Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk.
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John 20:19-31 (NRSVUE)
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Devotional Thought:
Christ is Risen! Is he?
‘We have seen the Lord.’ Until I see for myself, I don’t believe you.
Put yourself in Thomas’s sandals for a moment. You’ve been there since the beginning of Jesus’s public ministry (listed among the 12 disciples in the Synoptics and in Acts 1:13); you’ve witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus, even being so bold as to claim that you and the disciples should accompany Jesus even if it results in all your deaths (John 11). You saw the many signs Jesus performed, heard his teaching, you ate and drank at the last supper with Jesus. Jesus even answered your question asking where he was going (John 14:5).
Yet this Sunday, you’re absent. You weren’t there discovering the empty tomb with Mary Magdalene (vv. 1-3), nor with ‘the disciple Jesus loved’ (probably John) and Peter racing to the tomb (having your impressive race results recorded in scripture). You missed it. You missed Mary seeing Jesus (vv.11-18), you missed Jesus appearing in a locked room to all your friends. You hear the stories from them - “We’ve seen the Lord” - yet still can’t believe. It’s just too farfetched.
You’re not worried about faked AI videos - they don’t exist yet. You’ve seen throughout Jesus’s ministry seeing linked with believing (1:32, 1:50, 2:23), and even witnessed Jesus criticising those who can’t believe without seeing (4:48). Yet it’s still too much to believe Jesus can be alive. You saw him crucified. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe” (v.25).
I think Thomas gets the wrong end of the pineapple being referred to as ‘Doubting Thomas’ (his doubt strikes me less than his absence, though perhaps his absence speaks to his doubt). No-one else in John 20 believes without seeing, except perhaps ‘the Beloved Disciple’ (v. 8) (Lyons and Daniels, NBBC: John 13-21, 203), and even he saw the empty tomb before he believed (what exactly he believed is another question given v. 9). Even in Acts, Paul didn’t believe in Jesus either until seeing the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, but I haven’t ever heard of him being referred to as ‘Doubting Paul’.
There’s something about Jesus’s presence that calms anxiety, that brings assurance despite doubts. “Peace be with you,” he says. Not a simply fleeting peace, but total encompassing peace - wholeness, wellness, reconciliation, prosperity, safety. The peace Jesus promised a few days earlier (14:27), he now greets the disciples (including Thomas) with. This is the same peace Jesus gives us today, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (v. 29). It is a peace that both precedes and follows belief; a belief that brings life - abundant, overflowing life to the fullest - in his name.
Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed.
Prayer:
My Lord and my God, thank you for your power over death. Thank you for your presence with me, for your peace that brings assurance, safety, strength to continue. I thank you for the many blessings and joys in this life, and the everlasting life that is to come. Amen.