What's Wrong With Doubt?
A Sermon preached Sunday, March 30, 2008
by Pastor Terry Davis
First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT
As I have said before, I am not at all sure that Thomas should be considered the bad guy in the gospel story. So he doubted? Didn’t all of them doubt at first that Jesus had been raised? John’s gospel, the last to be written, and based on the memories of one of the disciples does not emphasize the doubt that the rest of them experienced, but Luke is pretty plain in saying that to the 11 the women’s words seemed to be an idle tale and they did not believe them. In one of the various endings of the Gospel of Mark we read that when Jesus appeared to the eleven and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. Even when they met Jesus on the mountain in Galilee Matthew says 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Matthew 28:17
Even after having an encounter, an experience with the risen Christ at least some of the disciples still had doubts, and why shouldn’t they? Most people have had some experience of thinking they saw something that wasn’t really there. Our eyes have fooled us; we have thought we saw something because we wanted to see it. How could they be sure when they saw the resurrected Jesus that they weren’t having a dream of a hallucination; that they were experiencing what they wanted to see and experience.
Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is instead a part of faith. Certainty is the opposite of faith. Faith, the book of Hebrews says is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Faith, by definition believes in the absence of certainty. If you can see and feel and touch and measure something then you have facts concerning that thing or event. It does not take faith to believe that this floor is solid, the carpet is red, and the Baptismal font is heavy. These are all in the realm of the provable. To believe that your spouse loves you, on the other hand, is an act of faith, because there is no way of proving that your faith is correct. There may be much evidence, but it is not provable. So likewise the belief that God loves us, that Jesus is the earthly manifestation or representative of God on this earth, and that Jesus is raised from death to life eternal, all of these beliefs are a matter of faith, and faith always allows for the possibilities of doubt. You may believe that Jesus was raised, that the tomb was empty, and even that you have experienced the presence of Jesus in you life, but these are not provable propositions.
Thomas wanted more than the reports of the others that they had seen Jesus after he had been dead and buried. He in fact wanted something more than merely seeing him, he wants to see the marks of the nails in his hands, and he wants to feel with his own hands these marks in Jesus hands and even to put his hand in the wound in his side. That is what he believes he needs to move him from doubt to faith, but when Jesus appears to him seeing him and hearing his words is enough, and Thomas is overwhelmed by the experience and falls on his face and prostrates himself and worships Jesus.
It seems significant to me that Jesus does not condemn Thomas for his doubt, for his lack of faith. Instead Jesus accommodates Thomas’s need for something more than the word of the others that they had seen the Lord, he returns to the upper room a week after the initial experience and appears once again, this time with Thomas present. He invites Thomas to do just what he wanted to do, but as we see he doesn’t really need this, seeing for Thomas is all it takes.
I suspect that most Christians have condemned themselves at one time or another because of our doubts. We might sing, Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so, but to believe that everything the Bible says is true is too great a leap of faith for me to make. I believe that it is inspired by God; that it tells the story of God’s love for the human family, but no, I do not believe that every word of it is literal truth. I don’t believe that the writers believed that every word they wrote was the literal truth; they told stories as they remembered them, or as they imagined them. I don’t believe that the writers really believed that the world was created in seven days, they wrote down the myths that had been handed down to them because they believed that these myths were a way of expressing the creative power of God, that the world did not happen, but the world came into being according to the plan and creation of God.
Faith can only exist in the presence of doubt, but that does not mean that faith is based on nothing more than the word of others. That is what Thomas was saying, he wanted, he needed an experience of his own to come to faith, and I think that is true of all of us. We want more than the record of those who saw and encountered Jesus 2000 years ago. It has to resonate in our lives. Pretty much of us all need some experience of the presence and power and love of God to come to faith, to a faith that will endure in times of doubt, and in times of crisis in our lives.
I believe that what the Christian faith offers is not certainty, but an opportunity for doubters to have experiences that move them to faith. I do not believe that we have a doctrine that is provable either by logic or by irrefutable facts. I do not believe that the Christian faith can be described by a creed that we must accept in order to be acceptable to God. I believe that what the Christian faith offers is an opportunity for doubters to have experiences that move them to faith.
Worship is one of those experiences that can move us, at least some of us, from doubt to faith, but it is not the only experience that moves us to faith. For some the experience that moves us to faith is the experience of doing good for others. When you help build a house for someone whose life was devastated by a hurricane, or when you provide a meal to a hungry person, or when you tutor a child or befriend someone struggling with a life threatening disease you open yourself to the possibility that you might see the face of the risen Christ in the face of the one you helped. Love is one of those experiences that can lead us to faith, to experience loving and being loved can help us to realize that we love because God first loved us.
Jesus offered Thomas the experience he needed to move from doubt to faith, but Thomas had to take a step of faith himself. Thomas needed to at least be open to the possibility that he could have a life changing experience. He had to come to the upper room open to the possibility that something might happen to him, and so also we can be open, even in the midst of our doubts, we can be open to the possibility that something might happen to us that will move us from doubt to faith.
Acts 2:22-42 22“You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth,£ a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know—23this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. 25For David says concerning him,
‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover my flesh will live in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One experience corruption.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
29“Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. 31Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,
‘He was not abandoned to Hades,
nor did his flesh experience corruption.’
32This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. 33Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. 34For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
36Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The First Converts
37Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” 40And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
John 20:19 - 31 19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So 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.” 26A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 30Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.