Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
Here the Teacher pronounced a special blessing on those who believe in Him and yet never saw Him.
When Jesus appeared – The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
But Thomas was not with them when Jesus first appeared. As the other students excitedly told Him about seeing the Lord, he expressed strong reluctance to believe.
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.
Doubting Thomas!
One week later Jesus again appeared to them. Thomas was present this time and Jesus invited him to touch the nail marks in His hands and the place where the spear punctured His side.
Only when Thomas actually saw Jesus did He express faith – My Lord and My God!
It was at this point Jesus blessed those who have not seen and yet believe.
Doesn’t this describe every student of Jesus today?
None today have actually seen the Teacher. Our faith is based on the eyewitness testimony of those who did. The fact they were willing to die for the truth of it adds great weight to their witness. And our own personal experience in following Jesus confirms our faith.
Yet it is still only faith, not sight. And apparently that kind of belief is especially impressive to our Teacher.
Even Blessed Faith!
The widows son, and Lazarus. That's all the history Thomas has to refer to people being raised from the dead. And not that you can be more or less dead - dead is dead - but someone who got sick and died compared to someone beaten, hung on a cross, and speared in the side ... there sure seems to be a difference...
ReplyDeleteI think historically we've been a bit harsh with Thomas. Most of us have grown up hearing the story of Jesus rising form the dead. It doesn't seem too different or difficult for us to believe. We're used to the story.
Thomas wasn't. As I mentioned, the widows son and Lazarus was all the history of people rising from the dead that there had ever been. Jesus - brutally beaten and crucified - now alive again... really?
Without the history and bigger picture being so familiar to us, would we have believed?
I think Thomas was much more practical than doubting! And as practical goes - when the evidence presented itself (or Himself) Thomas again does the only practical thing - He declares - My Lord and My God! Because who else could resurrect after dying that way except The God of the Universe!
I think our familiarity with stories like this tends to downplay the incredible-ness and miraculous amazement that should accompany the things our Lord and Savior did accomplish. How many others have resurrected from the dead since?
While our belief without seeing is a good thing, I don't think we should look down on Thomas, as well we should maybe re-read with a renewed sense of awe that Jesus, the Son of God, after very brutally and publicly dying, was burried and sealed in a tomb, then resurrected and appeared to many!
Where, O Death, is your victory?
Where, O Death, is your sting?