THE APPEARANCES (PART 5)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

So the other disciples told Him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told Him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

John 20:24-31

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever had someone place a condition on you before?

Usually, this takes the form of what is known as an “if, then” proposition.

Like, “I’ll do this for you, if you do something else.”

Or maybe, “If I get this, then I will give that.”

Or in regard to our scripture passage today, “I’ll believe if you satisfy my criteria for believing.”

You see, in the disciple named Thomas, who was absent during Jesus’ first appearance to His hand-chosen followers, we see that placing conditions on others is not just a present day phenomenon. It ranges back more than 2,000 years into New Testament times and if you look further back in the scriptures, you’ll find it in the Old Testament as well. It appears that this behavior is part of the human condition.

But what makes Thomas’ engagement in this behavior especially bold is that he doesn’t use it on just anyone. Rather, he chooses to make the play on Jesus.

The scene is the room where the disciples had sequestered themselves, a biblical lockdown of sorts with the hope of avoiding the Jewish religious leaders coming to seize them. I’m sure Jesus’ closest confidantes felt that if the Jewish authorities could kill Jesus, then certainly could easily do away with His followers.

And so they hid and after Jesus appeared to them the first time, rebuking the Ten for not believing the women or the two men from Emmaus who had reported seeing the resurrected Lord, we read where Thomas returns, late to the Jesus-appearing party. He quickly is told about what happened by His fellow disciples.

But Thomas is indignant over it all and as we see, he refused to believe what he was being told, that Jesus had risen from the tomb and was walking around as if He was never dead in the first place, unless he saw the nail marks in His hands and was able to put his finger where the nails were and his hand into the side that was pierced by the sword.

Thomas had drawn the battle lines that would need to be crossed to win his belief, like it was his place to dictate any terms to Jesus.

Of interest here, Jesus doesn’t appear immediately, rebuking Thomas and setting him straight. Rather, a week goes by and the disciples, the Eleven now counting Thomas, were still in hiding with the doors locked. The doors may have kept others out and the disciples concealed but we need to remember that no one can keep Jesus from going where He wants to go, when He wants to go there.

And so Jesus appears and stood among His faithful followers, greeting all of them by saying, “Peace be with you!”, before He turned His undivided attention toward Thomas. The scriptures tell us He told him to “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side.”

He then sealed His orders by commanding His disciple to “Stop doubting and believe.”

Jesus doesn’t need to be doubted. Like ever.

We don’t dictate to Him. Rather, it’s always the other way around and our only proper response to His orders is to follow them in absolute obedience and without questioning.

Had Thomas just believed that Jesus was risen and alive in the first place, he would have avoided the strong rebuke from His Master. But that’s not the way it played out.

Thomas dictated the terms for his believing and Jesus allowed those terms to be met. And it was only after those terms were met that Thomas proclaimed:

“My Lord and my God!”

Now, Thomas may have been feeling pretty good about himself about then but it was Jesus turn to discuss the matter of conditions, only the conditions that He set were the ones that really mattered most.

Jesus minimized Thomas’ believing because it was far from coming from a place of pure faith and trust in Jesus. Rather, Thomas had to physically touch Jesus before he would accept that His Savior was alive and Jesus didn’t offer any praise to this spiritual attitude and behavior. Instead, He placed more praise on the people who would believe, even though they haven’t seen Him, those that walk by faith and not by sight.

Well, the scriptures tell us that Jesus went on to perform many other signs in the presence of His disciples. In tomorrow’s final devotion in this series, we’ll take a look at one of those as His earliest disciples return to their occupational roots.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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