Although Jesus’ tomb was found empty very early on the morning of Resurrection Sunday, to His followers at the time that didn’t immediately translate into our present understanding of what had happened. Even in spite of the angelic appearance and announcement that He had risen from the dead—a spiritual experience that gave way to the physical reality—Mary Magdalene quickly came to assume that someone must have removed His body (Joh 20:2). His body was gone, but “Him they did not see” (Luk 24:24). And they had no conception of the immortal, resurrection body to which He had been raised that was necessarily different in nature from the mortal body they had seen brutally sown in death. Even after Mary later recognized Him at the tomb, and the eyes of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus were opened to see Him, the others refused to believe it. In spite of their testimony, and even that of Peter to whom Jesus had also appeared (Luk 24:34, 1Co 15:5), the other apostles, excepting John (Joh 20:8), simply couldn’t believe that His body that had been drained of its life fluids could really be alive (Mar 16:11-14). Jesus had repeatedly taught that He would rise again on the third day, of which it then was, and that with God all things are possible. But the stark reality of His death and inability of His closest followers to believe illustrates for us the great power of death wielded by the devil to enslave mankind, which power Jesus broke with the greatest faith lesson of all time (Heb 2:14-15). “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luk 1:37). So great was their amazement that instead of their unbelief in the power of God to do as He had promised, they could hardly believe it for joy (Luk 24:41). Such is the heart of our heavenly Father that delights to surprise His children who wait upon Him; 1Co 2:9.
And yet, even though Jesus’ resurrection was now firmly established among them, what else does John record as a reminder of their own unbelief and the great power of death the devil had used to enslave people by their fear of death? See Joh 20:24-25. Rather than chiding “doubting Thomas” for his unbelief, what should his inability to believe, even in spite of the testimony of all the other apostles—who previously were also just as unbelieving—remind us about our own unbelief at one time, and the need to be patient with others precisely because of the great power of death that the devil still wields to enslave those who have yet to understand how God has nullified that power through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead? What does this also teach us about the substance of the gospel that sets men free from sin and death being rooted not just in Jesus’ death, but especially in His resurrection from the dead that offers us the hope that death need not be our final end as something to be feared, but something that we can overcome through our faith in Christ and following Him in the way of the cross? See Mat 16:24-25, Luk 24:46-48, Joh 12:24-26, 2Ti 1:7-10, 1Jo 5:4-5, Rev 2:7,11.
By what other moniker was Thomas known? See Joh 20:24 and note that Didymus means twofold or twain, and so he is believed to have been a twin, as some English versions translate it. With whom of the other apostles do the other gospels seem to associate Thomas? See Mar 3:16-18, Luk 6:14-15. (Note that Bartholomew means son of Talmai, and is believed to be the same as Nathanael; see Joh 1:44-49 for his association with Philip). In contrast to the order in Mark and Luke, what is significant about the order that Matthew lists Thomas in his gospel? See Mat 10:2-3. Notice also that in all three synoptics Matthew and Thomas are enumerated next to James, the son of Alphaeus, and Matthew Levi is also said to be the son of Alphaeus (Mar 2:14), which has led some to conjecture that the three were perhaps brothers, with Thomas perhaps being a twin of one of them. Why is this unlikely? See again Mat 10:2-3, Mar 3:16-18, and Luk 6:14-15 and notice that the authors are careful to point out that Peter and Andrew were brothers, as were James and John, so it would be unusual for them to omit that Matthew and James and perhaps Thomas were brothers, or Philip and Bartholomew, if in fact they were.
Although the mention of Thomas as one of the apostles is the only information that the synoptics give of him, besides our current passage, what else does John record about him? See Joh 11:16, 14:5, 21:2. Considering that not long before this Thomas was ready to die with Jesus (cf. Joh 11:8), what does his obstinate refusal to believe the testimony of the other disciples teach us about 1) the fact of Jesus’ absolute death beyond any simple reviving of His mortal life, and 2) again, the great power of death that is the devil’s armor for keeping people enslaved as his property for serving him, but which Christ takes away through His resurrection (Mar 3:27, Luk 11:21-22)? In regard to Thomas’ litmus test that he lays out in Joh 20:25 for what it would take for him to believe, what does it indicate that his thoughts were to explain whatever experience he imagined the others must have had to suppose He was really alive? How is that like many today who suppose that Jesus’ followers were either hallucinating or just duped by someone they mistook to be the risen Christ? What does the fact that nearly all Jesus’ disciples at first doubted His resurrection indicate about how rationally thinking they actually were in regard to matters of this life? What does that also indicate about the usual, rational order of God’s universe?