John 20:24

THE ABSENCE OF THOMAS

‘But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.’

John 20:24

There is a very pathetic ring about this verse; Thomas lost an opportunity and missed a blessing. The world seems to be full of lost opportunities, and people never seem to learn by the experience of others. The reason that so many people do not improve is because they lose opportunity.

I. Temperament and religion.—Temperament plays a very important part in religion, and so does our physical being. Have you not sometimes found yourself very despondent, and after a long day, when things seem to have gone wrong, you are weary and troubles are very heavy and very hard to bear? They are not any harder to bear than they were in the morning, the difference is in the individual; fatigue affects very materially our spiritual life. Thomas was a man who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and had expected great things of Him, but his hopes were dashed to the ground; and when somebody told him that Jesus is risen he would not believe it. It was too good to be true, and therefore he asked for very special evidence.

II. The evidence of the senses.—He wanted to see, or he would not believe; then he asked to feel—if he could feel he would not doubt. What he asked for was evidence to satisfy his senses. That is just the sort of evidence required by ordinary people—evidence to satisfy their senses; yet they live every day believing in things they cannot understand. There are things you never see, and yet you believe in them! There are many things we have never seen and never shall see, yet we believe in them. There are lots of things we do not understand, and yet we believe!

III. The evidence of experience.—There is another question of evidence—the evidence of experience. So many people say, ‘If I do not experience how can I know?’ But how is it possible for any one to make known his experience to others who have not had it? We older people teaching the younger generation were once children ourselves. We tell them that they have to act with judgment, and must be wary and watchful, and we say we have been through it all ourselves; but they do not heed our warning. The child as he grows up says, ‘I will see for myself’; and that is the only way in which a man can really know the Lord Jesus Christ—by his own personal experience. There are thousands of people who accept the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and yet they get no satisfaction from the past because they have never experienced what the Apostle calls the ‘power’ of His resurrection. Love can only be experienced by the heart that loves, and therefore it is necessary for us all to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and to accept the fact of His resurrection. And then starts a new life, the old life is left behind, and we walk henceforth with Jesus. There are a number of people who do not require the evidence of the senses, because they have found by experience the power of the risen Lord in their hearts. They walk by His power and in His strength.

—Rev. G. Robinson Lees.

Illustration

‘St. Thomas was certainly wrong in separating himself from the other disciples, and see what he missed (John 20:24). “The angels are present when we assemble for worship,” said the venerable Bede. “What will they say if they find me not there? Will they not ask, ‘Where is Bede? Why comes he not to prayers with his brethren?’ ” Yes, but some One infinitely greater than the greatest of the angels is present where two or three gather together in His Name.’