Friday, February 12, 2016
VIDEO
One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not
with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see
the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into
the wound in his side.” Eight days later
the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as
before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he
said. Then
he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. Then
Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing
me.” John 20:24-29(NLT)
Barna
Research is a company that seeks to keep church leaders in particular, and
Christians in general, informed about matters of faith. In a study published just this week on the
state of Christian faith in the United Kingdom they reported results of
questions asked a random population about Jesus being an actual historical
person, and His divinity. Here is brief
quote from the study:
But even though
most UK adults believe Jesus was a historical person, they are much less
convinced of his divinity. In fact, belief in Jesus’ divinity is not common at
all. Only about one in five adults among the general population holds the
orthodox belief that Jesus was “God in human form who lived among people in the
1st Century” (22%). The most common belief about Jesus is that he was “a
prophet or spiritual leader, not God” (29%).[2]
It
seems the long and short of it (for most people in the UK) comes down to
allowing the humanity of Jesus, but not the divinity. He can be a holy man, but not God.
Of
all the things we Christians know about Jesus’ disciples, we remember Thomas as
being the one who lacked faith; we call him doubting Thomas!
We
sometimes forget that Thomas followed Jesus along with the rest, and when Jesus
wanted to go back to Judea because Lazarus had died all the other disciples
were fearful of the rulers who wanted to stone him. But it was Thomas alone who had faith:
Thomas,
nicknamed the Twin, said to his
fellow disciples, ‘Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.’ John 11:16(NLT)
Yet,
after the resurrection Thomas’ faith faltered, and when Jesus looked him in the
eye he said the wavering disciple should not be faithless
anymore. Perhaps, in a sense, Jesus was
re-extending the call to Thomas, as he did with Peter and the others, to
re-examine the depth of his faith – to see if he was still ready to go
and die with Jesus. Thomas
stepped it up a notch; he bowed before Jesus and called him my
GOD!
According
to Barna, if this scene had taken place in the UK (or perhaps the US) today, we
would probably teach our children the song that helped them remember the names
of Jesus’ TWO-and-a-HALF disciples
– not TWELVE. The other
nine-and-a-half vouch for prophet and priest, but won’t have anything to do
with “king”.
We have
come a long, long way!
I find
myself sadly out of step with most of today’s culture. I’m certain growing older has something to do
with that, perhaps longing for the good old days, and/or lamenting the
current days of arthritis and hearing aids.
But that’s not the out-of-step I have in
mind. I find the state of faith in our
culture reduced to whether we have managed to hit the high points of ritual,
baptism, attending church and giving to the church budget.
While those
are not bad (obviously), would anyone truly imagine that a person who denies
the divinity of Christ is really a Christ-follower?
Why would
you worship a non-God?
For You Today
I have no
trouble reciting the Apostle’s Creed, offering mental and verbal ascent to the
divine nature of Jesus, who died for me.
I believe every word. The
question becomes, am I willing to cast my faith lot with Thomas and die
with Jesus?
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