John 11:11-16; John 14:2-5; John 20:19,24-29
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
[Jesus said] I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
The first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you…But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Thomas, called Didymus, one of the twelve apostles who were first ordained, happened not to be present when Jesus showed himself to the rest.
ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Where was Thomas that glorious Sabbath evening? He must have been told that the disciples were to be all together that night—astounded, overwhelmed, and enraptured with the events of the morning. What conceivable cause could have kept Thomas away?
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): The cause of it may be found, I think, if we take into account the two other facts John’s Gospel records concerning him. One is his exclamation, in which a constitutional tendency to accept the blackest possibilities as certainties, blends very strangely and beautifully with an intense, brave devotion to his Master. “Let us also go,” said Thomas, when Christ announced His intention of returning to the grave of Lazarus, “that we may die with Him.”
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It seems to be the language of despair—a blunt speech, and overly bold.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): His words signified great rashness and unbelief…Thomas ought to have believed our Saviour, who had told them, that though Lazarus slept the sleep of death, yet He went to awake him.
THE EDITOR: Raising Lazarus from the dead was to the glory of God, and Jesus said it was “for their sakes…to the intent that ye may believe;”—to strengthen their faith in Him, probably to prepare them for His own resurrection.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: In John 14:2-5, Thomas broke in with a brusque contradiction of Christ’s saying that they knew the way, and they knew His goal. “Lord! we know not whither Thou goest”—there spoke pained love fronting the black prospect of eternal separation—“and how can we know the way?”—there spoke almost impatient despair. A constitutional pessimist!
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): On each occasion he appears in the same state of mind—ready to look at the black side of everything, taking the worst view, and raising doubts and fears—in John 20, he cannot believe our Lord has risen.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Very likely, Thomas was broken-hearted when he found that his Master was dead; so, when his fellow disciples told him that Jesus was alive again, he could not believe it—the news was too good to be true. He had fallen into a fit of despondency, and got away, as broken-hearted, depressed people often do, trying to get quite alone.
ALEXANDER WHYTE: All that doubt, and fear, and despondency, and despair, met in Thomas’s melancholy heart till it all took absolute possession of him.
MARCUS DODS (1786–1838): If the bare possibility of his Lord’s death had plunged this loving yet gloomy heart into despondency, what dark despair must have preyed on it when that death was actually accomplished! How the figure of his dead Master had burnt itself into his soul, is seen from the manner that his mind dwells on the prints of the nails, the wound in His side. It is by these only, and not by well-known features or peculiarity of form, he will recognize and identify his Lord. His heart was with the lifeless body on the cross, and he could not bear to see the friends of Jesus or speak with those who had shared his hopes, but buries his disappointment and desolation in solitude and silence.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Death was the object which filled his vision. Thomas refused to accredit the testimony of ten competent witnesses who had seen Christ with their own eyes—he obstinately declares that he will not believe, unless he himself sees and touches the Lord’s body. He presumes to prescribe the conditions which must be met before he is ready to receive the glad tidings…A doubting Thomas does not honour God.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: He was no doubter. Flat, frank, dogged disbelief, not hesitation or doubt, was his attitude. The form in which he puts his requirement shows how he was hugging his unbelief, and how he had no idea what he asked would ever be granted. ‘Unless I have so-and-so I will not,’ indicates an altogether different spiritual attitude from what ‘If I have so-and-so, I will,’ would have indicated. One is the language of willingness to be persuaded, the other is a determination to be obstinate.
STEPHEN CHARNOCK (1628-1680): Thomas’s unbelief was very black, for he refused to believe all the testimonies of the disciples concerning Christ’s resurrection; but when he was sensible of his crime, and so kindly dealt with by his Saviour, he puts forth a stronger act of faith than any of the rest: “My Lord, and my God.” His faith was not satisfied with a single my; he gives Him more honourable titles, and his heart grasps Him more closely and affectionately than any of the rest.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN: It is clear that Thomas did not reach forth his hand and touch. The rush of instantaneous conviction swept him far away from the state of mind which had asked for such evidence. Our Lord’s words must have pierced his heart.
THE EDITOR: Three times John’s Gospel records that Thomas is “called Didymus.” Why?
J. C. RYLE: Some have thought his Greek name “Didymus,” signifying “two” or “double,” was given him because of his character being double—part faith and part weakness. But this is very doubtful.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Thomas in Hebrew, and Didymus in Greek, both signify a twin; it is said of Rebekah, Genesis 25:24, that there were “twins in her womb;” the word is Thomim. Probably Thomas was a twin.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): I wonder who the other twin was. Perhaps if you look into the mirror you will see him.
ALEXANDER WHYTE: Thomas, in all his melancholy and resentment, is ourselves. Unbelief, and obstinacy, and loss of opportunity, and then increased unbelief, is no strange thing to ourselves.
WILLIAM GURNALL (1617-1679): We are too prone to carry our faith, like Thomas, at our fingers’ ends; and to trust God no further than our hand of sense can reach.
C. H. SPURGEON: There is a class of disciples like Thomas who think much and are apt to doubt much. They do not love doubts—they hate them, yet their doubts often go very deep and undermine the most precious doctrines.
J. C. RYLE: Thomas was a good man with a very doubting and gloomy turn of mind—a man that really loved Jesus and was willing to die with Him, but a man who saw little but the dangers attending everything that a disciple had to do, and the difficulties belonging to everything a disciple had to believe. There are many like him. John Bunyan’s characters, “Fearing,” “Despondency,” and “Much afraid,” in Pilgrim’s Progress, are types of a large class of Christians…There is no more common fault among believers, perhaps, than despondency and unbelief.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): I may say in this case, just as Christ said to Thomas, “Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
J. C. RYLE: “Be not faithless, but believing.” This is a rebuke and an exhortation at the same time. I believe our Lord had in view the further object of correcting Thomas’s whole character, and directing his attention to his besetting sin—How faithless we often are, and how slow to believe!
