Adult Object Lesson: Thomas the Doubter
John 20:19-31
The power of doubt
Poor Thomas. What a scapegoat he has been for all of us these last 2000 years!
Thomas’s mistake was not so much his unbelief—he wasn’t alone in that—then or now.
Thomas made his mistake in boasting about his superior intellect. He was no fool to be caught up in fantastic rumors.
You guys can talk all you want about the risen Lord. I’ll believe it when I see it. Strike that! I’ll believe it when I can touch his wounds.
What might have happened at this point? Jesus might never have appeared to Thomas. Thomas might have lived the rest of his days as the obscure apostle who doubted something only a few people were taken in by. In his superiority, he might have spent his remaining life retelling his “I told you so” story.
Artists in depicting Thomas’s encounter with the risen Lord have done him a great disservice. They like to show Thomas reaching out to touch the wounds of Christ, still open and bleeding. It’s more dramatic than depicting a dumbfounded Thomas.
In fact, this Gospel telling of the story reveals a proud man caught in a self-made trap.
John, the Gospel writer, does not tell us
…and then Thomas placed his hands in Jesus’ side and he believed.
Instead, John tells us that Thomas backs away from his boast. He immediately is humbled. He confesses his faith, “My Lord and my God.”
Your object lesson today is a shell game. Have three paper cups (or walnut shells) and three peas/beans or a similar small object. Set up the game in advance placing a bean under two cups ahead of time. A real shell game operator will make a great show of each cup being empty before the game starts. But your people trust you, don’t they?
As you begin your talk about Thomas, place the third bean under the third cup. Have your congregations watch as you shift the cups around as you talk.
Talk about how our fear of being proven wrong is the root of our resistance to God’s message. At the end, have someone choose a cup and reveal that there is indeed a bean to be discovered. You can reveal the other beans if you like. The point is that God made sure Thomas believed so that we might one day believe too.
God is in control of the outcome of the game.
Oh and by the way . . .
What actually became of Thomas?
Thomas is believed to have carried the gospel story as far as India. He wrote his own account of Jesus’ childhood and his own “revelation” that did not make it into the Bible.
We tend to forget the result of Thomas’s doubt.
Thomas’s doubt caused millions to believe.