Beyond Faith to Faithfulness
"Doubting Thomas," Caravaggio, 1597
For the third Sunday of Easter--10 April 2005--Rev. Hunter focused on the story of Thomas, the disciple who proclaimed he would not believe in the risen Christ until he had witnessed and touched Jesus's wounds for himself. Thomas's story illustrates that faith needs a little push. Who among us would not like a clear sign from God to help our faith? Faith has always been difficult, even for an Apostle.
Mr. Hunter posited, however, that Thomas's reputation as "Doubting" Thomas is undeserved. In John 11, when Jesus asked the disciples to go with Him to the hostile town where Lazarus lay dead, Thomas is the one who had such faith in Jesus that he "said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with him'" (John 11:16). Thomas had faith.
The apocryphal gnostic scripture The Acts of Thomas (early 3rd c. AD) records the legend that Thomas was a man of such tremendous faith that he journeyed to India in 46 AD, where he founded the Christian church throughout southern India and was eventually martyred. Thomas's reputation, in other words, is of a man of faith.
In Acts 5:29, Peter tells the council charging him and other apostles, "We must obey God rather than men." When faith is put into action, it becomes faithfulness. Good intentions are not sufficient when only one intention is required by God: to serve Him. As the answer to the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever."
If we follow God with faithfulness, God will make everything else possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment