Except I shall see … I will not believe.- Joh_20:25.
1. The remaining incidents in which Thomas appears followed one another closely. They belong to the forty days during which Christ showed Himself alive after His resurrection. On the first occasion when Jesus appeared to the Apostles after His resurrection, Thomas was not with them. When he heard of what the others had seen during his absence, he could not believe it. He repudiated the notion as absurd. The vehemence of his language shows us how gladly he would have welcomed the news, if only he had been able to accept it as true. But to him it is too good to be true. He cannot submit to a delusion simply because it would be very delightful. He must have truth-truth at any price. For this, however, he declares that he will be satisfied with nothing less than the most convincing sense perception, the sense of touch. “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
In the Lives of the Saints it is related that one day when St. Martin of Tours was praying in his cell, the devil came to him, arrayed in light, clothed in royal robes and wearing a crown of gold. Twice the devil told the saint he was Christ.
“I am come in judgment,” he said. “Adore me.”
“Where,” asked Martin, “are the marks of the nails? Where the piercing of the spear? Where the crown of thorns? When I see the marks of the Passion I shall adore my Lord.” At these words the devil disappeared.1 [Note: S. Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints, xiii. 251.]
2. How shall we account for the absence of Thomas? It could not have been by accident. He must have been told that the ten astounded, overwhelmed, and enraptured disciples were to be all together that wonderful night; astounded, overwhelmed, and enraptured with the events of the morning. What conceivable cause, then, could have kept Thomas away? Whatever it was that kept Thomas away, he was terribly punished for his absence. For he thereby lost the first sight of his risen Master, and His first benediction of peace. Not only did He lose that benediction, but the joy of the other disciples who had received it filled the cup of Thomas's misery full. And, besides that, had not Jesus promised a spiritual presence in the assembly of His people, assuring them that wherever two or three of them were met together in His name, He would be in the midst of them? Thomas missed that. All Christians who neglect the assembly of the Church, carelessly or wilfully, may expect to miss many blessings which can be enjoyed only in fellowship. Christianity is a social religion; it attains its perfection in brotherhood. With the solitary it shrinks and withers.
“Old Father Morris,” says his American biographer, “had noticed a falling off in his little village meeting for prayer. The first time he collected a tolerable audience, he took occasion to tell them something ‘concerning the conference meeting of the disciples' after the resurrection. ‘But Thomas was not with them.' ‘Thomas not with them!' said the old man in a sorrowful voice; ‘why, what could keep Thomas away? Perhaps,' said he, glancing at some of his auditors, ‘Thomas had got cold-hearted, and was afraid that they would ask him to make the first prayer; or, perhaps,' he continued, looking at some of the fanners, ‘he was afraid the roads were bad; or, perhaps,' he added, after a pause, ‘he thought a shower was coming on.' He went on significantly summing up common excuses, and then with great simplicity and emotion he added, ‘But only think what Thomas lost, for in the middle of the meeting the Lord Jesus came and stood among them!' ”1 [Note: C. Stanford, From Calvary to Olivet, 163.]
Now you will think me a worldling-I am-but you made me feel sorry a little for the “large and fashionable congregation.” There are sad hearts under fashionable clothes as well as under rags. There were kings in the Bible whose prayers were heard, as well as beggars. Why may we not
Go together to the kirk
In a goodly company?
There is something in the mere fact of numbers when they sing-when they are silent-that makes the hymn or the prayer different from that at home-more inspiriting to some people and less of an effort. And though our Lord said so much about private prayer He went often to the public service in the Temple or the Synagogue, and did He not mean us to learn from His life as well as from His words? I do not care for crowded services-nor for frequent services of any kind-but there was a time when I did and I understand the feelings of those who do.2 [Note: Gathered Leaves from the prose of Mary E. Coleridge, 212.]
O faithless found when all believed,
Where wast thou, Thomas, then;
Not with the rout that raged without,
Not with the faithful Ten?
Why not with friends sure counsel take,
Who sought the House of Prayer;
O why, the first Lord's-day, forsake
The first assembling there?
Not hear the word, when first the Lord
His preachers' flag unfurl'd
And lit their torches at the flame
Which overshone the world!
Not there, when each became-to preach
The Cross from pole to pole,-
Breath'd on with breath which conquer'd death,
An ever living soul!
Thou could'st the Jewish stones defy
For Him at danger's call:
O better far with Christ to die,
When Christ has died for all!
It was not fear, for all were near
Who closed the doors for fright,
Hid in that room, when e'en the tomb
Was full of living light.
Or had'st thou stray'd to see display'd
The Paschal barley-ears,
Heaved bright and high across the sky,
When harvest-time appears?
More blest were they that week's first day,
With Him the feast was kept,
Who came to wave, fresh from the grave,
First-fruits of them that slept.1 [Note: Herbert Kynaston.]
