On Sunday, 16 April 2023, my first born child gave a sermon on John 20:19-31 at St. Alban’s Church, Coventry. It was his eight birthday. Below is his written sermon.
Dear Heavenly Father, may you bless me and my church family as I speak. Amen.
Today, I will be talking about the story of ‘Doubting Thomas’. Thomas, who was also known as Didymus, was one of the 12 disciples, but during the time our Gospel reading takes place, there would have only been 11 disciples since Judas Iscariot had betrayed Jesus at this point. This reading happens after the crucifixion and resurrection. But the disciples did not all know about the resurrection at first. They were together in a locked room, but Thomas was not there.
Thomas was not just a doubting person. In other verses in John he is brave, curious, nervous, sad, all sorts of things. Thomas is mentioned seven times in the New Testament: three times in the Gospel of John, and once in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts. The times he is mentioned outside of John, we only hear his name in a list of disciples, which makes him look less special because it doesn’t help us to really know about Thomas. But in the Gospel of John, we hear more about Thomas and his personality.
The first time we meet Thomas in John’s Gospel, is chapter 11 verse 16, “Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.” This was when Jesus wanted to go back to Judea to heal Lazarus, even though he had just left because they wanted to stone him. The other disciples tried to stop Jesus from going to Judea, but Thomas decided, ‘let us go with our Lord and die with him.’ This shows that Thomas is a brave person and that he had really strong faith in Jesus, who was also a friend.
The second time Thomas speaks is John chapter 14 verse 5, “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” At this point, Jesus has said he is going to his Father’s house and telling his disciples that they know the way, and Thomas curiously asks Jesus where he is going. This shows Thomas is not only curious, but possibly a nervous person too because he didn’t know what was going to happen.
Finally, the third time Thomas speaks is what we heard in today’s Gospel reading, and this the reason why Thomas is called ‘Doubting Thomas.’ As I have already said, Thomas is not only doubting, he’s also brave, curious, nervous, and in this morning’s reading he is a mixture of emotions, too. He is sad because he was mourning and missed Jesus. He was brave because even when the Jewish leaders wanted to possibly kill the disciples, he didn’t stay locked in the room with the other disciples. But because of this, he did not believe the other disciples when they said Jesus had appeared. That is not all of his emotions in today’s passage though. He also must have been shocked when he did see Jesus and think, ‘oh my goodness! It’s a ghost!’ But finally, after he put his hands in the wounds, he believed. But the main thing Thomas is, is faithful. He is a good role model for our faith because he followed Jesus completely, he was even willing to die with Jesus, and in the end he fully recognised Jesus as ‘My Lord and my God!’
Today I spoke a lot about Thomas, and how he had many different emotions, not just doubt. It is very normal to doubt, but sometimes when you doubt you won’t be able to accomplish anything. It’s normal to have questions and not understand, but it’s important to not stay in doubt. Instead, learn from Thomas and when we see Jesus in our life, bless him.
Reflections of a Christian 