The Incredulity of Keith Wojciech, err, I mean Saint Thomas... by Caravaggio (1601)
1601-02
Oil on canvas, 107 x 146 cm
Sanssouci, Potsdam
“This picture seems to belong to the same group as the second St Matthew and the Angel and The Sacrifice of Isaac because the same model reappears as the apostle at the apex of this composition. Like the first St Matthew and the Angel this picture belonged to Vincenzo Giustiniani and then entered the Prussian royal collection. Fortunately it was kept in Potsdam and so it survived the last war intact. This is the most copied painting of Caravaggio, 22 copies from the 17th century are known.
According to St John's Gospel, Thomas missed one of Christ's appearances to the Apostles after His resurrection. He therefore announced that, unless he could thrust his hand into Christ's side, he would not believe what he had been told. A week later Christ appeared, asked Thomas to reach out his hands to touch Him and said, 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'
This drama of disbelief seems to have touched Caravaggio personally. Few of his paintings are physically so shocking - his Thomas pushes curiosity to its limits before he will say, 'My Lord and my God.' The classical composition carefully unites the four heads in the quest for truth. Christ's head is largely in shadow, as He is the person who is the least knowable. He also has a beauty that had not been evident in the Mattei paintings of His arrest and appearance at Emmaus.” -Web Gallery of Art
I can’t exactly tell you why I love this painting by the Italian painter Caravaggio but I will try to allude to its significance to me in some sort of way. You might be wondering why I wrote in my own namesake as the incredulous unbeliever for the title, and if you don’t already know about me and who I am, I will try to describe why I am just that, an incredulous unbeliever.
I feel like I have so much in common with Thomas; he seems like a straight shooter and a down-to-earth type of guy which I believe myself to be. But I think we’re in the same boat. I mean I look at Jesus, his life, and his claims and I’m a skeptic. Why should I give up my life, my goals, and my will for this guy?! Maybe even secretly down deep Thomas was glad (please don’t be ignorant of the point I’m trying to make here) Jesus died, as other of his followers may have been, because that meant they were no longer tied to His will. With Jesus dead, some of his skeptical followers could go back to their way of living and doing the things they wanted to do. Sort of like “it was great while Jesus’ little crusade lasted, but let’s get back to reality here”. Sure he did some great things in his lifetime and they were witnesses to all of it, but come on, he did ask them to give up all they had for him and to even be willing to give up their lives for him. That's some heavy faith. But a dead prophet, a dead rabbi, or a dead teacher commands no imminent respect; well because they’re dead and obviously death defeated them, no matter how “great” they were during life.
So when reports that Jesus had defeated death itself and was now fully alive again started leaking around Jerusalem, well Thomas got skeptical, as any thinking, reasonable person would have. Claims of someone rising from the dead are as audacious as they get, especially when no one was reported to ever do so in all of history prior to that (on their own power at least). But Thomas might have bitten off more than he could chew when he made these statements,
“Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." -John 20:24-25
The ironic, and even funny, thing about this is that don’t we all make outlandish claims like that; things like “when Hell freezes over, I’ll do that” or “I’ll believe that when pigs fly” or “when the Cubs win the World Series, then I’ll go on a diet”? We do, but completely knowing that scenario could never occur and so we’d never have to live up to our promise. Can you imagine how overtly skeptical Thomas felt when a man claiming to be the risen Jesus showed up? In his head he had already decided that no, Jesus is dead and I saw it. Can you imagine how dumbfounded, confounded, amazed, shameful, unworthy, etc. Thomas felt when Jesus did show up, scars and all?! I think that’s why I love this painting; Caravaggio seems to capture the exact moment that Thomas realizes that it really is Jesus, perfectly.
That’s why I write my name at the top here. In fact, as weird as this sounds, I think God calls us to skepticism. He doesn't want just a bunch of robots believing and worshipping him without questions, concerns, and doubts; i.e. humaneness..
“Though his speech is charming, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart.” -Proverbs 26:25
“At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it.” -Matthew 24:23
“Test all things. Hold onto the good.” -1 Thessalonians 5:21
I think God realizes that the only way he can really prove his love and his glory is to do just that, prove his love and glory to us. By proving himself to Thomas, and subsequently to human generations to follow, he establishes a foundation of truth and honesty. Some may say that if we try to prove everything Jesus did (water to wine, Ressurection, Creation, etc.) then we’ll go along and prove away the need for any faith while we’re at it, creating an skewed form of deistic aetheism. Well that’s an unfair assumption. Most of the apostles had no choice to believe that Jesus was God, rose from the dead, etc. because they indeed saw it directly. Yet you won’t find one of them neglecting the need for faith as an integral part of Christianity. So despite they’re proof, faith still played a part in their conversions and lives. Which I believe goes to prove that faith has little to do with objective matters, but more subjective ones...like having faith that what Christ did; his life, death, and resurrection (facts/proof of who he was), inevitably leads one to the crossroads of whether to put faith in His claims of deity and salvation. That’s why I think Jesus was compelled to say this,
“But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.” –John 6:36
These people that he's talking to here knew for a fact the objective claims of Christ. They saw it firsthand! He rebukes them not for recognizing the plain facts, but for not taking their faith out of their own good works and church membership and putting their faith in Him, and only Him
Ah this is a complicated matter no doubt, and I’m the first in line to take the blue pill and go back to my world of spiritual ignorance. It’s a burden to think about these things because it forces me to consider the eternal consequences not only facing me, but facing the ones I love. And those realizations scare me, and they sadden me. The painting above gives me hope though. It gives me hope in the hope that I have. That I believe in a God that can freeze over Hell, that can make pigs fly, that can makes the Cubs win the World Series, and that can conquer death and raise from the dead. It gives me confidence in the faith that I do have. That my foundation is provable, and that it makes no attempt to hide from the burden of that responsibility. Christ hits the skeptics head on, in fact he embraces them and tells them, tells me, to put my fingers in his side and in his hands. He does not cover his tracks or skirt the questions as do scam artists and false prophets. He exposes himself fully on the operating table, giving us every opportunity to test him.
I feel a lot of “Christians” have fear of doubt. They think that God will be disappointed in them if they express concern with the validity or veracity of Jesus’ claims. They think God will get mad at them if they question their faith and its foundations.Some people may even point to a couple verses later, after Thomas had “tested” Jesus,
“Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." –John 20:27
as proof that Jesus was in fact “disappointed” or frustrated at Thomas for not believing his rose from the dead. But I don’t think that’s the kind of frustration Jesus felt at that moment. Thomas, at that moment, knew just as well as Jesus that he did in fact rise from the dead. Thomas had no choice at that point concerning that fact. What Jesus was frustrated at is Thomas’ unwillingness to put all his faith and all his hope in Him, and Him alone (aka our sin disease). It was more like "Thomas, stop trying to smokescreen the real issues here. You already know I'm the Lord, now start living like it." I think Christ encourages our questions of his authenticity more than anything else. It shows a desire for all facets of truth and a lack of complacency, something God abhors. It shows an honest willingness to be refined in his restoring fire.
Going back to the painting in particular, one must wonder why Caravaggio choose such an event when there are so many other “happy” events in early Christendom to choose from. I mean these paintings had to take a lot out of their creators including time and money. Caravaggio must’ve devoted much to create this masterpiece. So what drove him to pick such seemingly “unfaithful” material? Most “Christians” see Thomas of what kind of “Christian” not to be. I think Caravaggio saw past most “Christians” egotistical outlook of the Christian faith and saw what it’s really composed of; a bunch of helpless, selfish, destitute sinners. Thomas doesn’t represent the “wayward” Christian, he represents the “forward” Christian, the one that desires to love the Lord God with all his heart, soul, and mind despite our sinful human deficiencies..
I don’t know, maybe I’m the “wayward” Christian for even suggestion such un-traditional thought processes. I guess in the end I say make your own conclusions. But I think Peter said it best,
"You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. -John 6:68-69
Who really does have a better offer than Christ's free gift of salvation and unconditional grace? No one, that's who...
*I must mention the one thing inaccurate about the painting. Nobody and their mother knows what Jesus looked like, so the "generic" face of Jesus is not correct and any artist's rendition is just pure speculation.. The Bible gives no description, especially his face (for good reason obviously), aside from Isaiah's prophecy that he would be "beaten beyond recognition" during his death.