Seeing Is Believing?

Thomas, apostles inspect the wounds of Jesus.

Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said,

"Peace to you."  Then he focused his attention on Thomas.

"Take your finger and examine my hands. 

Take your hand and stick it in my side.

Don't be unbelieving. Believe."

The Message— John 20:27-28

Jesus was talking to his disciples a few hours before he was seized and taken to be crucified.   Jesus told them, “Trust in God; trust also in me” (John 14:1b).  Then, Phillip asked Jesus an indirect question, in a request, maybe a challenge.  Phillip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” (John 14:8).  In other words Phillip was quoting the doubter’s motto, “Seeing, is believing.”  Jesus had had a lot of experience with people not believing he was from heaven, indeed, God in the flesh.  The words he said and the miracles he did were not believed, nor received as truth when the signs revealed who he was (cf. 3:12-15, 10:25-37, 16:9).  One can only speculate, but did Jesus think, “Here we go again!”  Their doubt prompted a response from Jesus, “Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves” (John 1:10-11)—a novelist would surly add that he spoke in an anguished voice.  The request that Phillip made for “us,” reveals they doubted, or were at least in ignorance of the truth that the Son came into the world to reveal the Father, and had been doing that throughout his ministry—they had lived with Jesus and watched him for three years, they were the eleven faithful apostles, yet, here they are, saying, “show me.”

Jesus is always speaking to the heart of a doubter, Phillip, Thomas, and many others—to include you and me.  Our reliance is on the “seeing, is believing” rule.  The apostles saw miracles and signs during their day, and they saw Jesus in daily life; then, after the resurrection the apostles saw and touched his wounds; and listened as Jesus stood before them, talking. What the apostles saw, heard, and touched made no difference.  Jesus’ answer to their doubt was, “Don't be unbelieving. Believe."   

That is what Jesus requires:  “Don't be unbelieving. Believe.” 

Can you do that?

Touching his face by believing faith,

Owen <><