss the spiritual world.