But as many as received Him, to them He gave the
right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12-13
Is seeing really believing?
Can’t our eyes be fooled by sleight of hand, or even if we’re just tired? Can’t
we just miss something? How many times have we been looking for something and
looked right at it only to pass it over? Yet we have a tendency to really
believe what we see assuming our eyes are incapable of being fooled. Maybe that
is because it is the way God meant it to be. Our eyes are receivers of
information and without them we are not receiving information we depend on. God
gave us five receptors we were meant to take in information for our physical
survival. Our senses are keenly designed by our maker to give us dominion over
the world around us. This masterful strategy works to bring us both pleasure
and pain within our surroundings. If God designed us to be that way then why
are we so easily deceived by sight? We are actually not. We are deceived by our
interpretation of what we see or don’t see. This was the issue for the subject
of our study in today’s encounter with the Risen Christ, Thomas the Doubter.
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to
him, “We have seen the Lord.”
So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands
the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put
my hand into His side, I will not believe.” John 20:24-25
We know the story. Jesus
had come to his disciples after the two from Emmaus told them they’d seen Him
alive, risen from the dead, but Thomas had not been there when Jesus appeared
to them. He arrived sometime later to find everyone talking and excitedly
relating the great news, that Jesus was indeed alive! But rather than believe
his friends, rather than embrace this amazing testimony of so many witnesses,
he holds himself aloof and dismisses it as mass hysteria. Wow, what a cynic!
There may be reasons for
this, aside from him actually saying he couldn’t believe it because he didn’t
see it with his own eyes. Thomas seemed to be all too ready to die with Jesus
just weeks before when Jesus headed back toward Jerusalem at great risk to
raise Lazarus from the dead. “Then Thomas, who is called
the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with
Him.” John 11:16
Why then is he not excited
to see that death is no longer on the table? Could it be that Jesus being alive
doesn’t suit Thomas’ agenda? Did Thomas need a martyr for his cause? Or was it
just that to hope for something so grand was too much for him to comprehend no
matter what so many people were saying? Was it fear of being let down, or fear
of having to change his plans? Whatever it was, his own doubt triumphed over
his desire to believe. The one who had once been so willing to go the distance
with Jesus was refusing to go one inch in the direction of believing in Jesus’
power over death because of the risk of the pain it might cause him.
Pain is a great motivator.
We will avoid it at all cost. We would rather live in denial than admit to
ourselves that someone has a certain fault, especially if they are near and
dear to us. We tend to make heroes out of the dead when we eulogize them, but
when they were alive we spoke so badly about them because it was true. The
person did lie, cheat, steal, and take advantage of other people. Yet when he
died we paint a rosy portrait of the deceased in order to make the family feel
better. What would make the family feel better is if there was a Savior who
took all those sins away, and that could have only come about if the sinner had
repented and stopped all the lying, cheating, and taking advantage of others
before he died. Jesus said, “Let the dead bury the dead.” Do we know what that
means? It means there are a lot of Thomas types out there who just don’t want to
believe, so we have to let them see a Risen Savior before it’s too late. They
have to see it in us. Just maybe we need to do a little more, lovely or loving
talking before they get on the other side of the grave.
Pride is another reason
people refuse to believe. I don’t know that Thomas was prideful, but I know
that refusing to believe the testimony of so many witnesses is prideful. It
takes a lot of pride to discredit someone’s testimony. It says to someone that
they are not worthy of your respect for whatever reasons you hold against them.
Pride was Satan’s sin against God. To decide of your own volition that
something is not worthy of your obedience to God’s sovereignty is rebellion. It
is saying that you know better than God. We do it a lot. It fights in us
constantly. It is called sin. We war against this fallen nature constantly,
just as Thomas did. Just as all of us do daily, but there is a cure for this
anarchy within us. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh,
but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me
free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2
Just perhaps there was a
third reason Thomas was holding out. Perhaps he didn’t believe because he
couldn’t believe the Lord would appear without him being present from the
start. After all, Thomas was one of the twelve, the inner circle, the chosen few
who had been with Jesus, named by Him as His selected. In this case it would
have been more of a “but the Lord wouldn’t have done that without me because He
never did anything I wasn’t a part of.” Thomas would have a narrow view of God’s
plan for him. God had a bigger plan. God can play on our weakness for His
purposes both in our lives and in the lives of others.
My brother-in-law, a great
man, and a good pastor, once said something that has stuck with me for years.
He said, “Are you willing to be wrong for the sake of the Kingdom? That is, are
you willing to be wrong if it meant someone else would enter the Kingdom of
God?” What a humbling question! Paul was one who was so willing. He said, “I tell the truth
in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy
Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for
my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.” Romans 9:1-3 Yet our desire to be right supersedes our desire
to be at peace and bring them into the light of Heaven, as if it was up to us
to decide who gets to live there. How arrogant we are! How important is being
right? I think I’d rather be wrong and be righteous in His eyes, then be right
in my own eyes. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. Prov.21:2 Just where was Thomas’ heart when God placed it in the
balance?
And after
eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came,
the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger
here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into
My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
And Thomas answered and
said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” John 20:26-28
Thomas’ moment of decision
finally arrives. Is he going to deny his own senses? Jesus is there! Every part
of his physical reality has just turned on its axis and what he has convinced
himself was impossible, has become possible. Imagine that you were the one who
told everyone you refused to believe them, basically calling them liars, and
there is the proof right in front of you, literally in the flesh. There can be
no denying it is Jesus either. Jesus takes Thomas and touches his hand to the
very wounds of the crucifixion. Thomas is dumbfounded. Yet the Savior’s words
to him are so loving, and so forgiving. He says to him to not be unbelieving,
but believing.
Thomas needed a healing. He
needed his faith to be healed. He had suffered a great loss when Jesus was
taken from him; for he had given up everything to become Jesus’ follower in
belief that Jesus was the Messiah, and that there would be great works to
follow. He had been a part of a great ministry, seen amazing miracles, and was
a true believer Jesus could take down the kingdoms of the earth. Yet Jesus had
been crucified, worse yet by Gentiles, at the insistence of the Jewish leaders,
which would have confused any one trusting they had found a Messiah to lead
Israel into world domination. Thomas’ faith was shaken to its core. He didn’t
want to be wrong, but he would rather have been wrong and accept it, then be
wrong again and suffer again such a great loss. Jesus healed Thomas by telling
him it was necessary for Him to believe his own eyes, his own ears, his own
sense of touch. He could believe what was real to him, because Jesus is real!
Thomas responds from the
depths of his spirit, “My Lord…” which demonstrates his dependence, submission,
and reverence for Jesus, but he adds, “and my God.” The addition of this
statement is all encompassing, for it is the foremost address in scripture
giving deity to Jesus as God, and Jesus does not rebuke Him, but accepts his
worship. The deity of Jesus is revealed through Thomas’ statement of faith! Here
we have the great mystery of faith debated over the ages proven. God did indeed
become a man and live among us. “In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John
1:1 “And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
God had a great
plan for Thomas’ weakness. His weak faith bore a testament of the truth which
would stand as a foundational tenant from which the Church could fasten itself
against the enemy. Thomas had been wrong in doubting, but his doubting would
bring many to faith!
Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because
you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Some may say this is a
rebuke of Thomas, and so it could be, but it could also be a statement of fact.
Is it Thomas’ fault that he lived when he could see and believe? Wouldn’t you
just love to see Jesus and believe? We live at a time Thomas would love to live
in, when we can pray and be filled with the Holy Spirit just by asking for it. Remember,
when Jesus was with His disciples the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them.
He didn’t come until after Jesus had left them on the day of Pentecost. Thomas
was reliant upon being in the presence of Jesus, so being with Him was
paramount to believing.
Another interesting thing
to take note of here is that Jesus didn’t say blessed are those who are yet to
hear and will believe. I bring this up because I’ve heard people talk about it
as if Jesus is talking about us, as if He was referring to the church today,
again, that could be the truth, and I do think that is pertinent today, as all
God’s word is, but also think he was more than likely referring to those who
were at the time quickly believing the reports of His resurrection and gladly
receiving it into their hearts because they understood the message of the
sacrifice He had made. They were choosing to believe, because of the reports of
others, and choosing to accept because of the conviction with which the story
was being told to them. They were not cynical, but gladly receiving it into
their hearts, because of what they knew of Jesus before the crucifixion. They
chose to believe. It was their blessing, a blessing Thomas missed out on for
that eight days. He missed out on eight days of joy that he could never get
back. He had eight days he’d always regret, and that’s a lot of regret to live with
for the rest of his life considering how much more Jesus did.
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the
presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in
His name. John 20:30-31
So ends the recorded
encounter Thomas had with Jesus after the resurrection. We know there had to be
more to the story because they were close. Jesus loved Thomas. I guess we’ll
have to ask them when we get to heaven if we get the opportunity. Maybe Thomas
will have questions for us about our story and the amazing things the Holy
Spirit did working through us, and the miraculous works of God we experienced. We
are living in amazing times.
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes." Mark 9:23
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