By Kingsley Baehr

Thomas, the disciple of Jesus, tended to be pessimistic. For example, there had been at least four attempts on the life of Jesus, two by the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem during the last year alone. Now Jesus was headed in that direction again. The sad news of the death of Jesus’ friend Lazarus had come a few days earlier, and Jesus wanted to go to “wake him up” whatever that meant. As His disciples were dis-cussing the situation, Thomas said, “We might as well go along so that we may die with Him.”
It is one thing to be loyal to someone or some group of Christians when we are optimistic about the future, but quite another thing to maintain loyalty when we think we may have to die to do so. Thomas’ pessimism made his loyalty more remarkable. Today in the Western world it is socially allowable to be a Christian, and we have little to fear. What if it suddenly became illegal to be a Christian? Would we have the spirit-ual strength and devotion to keep our faith in Jesus? Or would we cave in from the pressure?
And then there was that perplex-ing time in the upper room on the night that Jesus was arrested. Jesus had been talking very seriously about many things, and it seemed to Thomas that he was getting mixed signals. Before, Jesus kept talking about going to His Father’s house and preparing it for them, then coming back to take them there. Before, He had washed their feet like the lowest slave and had predicted their betrayal of him and Peter’s denial. Now he was talking about going somewhere that they knew about and said that they knew how to get there. A lot of it did not make much sense to Thomas. Finally he had to speak up.
“Lord,” he said, “we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
At least Thomas did not give up in disgust, leave the group, and go out into the night as Judas Iscariot did. Thomas asked questions. There is nothing wrong with asking God ques-tions. If they are asked in a spirit of true inquiry, God welcomes them. Thomas’ question was the springboard for one of the most powerful statements Jesus ever made: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Don’t be afraid to ask your church leaders honest questions about God.
But lest we think that pessimism as a philosophy of life is fine, we should be reminded that it can be very costly. Because of it, Thomas missed out on what would have been the greatest ex-perience of his life!
Jesus had been arrested, falsely tried, crucified, and buried. The disci-ples had fled in fear and spread apart. But now Thomas received word that the remaining disciples were going to meet again in the upper room on the first day of the week.
“What’s the use?” he thought. “It’s all over. No use beating a dead donkey. Why prolong the agony by con-tinuing to meet together? Our group is done for. Dead. I’m not going.”
Have we ever felt that way about our local church? Does it seem like it is dying, obsolete, out of touch? We should not stay away. God just might choose that meeting from which we are absent to revitalize and refresh the believers.
“‘Not by might, nor by power,’ [nor by modern music, nor by lots of young people, nor by dynamic preach-ers, etc., etc.] ‘but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” [Zech. 4:6]
Also we should look at ourselves to see if we are contributing to the dead-ness because of unconfessed sin or a lack of commitment to the Holy Spirit’s work in our church.
You can imagine Thomas’ total shock when he heard, “We have seen the Lord! Really, Thomas! He came right through the closed and locked door into our midst! He even ate some food in our presence, and we did not see it going down! He was not a ghost, Thomas! He was really Jesus!”
And then Thomas’ old pessimism took over as he replied, “Unless I see Him for myself, and touch Him myself, I refuse to believe it.”
But interestingly enough, the next time the disciples met, Thomas was there. He made sure that nothing kept him away!
Jesus is loving and gracious. He again appeared to them as before, but this time for Thomas’ benefit especially.
“Here, Thomas, see? Thomas, here, touch Me. Do not be faithless any longer. Believe!”
Thomas knelt before his Master, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!”
Now listen carefully as Jesus makes a vital comment to Thomas. “You believe because you have seen Me. But blessed are those who have not seen Me and believe anyway.”
Jesus was talking about us! Unlike the disciples, we did not wit-ness Jesus’ life, death, and resur-rection, so we have to trust others for their testimony. Thomas saw the proof of Jesus’ resurrection; we have to trust the Biblical accounts. The disciples saw the lives Jesus changed; we have to read about them in the Bible and believe the stories of those Jesus has changed today. What Jesus said to Thomas, He says to us through the Bible: “Do not be faithless any longer. Believe!”
- John 11:16; 14:5; 20:24-29; Acts 1:13