St.Thomas in the Gospel of John

St. Thomas appears in a few passages in the Gospel of John. In John 11:16, when Lazarus has just died, the disciples are resisting Jesus' decision to return to Judea, where the Jews had previously tried to stone Jesus. Jesus is determined, and Thomas says bravely: "Let us also go, that we might die with him".

Here is the sincere versus of a bold man who was determined to follow Jesus. That same commitment brought him from Judea to various places in India and to be a martyr for the millions of Indian sub-continent.

                                                                "My Lord and my God!" St. John 20:24-29                    

In Thomas' best known appearance in the New Testament, John 20:24-29, he doubts the resurrection of Jesus and demands to touch Jesus' wounds before being convinced. This story is the origin of the term Doubting Thomas. After seeing Jesus alive (the Bible never states whether Thomas actually touched Christ's wounds), Thomas professed his faith in Jesus, exclaiming "My Lord and my God!"; on this account he is also called Thomas the Believer.

He also speaks at The Last Supper in John 14:5. Jesus assures his disciples that they know where he is going, but Thomas protests that they don't know at all. Jesus replies to this and to Philip's requests with a detailed exposition of his relationship to God the Father. When Jesus revealed that he is going to leave them, St. Thomas came out with his doubt "Lord, we do not know where Thou art going; how are we know the way there?" and Jesus answered lovingly for the whole mankind: "I am the way; I am the truth and Life; nobody can come to the Father except through me. Generations to come will be indebted to the doubting St. Thomas for this illuminating glance into the eternal life.