Without a doubt, this week's fave is:"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.’ " - John 20:24-25
Imagine, if you will, the other eleven guys in your small fraternity. You, Thomas, enter to empty wine jugs and dirty dishes having inexplicably missed the previous night's kegger, and are immediately accosted by your brothers.
"Twinman, guess who came to dinner last night?" says Peter, speaking for all.
"Who?"
"Jesus walked right in here, I mean wow! The door was locked and everything. Just showed up in the middle of us all." says Peter. "Sat right here."
"Riiiiight."
"No really. He breathed the Holy Spirit on us..." protests Peter.
"Dude, let me smell your breath."
"Well, ask him yourself. I'm sure he'll be here again."
"Pete, let me know when he gets here 'cause I want to stick my fingers in the mess the Romans did to him."
"Thomas!"
"Holy crap... I mean... "My Lord and my God!"" exclaims Thomas, straightening up.
I have to say that I would have been just like Thomas. A doubter. A show me kinda guy. I've been Thomas all my life about more topics than the Resurrection of Jesus.
And then Jesus pours salt in Thomas' wound and says:
"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’ "
And then we don't hear anything more of Thomas in the New Testament. Nothing. There is no comeback from Thomas! You can just see him feeling about 1 ft. tall at that point, while his brothers snicker, looking around the room for the keg. Apostle needs a drink about then....
Then he goes to INDIA to preach or so legend tells it.
Everyone else gets to stay more or less in the 'hood, but not poor Thomas.
Being a Doubting Thomas is a tough road to faith. I wish I just had faith. Rock solid.
But that's not me.
Namaste.
2 comments:
Your thoughts on the Bible are far more interesting than others. Being a Doubting Thomas is not an easy road but I prefer it to blind acceptance. Too much of that going around.
But then again, Thomas may have been the only one who got it right, and all the other disciples were hallucinating.
Post a Comment