But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
The verse marks Thomas three ways at once: one of the twelve, a man with a nickname, and a man who was somewhere else. Commentators ask two things of that empty place: what kind of man he was, and what his absence cost him.
John is the only Gospel writer who lets us hear Thomas speak, and what he says shapes how we read his absence here.
"Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin," was not with his brothers on that memorable first day of the week. As the Lord looked on His disciples He must have missed him. Why was he not there? and where was he? This Thomas was an unusual character. He was not talkative and excitable like his friend Simon Peter. He was not trusting and companionable like John. He was a man on his own. His words were few and he was apparently of a dull, determined and materialistic turn of mind. He would take nothing on trust. Yet when he did speak it was to the point and there was no mistaking his meaning. Only John records his sayings, and the Holy Spirit who inspired him to write had a purpose in that.
That reserve was not coldness toward Christ.
He had thrown in his lot with his Master and would share His fortunes in life and in death, whatever others might do. He had a mind of his own, and it was made up. But it was a dull mind, a pessimistic mind. At that time he saw nothing ahead of his Lord but death. He had affection for Him, there can be no doubt about that, but faith and spiritual understanding were greatly lacking.
The verse gives Thomas a second name. The ESV translates it as "the Twin"; older versions keep the Greek form, Didymus. One writer turns its meaning into a warning for the reader.
His surname, Didymus, is added here. Didymus means "twin," so its inclusion seems to be a reminder that Thomas is not alone in his lack of diligent faith. Perhaps many believers are virtual twins of Thomas!
One writer looks at who was in the room that evening, and at what kept Thomas out.
The disciples were gathered together, and notice, none but the disciples. There was not a Judas there, and Thomas also was not there. I think he missed the finest meeting of all by being absent. Do you know what kept Thomas away? I do not, but very little trifles often keep you and me from gathering together before the Lord. And that is often the time when the Spirit of God gives the most blessed view of Christ to the gathered ones.
Christ had already risen. Thomas's absence changed nothing about that. It changed only what he knew of it — for a full week.
And for one week at least Thomas did not know what the other disciples knew. He had not heard that word, "PEACE BE WITH YOU," nor would he believe those who had. So he did not have that blessed joy which filled their souls, though he as much as they was one for whom Jesus died. "Not with them," the gloomy clouds of unbelief and doubt ruled his soul and hid all the brightness of the RISEN SUN. It was shining in all its beauty and majesty, but he did not see it. The resurrection morning had indeed already begun on the other side of the night of death, but it shed no beams of its light and glory on the path of Thomas.
Why he stayed away, no writer will guess. But absence was not the whole of the problem.
His state of soul matched his absence that day. He resisted the blessed news of the Resurrection, and did not join the gathering of the disciples to share the joy of the Master's presence among them.
One writer reads the second appearance of the risen Lord as a picture of a later day.
What gave such value and preciousness to that first gathering was that "Jesus came". Thomas missed it — he missed the first assembly gathered around the Person of Jesus. In this second appearance of the Lord among His own, we are surely carried in picture beyond the church period to the last days. Then a godly remnant will again be found among the Jews, as pictured in Thomas. Like the Jews, Thomas finds it hard to believe apart from sight and touch.
- Absent. Thomas was one of the twelve and loved his Master. Yet on the evening that mattered most he was not there.
- Unbelieving. His absence and his state of soul went together: he would take nothing on trust.
- Dark. The resurrection was already fact, but for a whole week its light shone nowhere on his path.
- Missed. He lost the finest meeting of all. Small things keep us away too — often when the Spirit gives the fullest view of Christ.
- Twin. The name means "twin," and the warning lands on us: many believers are twins of Thomas.
The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Thomas missed the first meeting with the risen Lord, and he refused to believe the ten men who were there. Two questions press here: why did their united word move him so little, and what did his absence cost him?
The other disciples gave Thomas the shortest possible report — they had seen the Lord. He would not take it. He set terms that would prove one thing: the One who appeared was the very One who died.
He was not present on the evening of the resurrection day. That is why he was not ready to accept what the other disciples told him. They packed their testimony into five words of the deepest importance: "We have seen the Lord." In a spirit of stubborn doubt he set his terms. He wanted evidence he could see and touch, evidence of the most certain kind. It had to show clearly that the One who appeared was the One who died on the cross. Without that, he would not believe. In challenging the disciples' testimony he was throwing down a challenge to his risen Lord. If his Lord took it up, His resurrection would be beyond all question for Thomas himself.
This was not one man's word against another's. All the disciples said the same thing, and his own reasoning still overruled them.
At the very least he should have weighed the united witness of all the disciples that they had seen the Lord. But mere natural reasoning so blinds him that he treats their testimony with scorn. He would have to prove it by his natural senses, by seeing and feeling, or he would not believe.
It is easy to write Thomas off as weak. The record of him points the other way — he loved his Master, and his problem was not a soft mind but a hard one.
John 11:16 proves that he loved his Master no less than the other disciples did. John 20:25 proves just as clearly that he was not a hysterical or gullible man. Ten fellow disciples told him that they had seen the Lord. He met them with stubborn unbelief and looked on them as a band of dreamers. His cold, hard reason kept a tight rein on his warmth. A modern rationalist could have spoken his answer to their glad news.
His staying away and his unbelief were not two separate facts. One matched the other, and he stayed in the dark while everyone else was glad.
His state of soul matched his absence on that day. He resisted the blessed news of the resurrection. He did not join the disciples when they gathered to share the joy of the Master's presence among them. He was slow of heart to believe. So he missed the early taste of the blessing and stayed in the darkness of his own unbelief. The rest were full of gladness.
The nickname John records here carries a warning for the reader, since a twin is never one of a kind.
How much he missed simply by being absent! We too will lose a great deal if we willingly stay away from the gathering of the saints of God. His surname, Didymus, is added here. Didymus means "twin," so its inclusion seems to be a reminder that Thomas is not alone in his lack of diligent faith. Perhaps many believers are virtual twins of Thomas!
The proof Thomas demanded was the wound in the hand and the opened side. Those marks answer the question behind his demand: was the risen One the same Jesus who died on the cross?
He bore our sins in His body on the tree, and that body was laid in the grave. It was the same precious body that was raised again, now made alive by the Spirit. His blood had been poured out for our redemption. Thomas saw the marks, and they convinced him. They declare that it was the very same body: the temple raised from death to die no more.
Thomas stands for more than himself here. His pattern — refusing the witness, believing only when he sees — pictures the Jewish nation.
I take it that Thomas' unbelief is a hint. The Jew does not accept by faith the testimony that the Church gives — the testimony of Christianity, and of Christ risen. He believes when he sees, as the Jews will do, according to Zechariah 12 and 13, and owns Him as his Lord and his God.
- Seen. Ten men gave the news in five words of the deepest importance: they had seen the Lord.
- Refused. Thomas was not gullible, and he was not cold-hearted. His hard reasoning scorned the united witness of his friends.
- Absent. His state of soul matched his empty seat — he stayed in his own darkness while the rest were glad.
- Repeated. His name means twin. Many believers still lose out by choosing to stay away from where the saints gather.
- Marked. The nail marks he demanded prove the risen body is the body that went into the grave — raised to die no more.