Monday, April 23, 2007
John 20:29 "Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed."
BELIEVING IS SEEING
On that first Easter Sunday evening, one of the 12 disciples, Thomas, had not been with the others when Jesus had physically appeared. And when he heard of Jesus' appearance, he refused to believe until he himself had seen and touched the wounds on Jesus' body. And so on Sunday night, one week later, Jesus appeared again, and this time Thomas was there with the rest. Jesus encouraged him to do what he himself had demanded -- to touch and see and believe, which Thomas did. Jesus responded: "Because you have seen me you have believed; blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed."
Faith is another word for believing. So what we have here in Jesus' words is a facet of what faith or believing involves -- not necessarily seeing that in which a person has faith or that which is believed.
Now we know how it usually is with things that we can't see -- if we can't see it, then we question its validity, whatever "it" is. The "scientific process" has taught us that. Before something can be known, it has to be tested and proven many times over. And maybe then, once it has been seen to work countless times without fail, then it is accepted as "fact." And that all leads a person to conclude that unless something is provable, unless it can be witnessed and repeated and tested and SEEN, it cannot be believed.
But that is not the way our Lord would have us approach His Word and the promises He makes in it. He does not tell us to base our trust or our faith upon the things of this world -- He tells us much the opposite. He has made foolish the things of this world. Our faith, our believing, is instead to be based solely on what He says -- for that is where faith finds its base: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."
God grant each of us such a trust in Him, a faith that believes even that which it cannot see!
