Day 179: Seeing and Believing

John 20:24-29 :

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

After eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace be to you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.”

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”

We know from the Bible that Jesus expects us to believe in Him without seeing Him. That’s important because for about 2000 years people have been believing without seeing.

Some people claim that they won’t believe unless they see themselves, but this is not consistent with how they actually live.

Most things we know, we’ve never experienced ourselves. Instead, we believe others who claim to have seen something. Take science, for instance. Unless we have all done all of the scientific experiments for all of the things that we believe about science, we are believing in what scientists say, not in what we have seen.

If we do that, we are putting our faith in the scientists that claim to have seen it. To make matters worse, some things that scientists claim aren’t even based on what they have seen. When theories of origins are involved, they often simply fill in the blanks with conjecture! It’s easy to see it if you are watching for it. When you read something from a scientist that starts to sound like a story, it often is just that. It’s smarter to listen to stories told by historians than it is to listen to the ones told by scientists, but even historians interpret events according to their philosophies.

This history that we read here was truly supernatural, but there is evidence that confirms it. The tomb is empty. Many witnesses verified that Jesus was alive. The disciples died claiming that Jesus was alive. In science, it makes sense that the supernatural made the natural based on the law of cause and effect. You can’t pass these things off as just “religion.” The reality is that without God’s help, we won’t believe the facts because we have decided not to. It was Jesus that caused Thomas to believe and it is His power toward us that causes us to believe too. Thomas had all of the facts from the other disciples, but He wouldn’t believe them. It takes more than facts to change our stubborn minds.