Oh Yes?

I was in Lucerne recently, and stopped still. In front of the station was a bright circle of candles. Greenpeace was holding a vigil in remembrance of the events at Chernobyl. I took the leaflet they were distributing and read it. It told me of the cause of the disaster, and drew my attention to some facts. Did I know that 98% of all children in Byelorussia, Russia and the Ukraine are suffering from diseases such as various forms of cancer? And that the government there claimed there is no scientific proof that this high disease rate is caused by radiation - clearly a cover-up?

It may be that I am sceptical by nature, but my mind immediately performed a rough calculation, and I started to speculate on how that would apply to the population of Moscow, or St Petersburg, or even Vladivostok. And if Moscow, why not Berne, too, for radiation is no respecter of national frontiers? "These figures can't be right," I told myself.

This is just one of many stories that grow in the telling. A recent report on child abuse referred to 25'000 cases a day in the United States alone. And on another level, Erich von Däniken has thriven on accounts of visitors from other parts of the universe. Are they true? I doubt it.

"That can't be right," is a reaction that we try to suppress when we read our Bibles. Yes, we say to ourselves, Jonah really did get swallowed by a big fish and spent three days inside it - fish were different in those days. Yes, of course God killed all the eldest boys of the Egyptians so that Pharaoh would let Moses go, and no doubt there must be some natural explanation of the parting of the Red Sea (we often forget that the Bible talks of `a wall on their right hand and on their left' (Ex. 14:22)).

With the New Testament, we become even less questioning. Yes, we say, God appeared to the crowds by the Jordan in the form of a pigeon. Yes, we say, if you are Jesus and you need to cater for five thousand people, then five barley loaves and two fishes are more than enough.

God does not want us to be gullible or credulous. God does not want us to take everything at its face value without thinking about it. The God who was born to a virgin, who turned water into wine, who raised the dead and who in the end was raised and ascended into glory, our God does not want us to believe all this without thinking about it and about the consequences.

Thomas thought about it. And Thomas doubted. Unlike the other disciples, Thomas had not seen what had happened after the Resurrection. He had not experienced it first hand. So, and rightly so, he doubted.

The account of Thomas' meeting with Jesus carries no criticism of Thomas for doubting. Doubt is the most natural thing in the world. Jesus has no problem with Thomas' doubt, and meets it with an offer to give him true experience: "Put out your hand, and place it in my side." (Jn 20:27). We do not know whether Thomas actually obeyed - all we know is his reply.

His reply was one of conviction, of awe and of realization. Jesus met Thomas' doubt with an answer: "Come and find out." (And there is a parallel with Thomas' earlier question, in John 14:5, "How can we know here you are going if we don't know the way", and Jesus' reply, "I am the Way.")

We too need to find out for ourselves. And at the end, when all doubt is cleared away, to share in Thomas' surprise and joy. "My Lord and my God!"