Called Into Questions Sample

A Way With Questions

Thomas sometimes gets a bad rap. Some people call him “doubting Thomas,” because he demands to see Jesus’ wounds before believing after Christ’s resurrection (John 20:24-29). “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails,” he says then, “and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe” (John 20:25).

Yet Thomas does not doubt: he is persistent, unrelenting, and aggressive in his pursuit of Jesus. Think about his question in today’s passage: How can we know the way? It is a marvelous question: elegant, direct, and profoundly important. We need nothing more than to know the way to follow Jesus where He is going. Yet Thomas’s question is also astonishingly “obvious.” Jesus had literally just said, “You know the way to where I am going.” You can imagine Thomas looking at the other disciples, thinking he must be the only one who is ignorant, before boldly saying, “Um, actually, I don’t know the way. How can we follow You?” Thomas questions the obvious because he desperately wants to be with Jesus.

Thomas’ faith in Christ is almost heroic. We first meet him when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Jesus’ mission is dangerous; He must go to Judea, where He was just in danger of being stoned. Thomas is undeterred, though. He rallies his fellow disciples to follow Jesus “that we may die with him” (John 11:16). When Thomas demands to see Jesus for himself after the Resurrection, he still believes—but only if he can see. He has no internal division, no hesitancy about whether he will follow Jesus—so long as Jesus reveals Himself to him.

Thomas’ tender love for the Savior aligns with his courageous willingness to question what might seem obvious to everyone else. Jesus answers his question in today’s passage with a beauty, elegance, and truth that fits the inquiry: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” He says, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Christ is the destination for Thomas, but He is also the path. Thomas’ dogged pursuit of Jesus should be ours as well, even if we believe in Christ without seeing Him. For someday, when we do see Christ as Thomas did, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

We hoped you enjoyed this devotional! It was based on the book Called Into Questions: Cultivating the Love of Learning Within the Life of Faith by Matthew Lee Anderson. If you'd like to continue learning what it means to question well, we encourage you to purchase a copy of the full book.