Rev. Jacob Singleton…The Journey of Doubt and Faith

Sunday Worship - FPC LaGrange - April 12th, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

And since February the 22nd, since I last stood in a pulpit. So for those of you wanting to get home and see the masters, go ahead and apologize. I'm kidding, kidding. The beginning of our gospel passage, again, it occurs on this very evening of the first day of the week. It's a continuation of John's Easter story. John tells us the disciples have locked themselves into a room because of fear when Jesus appears to him. Later they tell Thomas, who wasn't with them, that they had seen Jesus. And he says, unless I put my fingers in the places where the nails went, I will not believe. A week later, Jesus appears to the disciples again. This time Thomas is there, and Thomas, Jesus tells Thomas to place his fingers in his scars. And Thomas responds, My Lord and my God. This is the gist of the story, anyway, how doubting Thomas became believing Thomas. There's more to the passage. But Thomas's boldness makes it famous. Many books and articles and sermons are written about Thomas, all with differing perspectives of his doubt and his belief. As much as we want to focus on Thomas, we shouldn't miss that the disciples, they're all like Thomas. And doubt and fear are plentiful in this passage. Peter and the beloved disciples race to the empty tomb wasn't enough to sway their understanding, nor was Mary Magdalene's testimony. They're hiding in fear when Jesus appears before them. To lessen their fear, he proclaims peace to them and then follows by showing them his hands and his side, revealing that all the disciples needed more than just verbal reassurance. Here we see that the disciples are all in the same proverbial boat. Thomas is just bold enough to express his doubts out loud when the others tell him that they have seen the Lord. While all the disciples doubt and are afraid, we seem to only remember the part of the story telling us about Thomas. My hunch is that Thomas humanizes the story. He makes it a human story. Thus, with Thomas's boldness, our passage deals with human problems as much as it does holy things. Fear, doubt, worry, darkness, sin, no less than faith, leaf, peace, light, and forgiveness. What's more human than wanting proof in the face of doubt? What's more human than not believing until we can touch or taste or feel or see with our senses? Therefore, as much as it is a story about Thomas's doubts and beliefs, it's also a story of each of us. Frederick Bietner says that the story of any one of us is in some measure the story of all of us. And therein, perhaps, lies our attachment to doubting Thomas. He gives voice to our own thoughts, our own doubts, our own fears. I know something of the doubt and the fear and the misunderstanding and the worry that the disciples felt. I know the desire to want tangible signs, to touch the hands and the side of Christ. I know the desire to want to touch Jesus' hands inside to still my doubts and satiate my questions. Let's face it. If we are honest with ourselves, the resurrection is a bit absurd. What questions and doubts don't arise after this peculiar proclamation that he's not here? He is risen. Resurrection goes against what we know to be true. If the dead don't stay dead, what can you count on? So I think it's unfortunate Thomas gets coined with the nickname he does, especially since none of the disciples believe until they have seen the resurrected Jesus. And throughout John's gospel, not just here he gets dubbed the name doubting, but throughout the gospel we see that Thomas is bold. He's a straight shooter, a practical guy who is unafraid to ask the questions the other disciples were scared to ask. He's a no-nonsense guy who tells it like it is. So from Thomas, and this throughout the gospel and in this passage in particular, we see what it means to be a person of faith. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. All in one. He says, unless I see it with my own eyes, unless I touch him with my own hands, I just won't believe. I love it. It's beautiful. It's a raw response. It's a very human response. But alas, he gets the nickname, dubbing him a doubter. But I can't help but wonder, who among us has never doubted the gospel story at one time or another? In another place, Biegner also writes whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don't have any doubts, you're either kidding yourself or you're asleep. And this, dear friends, is why I love Thomas because he opens the door for the rest of us. And he allows us to be human. He gives us the okay to doubt, to ask questions, to desire to see more. Thomas, and more importantly, Jesus' reaction to his doubt, shows us that doubt is not something to be feared. Instead, it's just simply a part of being human. Particularly human of faith. Doubt, again, quoting Beaner. Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith. It keeps faith alive and awake and moving. Doubt allows for new possibility. It allows for growth. It allows for further searching. Doubt reminds us that our journey of faith is not one of collecting stagnant facts, statements, or beliefs to then regurgitate to prove that we know the material. Instead, our journey of doubt and faith is a pilgrimage. One seeking the risen Lord. Thus, doubt gives us the opportunity to encounter not the facts or the data, but the living one in whom our faith rests. I love that Thomas dares to express his doubts, but I love even more Jesus' response to him. How does Jesus respond to the disciples' fear and doubts? He responds with peace and understanding. Instead of scolding him or rebuking him, he lovingly tells him to put his fingers in the scars, to look at his hands. This is the peace that Thomas needs. He's bold enough to state that he will not believe until he sees these things. And the amazing thing is that Jesus offers it to him. Doesn't judge, he doesn't condemn, he gives the disciples himself. It's only after he has given Thomas the opportunity to face his doubt that he tells Thomas to stop doubting and believe. To which Thomas then responds, My Lord and my God. And this is the highest affirmation of Christ by any person in the Gospel of John. Others have called him teacher, Lord, master, even Messiah. But Thomas calls him God. Thomas's doubt, his searching, leads to the faithful confession and revelation of who Jesus truly is. And we, the reader, at this moment are thrust back to the beginning of John's gospel. The word was made flesh, dwell among us. The word who was with God and was God in the beginning. Dear friends, the journey of faith is hard at times. It begs us to believe in the impossible. It challenges us to look at the world and despite the way that it looks, with its hatred, its violence, its fears, its destruction. Faith tells us that it isn't how things truly are. Things aren't what they seem because our faith tells us that God is still at work in the world, encountering us and others, and bringing new life out of death. Faith is a human endeavor. It allows us to voice our doubts and to ask our questions. It allows us to get stuck, to tow the line. Faith is a process. It's a verb. It's something we do, not something we have. It's an on-again, off again sort of thing. It's a great journey. And faith allows for laughter and tears, fear as well as courage. It allows us to doubt and ask questions. Allows us to turn away and to come back again. More importantly, faith allows us to bring our questions and our uncertainties into prayer. It permits curiosity, and curiosity leads to searching. And in our searching, by God's grace, we find the risen Lord, or better, better. In our searching, the risen Lord finds us in the midst of our doubts and grants us peace in Him. So let us not be afraid of doubt, but let doubt be for us a restlessness to stir us from our complacency into a deeper faith into the one who was crucified and risen. Sometimes. Sometimes our prayer can only be this. Help. Amen. Having heard the scriptures proclaim, let us now stand together in body or spirit, confessing and affirming our faith.