We might have thought that Jesus only said this to Thomas because he doubted Christ’s resurrection and made a vow that if he cannot touch and feel Christ’s wounds, he will not believe. However, when Jesus appeared to them, He let Thomas touch His wounds and gently rebuked Him.
Yet all of these words are not for Thomas only. There are many Thomas in the world, especially in our generation. There are many people who go by the saying, “to see is to believe”. However, God does not want us to have this kind of attitude. He does not want us to live by this saying, instead He wants us to believe without seeing. We, ourselves are also Thomas— many times we are so doubtful and we always demand to see an immediate intervention in our problems.
This is why our faith is very important. Faith is confidence of what we hope for and an assurance in what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). Believing in the saving grace that Jesus has freely given us is what we should do. We don’t have to see just to believe in Him. Many of us want vision or a direct visual representation of God because as human as we are, we are convinced through visual stimulation.
However, Jesus said all these words for us to remember that it is possible to believe in Him even if we don’t see Him physically. He also said this for us Christians who were not in His time so we can believe in Him even if we don’t see Him, feel Him and touch Him. We think that the people who lived in Christ’s timeline were so lucky to see Him physically, but we should remember that we are blessed equally. They were so blessed to see Jesus but we are so blessed also that we have the Scriptures where we can see and communicate with Him and this will help us grow our faith.
Going back to Thomas, Jesus was so gentle when He rebuked him. Also, Thomas was not really doubtful but he just let his emotions overpower his faith. He was grieving Christ’s death and it became the reason why he let his earthly emotion overpower his faith to the point of vowing not to believe unless he has seen. Again, Jesus wants us to live by faith and not by sight.
After Thomas has seen and touched the Lord, he became a new man and has given himself for the service to our God. His faith has been reignited and he realized that Jesus rose from death. He became one of the pillars of the early Churches and has become a good example to the people.
Therefore, change is really possible in us through faith. Jesus did not commended Thomas’ example for he doubted but that does not mean that he became lesser Christian. He was just like us. There are really moments in our lives that we doubt God’s power and strength to the point that our faith will shake, but God wants to remind all of us that we should just hold on to our faith and live by it, not by sight.
Through this, even if we weren’t able to see Jesus just like the disciples, we still have faith in Him. Through our faith, we will be able to hope in Christ’s second coming. Through our faith, we will be able to believe in His victory over death and that He will come again to meet us and bring us to heaven. Through faith, we believe that He is our Lord and Savior and that only through Him we can be saved.
Also, the moment the disciples told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, this depicted encouragement. The Lord used the disciples as an instrument and as a connection allowing them to encourage and to give hope to Thomas through their experience. As a family of believers, let us also encourage and uplift our brothers and sisters in time of their unbelief and doubts.
May we always remember to live by faith and not by sight. May we not forget to hope in the Lord and always trust His process. May we not become like Thomas who doubted Christ’s sovereignty but instead, we must believe in Christ without even seeing Him physically. May our faith help us to become a person who fears, loves and worships God in spirit and in truth. Let us also remember to encourage one another and help those people who are doubting that they will once again be enlightened.
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