Doubting Thomas
Or, Hark: "If all the other kids jumped off a bridge..."
In honor of this post-Easter Sunday, the historical misunderstanding of Doubting Thomas.
Like Peter denying Christ Thrice, you have but to simply walk through the text to understand this, if you’ll bear with me a few short paragraphs, in John 20:
[Mary Magdeline] runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, ... and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.”
“Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes but wrapped together in a place by itself.”
“[She] saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, “Woman, why weepest thou? ... supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus saith unto her, “Mary. … Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father ... and to my God”
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, “Peace be unto you.” And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them...”
“But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said unto them, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and... thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus and said, “Peace be unto you.” Then saith he to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing.”
What’s happening here, with highlights? One, Mary was at the tomb. Why? Christ is dead, the door is shut, why go to a silent grave? We don’t know. I suppose habit. I suppose we also might have as well.
There are two disciples, one is not named, why?
She caught up with Peter in the heat of the moment, and he looks in but a few minutes later. What is it with the clothes? It’s that the wrapped, shrouded body isn’t simply missing: the clothes, specifically the headpiece, was removed and neatly folded in the corner. There is no reason for that on a dead body, a dried, bloody body would have been carted off wrapped.
Mary then turns back and sees two angels in the tomb, yet is not surprised. WE may be surprised, but in fact when supernatural events happen to modern people, they often report the same impression. This is similar to ghost stories of picking up a hitchhiker, or when “an angel” appears to lift a car off your child. He WAS there, so it MUST be ordinary and possible. Only in hindsight does it then seem a “Non-ordinary reality” as they say. “A man was standing by the side of the road…” Men do that, nothing unusual until you remember you’re 40 miles form Tulsa with nowhere to come from and nothing in sight.
When Mary turns back again she does not recognize Christ who she’s been with many months, as long as 3 years. Yet she also perceives him as an ordinary man, the gardener. Why? Has she met the gardener? Clearly not.
But then he says a very odd thing in light of later events. He specifically commands “Do not touch me, I have not ascended,” and she doesn’t. Yet later he is specifically touched and proven tangible, real. It is as if he is of light, some … magical … substance, some etheric or higher-dimensional light that would be grounded out, corrupted perhaps, and he is not entirely physical yet. I am hypothesizing, but this seems sound given the text and other magical experiences.
Because of this, it’s implied that he is about to ascend to heaven and possibly hell as a non-corporeal being, because later he returns to be essentially physical and ordinary for several weeks until the (final) Ascension. Therefore when first in the tomb he may not have liberated hell yet, and needs to remain in this elevated state. There are outside references, but the only direct one is 1 Peter 4:6, the "good tidings were proclaimed to the dead.”
Now that was morning of the third day. Again, why the third? Because this is a world before EKGs and EEGs: by Jewish law one was not certain to be dead, legally dead, until three days. As was Lazarus in the tomb. That evening the disciples are still hiding from the Romans, the Jews, and the Revolution they were fomenting, expecting to be caught and arrested – a very sensible worry. Jesus merely walks in on them as a group, although they must have already heard about the events of that morning when Christ had appeared to Mary...then disappeared again.
He no longer warns anyone to avoid contact, and shows off his wounds in a mundane manner. Not to be gruesome, these clearly cannot be bleeding, as they should, while at the same time they were not healed and erased. Why? If he has the power to resurrect, the power to ascend, then surely he also has the power to knit himself together and appear unharmed. At the same time, suppose they were healing at a normal rate: they would be horrifying, weeping injuries. There may be better reasons, but my explanation is that this is a conscious choice, specifically because of what it proves. What would it be like if they were missing? He walks in as nothing happened, some other guy was hung. It was all a con.
He then does something else we pass over, pun intended: he Breathes on them. “Aloha: The Spirit in You is the Spirit in Me.” Why? For a change he tells us why: he is transmitting “The Holy Spirit” to them.
Wait, what? Christians always talk of the Father, God, Jehovah; and the Son, Jesus, the Christ. ...Then there’s this other guy we never see, never talk about, the Holy Spirit. What is THAT? Why is it important? In fact, come to think of it, why is it SO important it is only and inevitably spoken the same breath as the Father and Son, and an equal part of the Trinity? Yet we...don’t talk about it? Don’t know what it is, what it does, what it looks like, why it exists?
Christ says what it is when he leaves the final time. “I [must] go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him.” John 16:7 That Comforter is considered the Holy Spirit. But WHY? And WHY does it appear to give them Christ’s power on earth?
Well, let’s finish Thomas. For whatever reason – it’s suggested Thomas was far more worried about being arrested and hung – Thomas only appears eight days later. Really Thomas? Were you in Tarsus or Turkey? He appears to meet Christ in person, recognizes, and believes, putting his finger in the wounds, just as was said.
Thus readeth the story of Doubting Thomas.
Is that so odd? Mary saw the tomb, then Christ face to face. What was there to believe? Christ walked in on the other disciples and met. What was there to believe? Peter appeared to believe...something...at the tomb but it specifically says, “For as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.” They had no idea he was going to be resurrected, or why, or if, or when. What was there to believe? Mary said she saw their master, who was often wandering off from time to time.
The only man who did NOT meet Jesus face to face, unaware, was Thomas. He was the only one who even had the possibility of not believing. His friends all said not only that they saw Christ, but that he was raised from the dead. Thomas said, “Well I’ll believe it when I see it,” just as we all would, and possibly should. What is the harm, the failure in that? Would not all the disciples have done the same?
Ah! But THEY DID. They did not believe, EXACTLY as Thomas didn’t. Remember: when Christ was arrested, they scattered. Only the women were at the crucifixion, who were not as legally in peril. The disciples all HID, as clearly stated. They also clearly state they had no expectation of later events, no expectation there would be a resurrection at all.
...Which is a bit odd. Why? Because ROME thought so. ROME, Pilate, ordered the tomb sealed and two soldiers stationed as witnesses and security. They weren’t there for nothing; no other crucifixion was paid to have a dead body guarded. That’s like a denari a day in pay!
Nevertheless we KNOW they doubted because they were in hiding when Christ walked in on them. All ten of them. Eleven was Thomas, who merely did the same.
So on meeting Christ again, Thomas immediately believes…exactly as the first ten, eight days earlier. He touches the wounds...just as they did, eight days earlier. But note something else: the wounds are still there, some 11 days after. And something else, he has his finger IN them, not ON them. That is to say, they are completely unbleeding, but completely unhealed. This is a state as if of a spiritual being, a ghost, not a man. But also fully physical and tangible. This is as if in dreams where we are always 30 years old. We become the mental expression of our selves, not an infant we once were, not elderly as we actually are, but somehow ideal, at the “right”, the recognizable age. This is interesting.
That is the historical misunderstanding: Thomas got a bad rap! But what of the historical mystery? What is the Holy Spirit and why was Christ breathing it on them?
That goes back to the story itself, we also gloss over. WHY was Christ sent? He didn’t lead the Jews: they were essentially destroyed. He was not the new David. Rome won. By every metric, Christ was a failure. Perhaps you remember the old Christmas carol:
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,
“Glory to the newborn King:
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!” --Charles Wesley 1739
WHY were God and man reconciled? In fact, why were God and man ever UN-reconciled, that is, separated?
That goes back to the Fall and the Garden of Eden. This is playing the long game, the long story, 3,000 years according to them, starting from the beginning of the Bible in Genesis. Adam and God once walked together, on a mountain of fire. They were close as two men, talking together, the Father and Son. However the Knowledge of Good and Evil separated them: Adam was banished from the Garden. ...However, that also means GOD was removed, banished from Adam. They were “unreconciled.” They were far away and could not communicate except by very special means.
And in fact, this is why Aaron and Moses exist, why the “Tabernacle,” or tent, exists, why the sacrifice exists, why the Jewish Temple exists. Why the Temple existed and was rebuilt a second time, only to be destroyed: “there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” Luke 21 ...And this did happen in that generation, under Emperor Titus in 70A.D.
The Temple, and the Temple sacrifices, from the Garden of Eden to 33A.D. were the only way to communicate with God. The path to Heaven, these higher places were closed, and even the washed priest in the Holy of Holies could barely reach or hear a God that man once walked with as one.
Yet with Christ, God and Man ARE reconciled. They DO communicate again, a key element of the world since 33A.D., since the fall of Roman Temples, and on to today. Why?
Because in this story, CHRIST IS THE DOOR. That is why “the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom” before secret altar separating Man and God, torn with an earthquake the moment Christ was killed. Why? Because Christ, being man, is your kinsman-redeemer. He is a man, with which you can communicate in ordinary reality. Yet he also “Ascends” and can communicate, and be “at the right hand of the Father” in heaven, a higher dimension. He is, in a way, in both at once: he is alive in Heaven and his blood is on earth. So he becomes the Doorway, and “No one comes to the Father but by me.” ...Or so the story goes.
So what is the Holy Spirit? Christ is not HERE. It is said he is alive, eternal, as other spirit-beings are. If he is in “Heaven” a “Spirit world” a Dreaming, an afterlife, another dimension. And that makes sense; all cultures say so except ours. Time moves differently there so 2,000 years may be a minute to them.
But what is the Holy Spirit? It is the Spirit of Heaven, through Christ, that can radiate on the earth. So that is why he can “communicate” it to the disciples by breathing on them. That’s why they can do as Christ does – IF they can channel it. And that is also why Christ cannot be here. If he is running the spotlight, he must be in heaven where the light of God comes from. If he were on earth, he can’t channel the Power of God, of that higher dimension, except through himself. ...And this would do the rest of us no good at all. Christ already HAS the light: it’s WE who are in darkness. We’re the ones who need it. The Holy Spirit is OUR light.
Only if he is in the Throne Room does the Spirit of the Creator God radiate down on us. Through the veil. IF we want it. IF we think on it. IF we call for it. IF we channel it. Remember, it is a DOOR; an opportunity: no one can MAKE you walk through it. Don’t if you want. But there’s also no bar to entry: why not look?
“God and Man are reconciled.” The veil is rent. The door, the tomb is open. The Fall, the Evil of the Garden of Eden is repaired – if you want it to be. The temple has fallen, and the sacrifice silent because there is no longer any need. All you need to talk to God now is:
Talk to him.
Knock – and keep knocking.
Ask – and keep asking. And you can receive.
That is the story of Doubting Thomas, doing what everybody else did.