Journeying with the man nicknamed ‘Doubting Thomas’
“Sometimes I am just like ‘Doubting Thomas,’ remarks a good friend of mine on the phone. And immediately my thoughts speed across half the globe.
Thomas verbalised what millions of people could also say: “I want to see and feel God!” He became world-famous, because he doubted Christ’s resurrection. Doubt is his most marked character trait. He states: “I do not want to believe in anything unless it is proven unmistakably to me.” That is why he wants to touch and feel Jesus’ wounds in his hands, his feet and in his side. What actually happened to the man who showed scientific qualities?
Origines tells us that the Apostle Thomas went to Iran and Iraq where he spread the Gospel of the Risen Christ. He was so moved by the Easter events that he went as far as South India and founded the first seven churches on the Malabar Coast. He was martyred in 72 A.D. Experts do not doubt his missionary actions on the Indian subcontinent.
One only risks one’s life pursuing a higher calling, if one is fully convinced that one’s opinion is correct. Who else would travel thousands of kilometres on foot through Asia, preach for years and finally die professing his faith in Christ? It was the forty days after Jesus’ resurrection that changed Thomas and the other disciples forever. /KDJ
