I’ve got an idea for a novel that I’m never likely to get around to writing. It’s to do with Thomas, known to some of us as Doubting Thomas. Thomas, one of the disciples chosen by Jesus, with known to his peers as Thomas Didymus, or Thomas the Twin. Thomas (Tau’ma) means twin in Syriac, a form of the Aramaic which was the language of Jesus and his followers. And Didymus, a name by which the apostle is also called in the gospel of John, means twin in Greek. So why was he known as the Twin? Did he have a twin brother or sister? Or did he look remarkably like someone else? Could he have been remarkably similar in appearance to none other than Jesus? Read on for my Easter sermon, delivered at Wesley Uniting Church in April last year, drawing from John 20:24-29. I’ve taken out a couple of local references and italicised a local-context-related paragraph.
Think about it. Being the double of Jesus would complicate things. Being mistaken for the healer and being asked to perform amazing miracles could be a challenge. It would have been handy if Jesus wanted to duck away for some quiet. Thomas the double would be a handy decoy for the crowds. Not so handy for a double when Jesus gets into trouble and is on the wanted list. Not so handy when the guards come to arrest Jesus, take him away, put him on trial, whip him and take him off for a cruel long death on a cross.
Having a double around after the death of Jesus would be really interesting. Did we see Jesus or did we see the doppelgänger guy? Why is it Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus appeared in the room? And then we have Thomas hanging out with his friends, refusing believe everyone’s story. He needs to know that they’ve seen the crucified guy, with holes in his feet and his hands to prove it.
And then Thomas is in the room with his peers when Jesus turns up. Thomas is stunned. Here’s the real thing. No more of this wishful thinking, delusionary apparition talk. Thomas has his understanding of the life, universe and everything turn upside down.
So do I believe my Thomas the Double story is factual? I’ve got some material in the Gospel of John to look at. But beyond that, this is speculation. Written down, it’d be fiction. If I presented this doppelgänger story as fact, I’d be guilty of bogus religion.
So what can we find of true religion in the story of Thomas, Jesus and the people they engaged in conversation?
The gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus present us with a mixture of excitement, confusion, uncertainty and ambiguity. Mark’s gospel leaves us dangling with the death and burial of Jesus. Matthew, Luke and John give us accounts that are unclear about a lot of things. When the women rush back from the tomb to talk about sighting a risen Jesus, the other disciples are not easily convinced. The disciples are not quick to change the usual plot. Some head off for a fishing trip and when they spot Jesus on the shore they’re not convinced its him. And Thomas, he needs some significant clues before he will start to reshape his understanding of life and death.
It’s interesting that we often associate Thomas with doubt, as if he’s the unbeliever in the group. Thomas is described in the Gospel of John as inquisitive in John 14:5 (Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?) and courageous in John 11:16 When Lazarus has just died, the apostles did not wish to go back to Judea, where Jesus’ fellow Jews had attempted to stone him to death. Thomas says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him”.
Thomas became regarded as the founder of the Christian community in Syriac speaking lands to the east and north of Jerusalem, in places like Persia. A number of early Christian writings in Syriac were named after Thomas: The Gospel of Thomas, The Book of Thomas the Contender and The Acts of Judas Thomas, all of them regarded as unreliable and apocryphal by early church leaders forming what we now know as the New Testament canon. The Twin of Jesus idea is promoted in the Thomas the Contender writing.
Thomas also came to be regarded as the one who took Christianity to the east, over to what we now know as India. The Saint Thomas Christians of India, also known as Syrian Christians or Nasrani Mappila, held a tradition that Thomas visited India in the middle of the first century Common Era.
So it seems that Thomas, for all his doubts and questions, turned out as a solid, committed, courageous and faithful follower of Jesus who was prepared to put his faith into action in ways that were costly and time consuming. Thomas the twin. Thomas the doubter. Thomas the traveller. Thomas who crossed borders. Thomas who put faith into action.
What part of Thomas’ life do you relate to?
Do you connect with the ability Thomas had to ask searching questions when Jesus presented him with mystical mysterious hints about the life to come. “So just tell us, where are you going with this?”
The work I’m doing with the Uniting Church at the moment is designed to ask that question. Where is God guiding this collection of people, now and in the future? What’s it going to mean over the next few years as we grapple with putting the Christian gospel into practice in our worship? What will community engagement look like, in our interactions with community groups, in our connections with the poor? What will the emerging generations look like as they pick up the challenge of being church? What are we missing because we’re so focused on keeping what we have?
Do you connect with the ability Thomas had to name the hard realities of discipleship and take courageous steps into the future. “OK let’s get going. It might cost us our lives but we’re called to this.”
The work of the Uniting Church is not funnelled through ordained ministers who are on our payroll. “The ministers are paid to be good. The rest of us are good for nothing”. Our ministry is carried out through the every day living done by our members, by people on the edges, on site, and even more so wherever we are called to be, day by day.
Do you connect with Thomas’ suspicion of bogus make-believe claims of faith and faithfulness? “How do I know you’re not just making this up?” “Is this real?”
The Uniting Church can be a healthy place for honest enquiry – where we explore questions and challenge assumptions sometimes assumed to be central to Christian belief.
The Presbytery is currently running mid week classes on the Old Testament, giving Uniting Church members a chance to make the most of scholarship from the last 100 years. We have the Common Dreams conference coming up in Canberra in September, with Marcus Borg and others facilitating a conversation on “Midwives of Change: Progressives Shaping Religious Communities”. And later this year I’ll be running some sessions on how we might explore and communicate the Christian gospel in conversation, particularly with younger generations.
What about honesty when it comes to relationships? We’re prone in the Uniting Church to keeping a semblance of smoothness. “Everything is fine here. We’re the Uniting Church here”. Which can mean we’ve got some difficult choices to make. Do we keep smiling, even if it kills us? Do we just pull back from social life so we don’t have to pretend? Not close enough to fall out? Do we withdraw into camps where everyone sees things the same way as us? Or do we get used to being real in a community with people who see things a lot differently to us?
Do you connect with the ability Thomas had to recognise in Jesus something of the creator of the Universe. “My Lord and my God”.
I have a four word phrase I keep picking up through my life. “Uncertainty, ambiguity, without fear”. Even at times when it feels as though nothing can be counted upon, for me there’s still the sense that God is the ground I stand, walk and lie upon. I have days when I feel I’ve the ability to influence and shape the world around me. I get a sense of clarity about the future. But just as often, I find myself inching forward, taking small steps, trusting that somehow the ultimate creative force of the universe and beyond is there with me, finding a way. There are some obvious clues for the future of the church here. We can just get on with what we’re called to do. But let’s be careful that we don’t stagger into decisions out of fear of the future or anxiety about losing what we currently have. Let’s remember we’re in partnership with the God who has the ability to challenge our understanding of the status quo.
Real. Authentic. Honest. Legitimate. Trustworthy. That’s the kind of life we’re called to. We have permission to ask good questions, to take courageous steps, to move beyond the fiction.
It might be useful to relate to your readers that the idea that Thomas is actually the brother Jude is not present in the Bible and is a Syriac tradition which is most fully expressed in the Acts of Thomas. It is never stated why the second Judas is called ‘twin’, which may simply refer to the fact that he shares the name of Judas or Jude, both very common names. It may even by that he was a twin, but not of Jesus. The idea that they are confused for each other is an Apocryphal notion.