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John 20:24-29
People are not always ready and easily persuaded to believe what people tell them. Thomas had the testimony of ten disciples; twenty eyeballs had witnessed Jesus appear in the closed room. They saw Him as He showed them His hands and side. They gave Thomas more than enough corroborating eyewitness accounts of the event, yet he still would not believe until he saw for himself. People often refer to Thomas as “Doubting Thomas,” and one could conclude that he merely wanted the same validating experience that the other disciples had gone through. In verse 20, Jesus shows them His hands and side, so the ten saw the evidence that He indeed was the crucified Jesus, now alive again. Yet, Thomas's own words in verse 25 go beyond this. He says that he needed even more sensory evidence to prove that the apparition was indeed the Christ: The disciple needed to see and touch His hands and His side. It seems he refused to rely on the testimonies of others based on sight alone. We realize God says and does things purposefully. Jesus appears to the disciples again eight days after the original appearance (John 20:19-20). He seems to reappear for Thomas' edification alone, to help him specifically with his lack of belief. The Good Shepherd did not want to lose even one of His disciples, and as we know, He did not lose any except for the son of perdition, Judas Iscariot, who in the role of betrayer fulfilled scripture (John 17:12). Notice verse 29 specifically: “Jesus said to him, 'Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'” Our eyes can be deceived—in fact, all our senses can be fooled. We can think that we have seen, heard, felt, smelled, or tasted something only to discover that our perspective was off, our hearing muffled, our touch calloused, our nose stuffed, and our taste distorted.
Ryan McClure
Seeing Is Not Believing
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