holy days: Thomas the apostle
doubter turned missionary
Today is the first major feast day of the Christian year,1 what some traditions call a Red-Letter Holy Day.
This is the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, known to many as Doubting Thomas. Does this disciple, known for his skepticism of the resurrection, really deserve a major feast?
Thomas in the Bible
In the first three Gospels, Thomas is only mentioned in lists of Jesus’ twelve apostles.2 John, on the other hand, tells us more about him. When Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus has died, he announces that he is going to him. But Lazarus and his sisters lived near Jerusalem, where the religious leaders had already sought to kill Jesus. So Thomas, when he realizes Jesus is resolved to go into this dangerous region, says “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”3
Later, when Jesus declares that he is leaving, but that the disciples know where he is going, it is Thomas’s comment that prompts one of Jesus’ most famous sayings:
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”4
Most famously, Thomas is not present when Jesus first appears to the rest of the disciples after his resurrection. When he hears about Jesus’ return, he states, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Eight days later, Jesus appears again to his disciples, this time with Thomas present. Jesus invites the skeptic to touch his wounds. Thomas replies by not only acknowledging Jesus’ identity, but also his deity: “My Lord and my God!”5
John makes one more mention of Thomas, noting that he is present with a few other disciples when Jesus appears next to the Sea of Tiberias.6 His final Scriptural mention comes in the upper room when the eleven surviving disciples choose a replacement for Judas Iscariot.7
One other interesting note: In three of the four passages in the Gospel of John that mention Thomas, it is said that he is “called the Twin,” which seems to mean that he had a twin brother. Nothing, however, is mentioned of his brother.
Thomas after Acts
Tradition holds that after Pentecost, Thomas went east into Media, Parthia, and Persia to spread the Gospel. He eventually traveled as far as southern India, a region known as the Malabar Coast, which still has a Christian community that claims to have been converted by Thomas and uses a form of the Syriac language in its liturgy, indicating that it was evangelized by a missionary from the ancient near east.
The apocryphal book “The Acts of Thomas” identifies Thomas as a carpenter, and tells an interesting story. Thomas agreed to build a palace for a king named Gundaphorus.8 The king gave him money and provisions for his laborers and left the region. But when he returned, he found that Thomas had not in fact built him a palace, but instead had distributed all of the king’s money to the poor, healing and evangelizing many in the process. So, the king through Thomas in prison and began plotting how to further punish him.
Soon after, the king’s brother Gad died. The angels took Gad to heaven, showed him many palaces, and asked which one he would like to live in. He pointed to the greatest palace and asked to live in one of the lowest of its rooms. The angels, however, told him that this palace had been built by Thomas for the king, his brother. Gad asked to be sent back to the earth to tell his brother about the glorious palace that Thomas had built for him by giving his money to the poor.9
According to tradition, Thomas was martyred at Mylapore (now Chennai), near where San Thomé Cathedral now stands over what is believed to be his grave.10
what can we learn from Thomas?
Poor Thomas will forever be remembered for his doubt. But in the end, he confessed Jesus as his Lord and God and went on to do great things for the kingdom of Christ. In fact, he may have been the only Apostle to spread the Gospel outside of the Roman Empire, and he traveled the farthest in his missionary journeys. This should remind us that even though we may sometimes doubt, God can still use us for his glory.
Jude tells us to “have mercy on those who doubt,”11 and when our own doubts arise, we should pray with the father of the demon-possessed boy “I believe; help my unbelief!”12
When Doubting Thomas met the risen Messiah and made his confession of faith, Jesus replied to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”13 Thomas had the testimony of eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection, but would not believe without seeing and touching. We, too, have the eyewitness accounts of the New Testament writers, whose testimonies have been passed down to us over countless generations. Will we believe without seeing?
The story of Thomas building the king’s palace in heaven by blessing the poor, though perhaps theologically dubious, reminds us to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”14 Any palace we build for ourselves in this world will ultimately crumble. But our heavenly home is eternal. That’s where Thomas would tell us to build.
At least this year (2024). Some years, St. Andrew’s Day on November 30 falls after the first Sunday of Advent, making it the first major feast of the year.
King Gundaphorous is archaeologically attested around the time of Christ, reigning in the region of modern day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northeastern India. https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/thomas-the-apostle-saint.
"The Acts of Thomas,” translated by M.R. James, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/actsthomas.html.
“St. Thomas,” Brittanica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Thomas.