Thomas has been treated quite negatively in much of Christian preaching and teaching. He is often held up as a negative role model. Indeed, while we were growing up, the only thing worse than being a “doubting Thomas” was to be a “Judas.” But there is no condemnation of Thomas in the story. Thomas desires his own firsthand experience of the risen Jesus; he is unwilling to accept the secondhand testimony of others. And his desire is granted: Jesus appears to him. Unless they are inflected in an accusing way, the closing words of Jesus do not need to be read as a condemnation: “Have you believed
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