Central Christian Church
  • Home
  • Get To Know Us
    • About >
      • Plan Your Visit
      • Meet Our Team
    • What We Believe
    • Meet our Pastor
    • Meet our Ministry Partners
    • Celebration Station Preschool
    • Kid Central
  • Online Services and Sermons
    • This Week's Live Stream Service
    • Last Five Sermons
    • Previous Sermon Series
    • A Taste of Central
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Give
  • Member Resources
    • Calendar & Events
    • Submit a Prayer Request
    • Facility Question or Request
  • Contact
  • Ukraine Relief Project

Think.Believe.Act.

Reflections on making the world more like Heaven & making people feel as though they have been in the presence of Jesus.
Return to Home Page

The Incredulity of Folks like Thomas

1/13/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Incredulity of St. Thomas, Caravaggio, 1601-1692
As a college student I was required to take a course on the arts called "Man and the Arts” and I hated it. College students have a vicious habit of renaming courses and due to many of the paintings and statues covered in the class this one was derisively called ‘Man and his Parts.”

As I’ve grown older I’ve developed a love for religious art. My favorite painting is Caravaggio’s The Incredulity of St. Thomas painted in 1601-1602. Caravaggio himself was no saint. Four years after he completed this painting he was sent into exile for killing a man over a tennis match. 

I just purchased a reproduction of this painting for the Narthex of our church. The bodily resurrection of Christ is a core belief of Christianity. There are so many things that intrigue me about this painting. I love the realism of the painting, the fact that Caravaggio chose to focus on the humanity of Jesus portraying Christ without a halo or the ephemeral glow that some artists used.
Nicknamed “Doubting Thomas,” St. Thomas doesn’t get the respect he deserves. He is a rational man carefully considering something as totally irrational and unfathomable as a resurrection. Faith hasn’t always come easy for me. It’s hard to wrap one’s head around the virgin birth or possibility of resurrection. In this painting Jesus is actually carefully guiding Thomas’ finger into the wound on his side. Rather than rejecting Thomas for his doubts, Jesus helps him to believe.  While Thomas may be the only disciple who actually admitted his doubts, two other unnamed disciples look over his shoulder also looking for proof that something so hard to believe could actually be true.
I’ve always been intrigued by passages in the Bible that acknowledge and validate doubt. 
"Doubt isn’t the enemy.  It’s simply a door some of us must go through on our way to faith."
The other story that comes to mind is the account in Mark 9 of a man who asks Jesus to save his son from life threatening convulsions. What parent can’t identify with the man’s agony and desperation.  Jesus asks him if he believes that he can heal his son and the man replies  “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Jesus then heals his son showing that he’s okay with weak faltering faith.  I often find myself praying in the spirit of this man’s honest plea for help. Doubt isn’t the enemy.  It’s simply a door some of us must go through on our way to faith.
​​
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Pastor Carl

    "This blog is my way of connecting with people at Central and beyond to encourage them to make their space in the world more like Heaven."

    Carl's Recommended Blogs & Resources
    Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed in this blog reflect my thoughts and opinions as an individual, not the formal positions of our church.  Central includes people with a wide range of opinions on important issues like those addressed in my posts.  It is also a place where we can discuss these issues with civility and grace.

    Archives

    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    July 2021
    July 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    February 2019
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

    Categories

    All

Location

What Sundays are Like at Central

Central is vibrant nondenominational church focused on making our community more like heaven.  We strive to keep Jesus at the center, looking to scripture for direction, and asking God's Spirit to lead and empower us. We care about justice, We love our neighbors, and we proclaim the gospel. 

Contact Us

1504 VIlla Rd, Springfield, Ohio 45503
Church - 937.390.2424
Pastor - 937.305.9068
  • Home
  • Get To Know Us
    • About >
      • Plan Your Visit
      • Meet Our Team
    • What We Believe
    • Meet our Pastor
    • Meet our Ministry Partners
    • Celebration Station Preschool
    • Kid Central
  • Online Services and Sermons
    • This Week's Live Stream Service
    • Last Five Sermons
    • Previous Sermon Series
    • A Taste of Central
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Give
  • Member Resources
    • Calendar & Events
    • Submit a Prayer Request
    • Facility Question or Request
  • Contact
  • Ukraine Relief Project