Believing without seeing!

I ride an amazing bike, a bike I could have never hoped to own or ride except that it was presented to me as a gift by wonderful people of God who wanted to thank their pastor for his ministry. Becuase I'm a big man, it's a big bike. When I tell people that I can pick it up with just one finger they frequently don't believe me, but my Trek Madone is made almost entirely of carbon fiber. When I actually take my forefinger, place it under the top tube, lift the whole bike off the ground and hold it there, they are amazed! Then they immediately want to feel for themselves how light the bike is, by picking it up. Again they are amazed! But now they believe.

Thomas heard some amazing things from his fellow disciples. He heard that even though Jesus had died on the cross, was buried in the tomb and laid there until the third day, that now he was alive! That's not only amazing, it's incredible! It's unbelievable! Suppose you saw a close friend die in a horrible accident, that you attended his funeral and watched him be buried. Suppose that mutual friends told you a couple days later that your friend was alive again. How would you react?

Truth be told, you would react exactly as Thomas did. "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." (John 20:25) Too often we refer to this hapless disciple as "Doubting Thomas." In fact, we should probably call him "Normal Thomas." He reacted exactly as the rest of the disciples did to the news that Jesus was alive. Until he saw with his own eyes he could not bring himself to believe the unbelievable.

When Jesus finally appeared to Thomas he said, Because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (John 20:29) With those words, Jesus calls you and me "blessed." We have not seen the risen Christ with our own eyes, and yet we believe. Peter tells us just how wonderful that is: "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:8-9)

Does that make us better than Thomas? Not at all! We're no different than Thomas, or the other disciples, or people who want to pick up my bike for themselves. We do believe without having seen Jesus but we don't believe without having seen the evidence.

We believe because there is no better explanation for the empty tomb than the resurrection. We believe because we have seen and read the eyewitness testimony of dozens of people who saw the risen Christ with their own two eyes. We believe because we have seen the evidence of lives transformed by the salvation that Jesus' resurrection has brought. We believe because we have seen the evidence of people who staked their lives on the the truth of the Gospel, and willingly laid their lives down to proclaim the Good News of the resurrection.

Yes, we believe the amazing, incredible, unbelievable truth that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and we do so without having seen him with our own eyes. But we don't believe without evidence. Thank God that he has given us so much credible evidence (just as Jesus did for Thomas when he showed him his hands and side) for the truth of the resurrection. And thank God that he has given us the faith to believe that evidence. Our faith gives us peace, just as Jesus gave his disciples when he appeared to them risen from the dead. And our faith gives us hope, hope that just as Jesus lives, we too shall live also. And that is amazing!