The Problem of Disbelief
Notes
Transcript
1. The Disbelief of One, vs. 24-25.
1. The Disbelief of One, vs. 24-25.
Thomas “was not with them” (οὐκ ἦν μετʼ αὐτῶν) when Jesus first appeared to the disciples (20:19–23).
The designation “one of the Twelve” (εἷς ἐκ τῶν δώδεκα) is important because it highlights Thomas’s role as a member of the (apostolic) Twelve.
Except in the Gospel of John, Thomas plays a much more prominent role. In 11:16, for example, Thomas exhorts Jesus’ disciples to follow Jesus even unto death; in 14:5, Thomas’s question to the cryptic teaching of Jesus provides the opportunity for Jesus’s sixth “I am” statement in the Gospel. This pericope is the only place in the NT where Thomas the disciple is given any explanation.
If the appearance to Mary (20:11–18) functions for the Gospel as an explanation of how Jesus is to be related to physically, that is, where the Lord is encountered, then the appearance to Thomas functions for the Gospel as an explanation of how Jesus is to be related to textually, that is, how the Lord is encountered.
25
Although the disciples provide a unified and emphatic witness to what they have seen, denoted by the first-person plural and perfect tense verb “we have seen (the Lord)” (Ἑωράκαμεν [τὸν κύριον]), Thomas claims he will not believe without physical evidence that is particularly concrete. He needs to see and touch the wounds from the crucifixion.
The very disciples who had just been sent with the Spirit-empowered authority of the Lord to announce his person and work to the world (20:21–23) were immediately rejected by one of their own—indeed, by one who had already exhibited belief in Jesus.
The question the Gospel now poses to the reader is how is the Lord encountered in his physical absence?
2. The Confirmation to One, vs. 26-29.
2. The Confirmation to One, vs. 26-29.
26
It is as if the narrator magnifies the importance of this day, the Lord’s Day, imaging in his account what all Christians receive when they gather on Sunday, the presence of the Lord with his people, the church.
27
Jesus displays his crucifixion wounds. But this time he shows them specifically to Thomas, whom he commands to “reach” (Φέρε) and touch the physical markings on his body derived from the cross.
The narrative does not reveal if he does touch Jesus’s wounds, and that may be precisely the point. Based upon what the text reveals, the issue is less the physical experience of Jesus and more the nature of a legitimate witness to him. For while Thomas may not have touched Jesus, he certainly did see him, just like the rest of the disciples had the Sunday before and declared afterward to Thomas (v. 25).
And this is confirmed in v. 29 when Jesus says that Thomas’s belief stems from seeing him; touching is not mentioned.
“Do not be unbelieving but believing” (μὴ γίνου ἄπιστος ἀλλὰ πιστός).
The terms “unbelieving” (ἄπιστος) and “believing” (πιστός) are the same Greek work except for the former having the negating prefix; thus they are antitheses.
But nothing in the Gospel suggests that Thomas is less than a believer (cf. 11:16).
Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”
That is, the actions of Thomas suggest that he is acting in an unbelieving manner, not that he is an unbeliever. He is willing (and able) to believe, as he himself confessed (v. 25), but only on his own terms.
“He is demanding that Jesus be for him as he had been prior to the glorification.”16 This is not doubt, as it is often interpreted; this is rebellion, a refusal to relate to God on his own terms.17 It is no less prideful than what the Jewish authorities displayed, who would not relate to God through Jesus but demanded the former mode of mediation—their temple and their laws. Thomas likewise pits life with Jesus against life in the Spirit and chooses only to relate to the former. He was not rejecting the disciples when he denied their witness, he was rejecting God.
Thomas is not in need of a conversion (from unbeliever to believer) but a transition from the old to the new covenant now mediated by the crucified Lord and his Spirit.
28
Thomas does not extend himself toward Jesus with his touch but with his words, for God in the person and work of Jesus can only be grasped fully by faith, by the words of a prayer or confession, and by statements of adoration. The last pericope of chapter 20, the resurrection chapter, guides the reader to understand and appropriate the fullness of the incarnate presence of God-with-us by means of the death and resurrection of Jesus. And it is this climactic confession by Thomas that serves as “a narrative bridge between Easter Sunday and the life of the believing community.”20 It is fitting that the last word of the Gospel proper by a character other than Jesus is a confession of his identity as Lord.
That is because Thomas speaks not to Jesus but about him in the manner of a true confession: “You are my Lord and my God.” As much as Jesus is the Lord and God, he is at the same time fittingly described by Thomas as “my Lord and my God.” In this way, Thomas not only acknowledges the identity of Jesus but also his personal relationship to him.
Thomas’s statement speaks beyond the confirmation of the resurrection and addresses the meaning of the resurrection. The resurrection reveals who Jesus truly is! Yet it is not an abstract theological definition concerning the person of Christ, for at the same time Thomas speaks of the Lord as “my Lord” and of God as “my God.” By this the uniqueness of the Christian faith is made clear. The God of creation can be claimed by the believer as “my God” and even “my Father.” The Gospel is the declaration that all the cosmological purposes of God and his grand love for the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ are ultimately applied to specific individuals. The good news is not only universal but also particular; it is for Thomas and therefore also for each one of us who read this gospel.
29
The first is concluded with a question mark by NA28, but because early manuscripts rarely have punctuation, the context suggests this sentence makes more sense as a statement. Even if Jesus is asking a question, it is certainly rhetorical and therefore functions as an emphatic statement. But is the statement a rebuke of Thomas, continuing the rebuke that began in v. 27? If it is a rebuke, it is certainly a gentle one. But it appears to be a rebuke nonetheless.
The comparison is between the fact that Thomas was able to see Jesus but later believers will not be given such an opportunity.
The rebuke would have to stem from the fact that Thomas did not believe the signs already presented or the witness of the disciples.
Jesus’s rebuke of Thomas was in reference only to the witness of the disciples. He failed to trust those to whom the mission of God had been entrusted (20:21).
Jesus’s rebuke of Thomas is not for what he had yet to see but for what he had already seen (and yet failed to believe) through them.
So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.”
And in this way we see a comparable analogy for our own belief and reception of the apostolic witness.
Jesus’s second statement is the last word from its main character in the Gospel proper: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (μακάριοι οἱ μὴ ἰδόντες καὶ πιστεύσαντες). This statement is a beatitude, the only true beatitude in the Gospel, and is related in form (and therefore function) to the well-known beatitudes in Matthew 5:3–12, which also each begin with “blessed” (μακάριοι). A beatitude is essentially “an expression of praise of congratulations.” Rooted in its use in both testaments, the term “blessed” means more than good fortune (i.e., happiness) or even good fortune in the future, but something very present—“that an eschatological state has been made possible” (cf. 13:17).
“If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
The kind of blessedness Jesus is declaring is “a divine gift,” and in the immediate context this “eschatological state” is available to those who follow Thomas in belief.
Jesus’s appearance to Thomas, therefore, is to confirm the original testimony of the disciples. In the providence of God, Thomas’s absence allowed him to function as an example of a future believer, who had to rely on the testimony of the disciples—one of whom wrote this Gospel!—as eyewitnesses to the person and work of Jesus Christ.
By his dismissal of the disciples’ testimony, Thomas undercut his own role as an apostolic witness. For this reason Jesus reestablishes it, giving weight to the apostolic mission in the previous pericope (20:19–23) and making clear that the apostolic ministry is a necessary ground upon which the mission of God will continue. The body of Christ is to declare the resurrection of the body of Christ and therefore both his lordship and participation in the divine identity of God.
3. The Promise of Life in Christ, vs. 30-31.
3. The Promise of Life in Christ, vs. 30-31.
30
In this way then Jesus’s appearance to Thomas serves as “an illustration of the reception of testimony.”
This is not to deny, however, that these two verses have an “air of finality” to them, in that they look right past Thomas to address a new character to whom Jesus is now also appearing: the reader of the gospel.
By these verses the narrator makes clear that the ministry of Jesus was intended from its very “beginning” to be inclusive of the (most contemporary) reader of the Gospel.
The narrator provides the first stage of the Gospel’s conclusion by explaining its its content and force (v. 30)—and then its purpose (v. 31).
In the least this suggests that the signs chosen were done so with interpretive intention, giving credence to the expectation of seven signs (see comments before 20:1).
31
The narrator plainly states the twofold purpose for which the Gospel was written. Both aspects emphasize that the expected response is “belief,” the single word that can alone express the purpose of the entire Gospel, used nearly a hundred times. The twofold purpose of the Gospel involves belief in the Gospel’s twofold subject matter: the person (v. 31a) and work (v. 31b) of Jesus Christ.
What is clear is that Jesus is the appropriate content of belief.
The purpose of the Gospel was to explain Jesus to the reader. Who is Jesus? He is “the Christ, the Son of God” (ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ), two apposite titles that in relation to Jesus become functionally similar.
The first title, “the Christ,” speaks of the Messiah or the Anointed One of God. “Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, but in a way that can no longer be expressed in the traditional messianic categories and far exceeds them in content.” The Baptist declared that he was not the Christ at the very beginning of the Gospel proper . . .
And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
. . . and the narrator applies it to Jesus at its very end.
Serving like a frame, then, the entire Gospel has been explaining how Jesus alone fulfills the role of the Christ, the one sent by God to do his work and to make him known. As the Christ, Jesus is intimately related to everything that God does. All the plans of God—past, present, and future—are made manifest in the work of Christ.
The second title, “the Son of God,” speaks of the intimate and lofty relationship between Jesus and God, that is, between God the Father and God the Son. In this Gospel it is the most exalted Christological expression, matching the prologue’s section of Jesus as “the unique Son”:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
and as the one who is in intimate union with the Father:
No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
Again, like a frame around the Gospel, the actions of Jesus throughout the Gospel are best viewed as depicting the very presence and purpose of God through Jesus. As the Son of God, Jesus is intimately related to everything that God is. By making Jesus the subject matter of the Gospel and the object of faith, the Gospel of John has confronted the reader with God himself through the person and work of Jesus Christ. This God can only be accessed and understood through Jesus and by faith. In short, as the “Christ” Jesus is the powerful expression of God, the king and judge of the saving sovereignty of God, who has enacted the new creation; as “the Son of God” Jesus is the personal expression of God, who makes God known and accessible to humanity. God has established his rule and relationship to the world through Jesus Christ.
What Jesus offers therefore is all-embracing, extending beyond what any person can grasp about physical and spiritual life (even the afterlife). The “life” is rooted “in his name,” that is, in the character of his person—his power, authority, and love. John 1:12
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,