Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believe

Seeing is believing. We have all heard that line. It is a very popular philosophy today. Many people are convinced that if they could just see God – or some evidence of Him, that they would have plenty of reason to believe.

But they do not understand how faith works. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” And Paul, writing to the early Christians at Corinth said, “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7) implying a dichotomy between the two. Basically, Paul was saying that you can either choose to walk by faith, or else you can choose to walk by sight – but the two choices are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Indeed, even Jesus affirms the fact that true faith is not based upon visual evidence. Let’s take a look at His encounter with Thomas after the Resurrection. (John 20:24-29) Here we read about Thomas, one of the twelve disciples. According to John’s Gospel, Thomas was not with the other disciples when they first saw the resurrected Christ. When they confront Thomas to tell him of their encounter with Jesus, he reply’s by saying, “Unless I see in His hands the nail prints, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

Since the text often does not completely reveal the mood of the speaker, it is difficult to tell whether Thomas is literally as skeptical and cynical as he sounds, or if he is simply astonished. But we get some insight into that from what occurs next.

About a week later the disciples are all gathered together, this time Thomas with them. They are indoors somewhere and according to the text the doors are shut when Jesus suddenly appears in their midst. After greeting them and calming them down a little, Jesus turns to Thomas and says: “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” After this incredible rebuke, Thomas humbles himself and worship’s Jesus, calling Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Something to note is that Jesus doesn’t only rebuke Thomas, but He also offers Thomas what it was that he said he needed in order to believe. He invites Him to come and examine to see if it is really true. We are not told in the text that Thomas then get’s up and examines Jesus before believing. No, Thomas seems to respond the right way, by doing what he failed to do in the first place – trust Christ.

Finally Jesus gives Thomas and the rest of the disciples a little lesson on faith, and how it looks in real life. He says to them, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”