Reputations

Proverbs 22:1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,
and favor is better than silver or gold.

1 Peter 2: 1-17

John 20:19-31

Reputations

"Each year I don't play I get better!" said Joe Garagiola. "The first year on the banquet trail I was a former ballplayer, the second year I was great, the third year one of baseball's stars, and just last year I was introduced as one of baseball's immortals. The older I get, the more I realize that the worst break I had was playing." Joe Garagiola’s reputation improved with time.

With so much of our culture completely “unchurched” and so many people biblically illiterate, especially about the New Testament, there are still three individuals in the Gospels whose stories give us three phrases that remain popular in the common cultural vocabulary, even if those using the phrases have no real knowledge about the individuals or the stories.

The first is the Good Samaritan, Jesus’ classic story of an unexpected compassion. Certainly, the good Samaritan has a good reputation. The second is the Prodigal Son. Again a tale of unlooked for grace and unpredictable acceptance. The Prodigal Son’s reputation is mixed, depending on how much you really know of the story. For some a Prodigal is a misfit, someone who has chosen to lead life counter to society, at least for awhile. For others who do not the story better, he is someone who repented and returned to “the right path”. The Good Samaritan, Prodigal Son…. Whether they really know the full story in the Bible or not, people use those phrases all the time to describe others.

The third is Doubting Thomas, the story of the disciple who would not take anyone’s testimony as true unless he could see for himself. So many people in our rational, empirical, scientifically centered world have found the attitude and questions of Thomas, the Doubting Disciple, to be logical and legitimate.

Why believe the fantastic reports of others? Why shouldn’t we demand physical evidence? Why shouldn’t we require proof we can feel with our own hands, see with our own eyes? Why shouldn’t “faith” be grounded in “fact?”Thomas knew Jesus was dead. He had not been with the other disciples who saw Jesus, and he wasn’t going to just take their word for it. Would you have? 

However, most people who use the phrase Doubting Thomas do not consider it flattering, or a compliment. Thomas has kind of a bad reputation for those who really do not understand the situation, or know what tradition tells us happened later in his life. And, the fact that “Doubting Thomas” has remained one of the most memorable of gospel figures says as much about our own doubts and indecisions as it does about the appeal of this particular disciple. We want the disciples to be decisive and firm in their faith, not fearful and doubting. We want to look up to them. Thomas should know better than doubt.

There is a true story about a good man, an upstanding and well respected man in west Kentucky around 1900, who never touched a drop of "Demon Rum" except for one memorable occasion. One night he got roaring drunk, stole a horse and buggy, and raced up and down the main street of Arlington, Kentucky, all the while singing at the top of his lungs the song, "There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight!" For the rest of his life he was known as "Hot Time." One night and a reputation for a lifetime, despite all the good he did before and after that one night. It wasn't fair to call him "Hot Time" all his life, nor is it fair to keep on saying, "Doubting Thomas" for one rational request on one night.

Thomas found a Lord who dealt with him where he was, in his present circumstances but led him beyond the passing into the permanent. I think it is a terrible mistake to call him, "Doubting Thomas," for one brief moment of his life. We should remember him for the permanent affirmation Jesus evoked from him.

When Thomas was first told about the meeting with Jesus that he had missed, he was understandably guarded. The notion that a dead man was back alive again was not exactly something you grabbed hold of and easily believed in a minute or two, not today and not 2,000 years ago, either. Jesus may have raised Lazarus, but Jesus was a miracle worker, and Jesus was dead, and there was no other miracle worker like Jesus around to bring him back to life.

Some people portray the disciples as such naive bumpkins that they'd believe anything. Not so. They knew the dead stayed dead and this was not a fact you revised on a whim. So Thomas plays it safe but also then speculates aloud as to what it might take for him to believe this after all.

As he talks, his rhetoric gets more and more exaggerated. "My friends, I'd have to see with my own eyes the nail holes in his hands. No, tell you what, I'd need to touch those holes with my own finger. Better yet, I'd want to stick my whole hand right into his side where the sword pierced him!" Thomas kept mounting up an ever-larger heap of evidence that he thought he'd need to believe. His words seemed calculated to induce some eye-rolling among his friends. After three years of being with them and Jesus, didn’t he trust them?

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Of course, once he does meet Jesus, all that evaporates. Thomas is traditionally believed to have gone first to where Iraq is now, then to India in 52AD to spread the Christian faith among the exiled Jews living there at the time. IT is believed he also went to Iran. When western explorers reached these areas in later years, Christian churches were found there, many bearing the name Thomas. These churches in India held that he was put to death in India for his preaching.

In other words, this man who initially had doubts, and whose reputation today takes a beating, was a strong missionary who gave his life spreading the good news in hostile areas. He lived his faith. He died for his faith.  So, his reputation among those who do not know the scriptures well is negative, but that is not the reputation he deserves.  For those who understand Thomas and the situation well, and knew of his later life, Thomas is held in high regard.

During the early days of the Salvation Army, William Booth, a Methodist, and his associates were bitterly attacked in the press by religious leaders and government leaders alike. Whenever his son, Bramwell, showed Booth a newspaper attack, the General would reply, "Bramwell, fifty years hence it will matter very little indeed how these people treated us; it will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God."  Booth was not concerned with his short term reputation. He knew over time people would see the good.

To paraphrase a traditional aphorism, if you don't have faith, then there likely will never be evidence enough to convince you, and if you do have faith, no evidence is really needed.

We all have doubts about God at times, especially when tragedy happens. We all wonder where God is in all the violence in the world. We all have moments when we feel lost and would like to have tangible proof. I admit it would be easier for me at times if I could touch Christ’s wounds.

But I hope my reputation concerning God is not founded upon my doubts. My doubts do not last, because it is never long before I see evidence, and feel his presence again. It is then I realize I had walked away into a dark place without walking with Christ. But the risen Christ never leaves us. If we do seek him, he will reveal himself to us. Sometimes that revelation comes through another person whose faith is strong and whose actions and words allow God to show through. As Jesus said to his disciples when he first appeared to them, “As my Father has sent me, so I send you.” We who believe are sent to be the evidence of the risen Christ.

What is your faith’s reputation? What will it be in the future with those who know you?  Will your faith be just the evidence someone else needs to see and hear to take away their doubts?