Read and Believe in Jesus

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29

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REVIEW – Jesus has risen from the dead. God is satisfied that Jesus has opened the WAY for sinful mankind to be saved. His beloved Son has obeyed to the last detail. Now there is only the regathering of His scattered disciples, their assurance, and their commissioning for their future work, and then His ascension.

The women were the first to hear the good news. Then Peter and John witnessed the empty tomb and believed. Mary Magdalene saw the Master with her eyes and heard Him speak to her. Now Jesus will appear to and encourage more of His disciples in Jerusalem before going to Galilee.

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John 20:19-23.

On the evening of that first day (Sunday), when the disciples were still hiding behind locked doors for fear of the Jews (Would they arrest THEM as well?), Jesus came to them, right through the walls.

He stood before them and necessarily said, “Peace be with you,” because they were obviously terrified.

(Yes, back in Galilee, they thought He was a ghost when He came walking to them on the water, but this was different.) He looked like the Jesus they knew, but He also didn’t. And how did He get inside their house? No one had opened the door.

(From the account of the two men on the way to Emmaus when Jesus joined in their walk, we know that Jesus could keep His identity hidden and reveal it whenever He chose. He could also vanish at will. See Luke 24:15-16 and 30-32.)

To calm and assure His anxious disciples, Jesus showed them His hands and His side, as proof that He really HAD BEEN crucified. The bloodless wounds were still very visible. They were shocking, but they also reassured the disciples, and the men could finally relax and be GLAD to see their Lord.

Again Jesus spoke peace to them, and then He commissioned them to the work that He himself had begun – to spread the Good News, first to His people, and eventually to the entire world. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

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(Luke’s account reads, “Then He opened their eyes to understand the scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”)

(Matthew’s familiar account reads, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…'”)

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John 20:24-25. Sadly, Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them. We know from earlier scriptures that he loved Jesus as much as the others, but he feared losing Him. So when Jesus spoke of His death, he didn’t want to “hear” it. Possibly, he was off by himself, tucked into a ball of intense grief. And so when he heard the account of the others seeing and talking with Jesus, he just couldn’t believe it.

And then, that famous proclamation: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side … I will never believe.”

(I wonder how often, later, he cringed when he thought of those words.)

But Jesus knew just how to deal with this hurting disciple (no more rebellious than Peter!!). Eight days later – oh, what a long time for Thomas to wait! – Jesus came and stood among them again – the doors still being locked.

“Peace be with you,” he said to all of them, and then to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. (Thomas’ exact words) “Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

And Thomas’s overpowering, debilitating grief collapsed. “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

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