13.11 | To Not See

John 20:19-31

‘Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”’

John 20:29

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For our honeymoon, me and Lydia went to Kerala, on the southwestern tip of India.

Kerala is a land of palm trees and sultry rivers, coconut curries and tropical beaches, fishing and houseboats and lush and humid jungles. We spent a week in a floating cabin, gently swaying on the edge of a coastal island. We drove into the mountains, and through vast tea plantations. We caught trains with open carriage windows and chaiiwallas at every station. 

And in our travelling around, one name kept coming up.

Thomas.

There were churches named after Thomas, schools named after Thomas, and hospitals named after Thomas. Because, as the story goes, it was Thomas who brought the Story of Jesus to the nation of India. Many Indians still attribute the presence of Christianity in their nation, historically, to him. It is believed that he journeyed there and ministered, beginning in Kerala, for twenty years, before he was martyred in 72AD.

And it is this Thomas that we read about today.

The Thomas who wasn’t there. Thomas who doubted. Thomas who found the resurrection of Jesus so implausible that he would only believe it once he had physically touched the scarred and yet living body of the resurrection Jesus.

When we doubt—when God and Jesus and eternity and resurrection all feel or seem implausible to us—it’s easy to feel a little jealous of Thomas. Because, in his moment of doubt, the living, breathing, recently crucified and yet thoroughly alive Jesus walked into the room. He could see Jesus, touch Him, and yet, alongside those scars that led to His death he could also see the dancing life in His eyes. His doubt was interrupted by unequivocal evidence. Surely this experience gave him courage for all that was before him—as he navigated the Arabian Sea to bring the Story of a resurrected King to a distant land.

We can read this story in our moments of doubt, and we can consider him blessed.

And yet, Jesus counters our assumption here. Because He offers us a different vision of what it is to be blessed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Who have not seen.

How does this land with you? Do you want to push back? Disagree? In honesty, I often do. It seems more blessed to see. It seems more blessed to experience the bodily, resurrected, Jesus, and to find our doubts dissipate with certain evidence of His reality.

And yet, my friends, hear the words of the Lord. For He knows the ways of blessedness better than we do.

For in our moments of doubt—in our moments when we can’t feel Him and can’t see Him and can’t discern any evidence of His reality, and yet continue in faith anyway, He looks on such moments and declares them to be the way of the blessed.

How can this be?

It can only be so if the way of faith is not merely about feeling, or certainty, or endless and unshifting conviction. It can only be so if a part of the road of the blessed is to find ourselves in such Thomas moments—when all sense of Him has gone and faith seems vacuous—and yet, in these very moments, to continue to act with belief. 

Foolish? It certainly feels so. And yet a fool who believes for the greater reality.

Blind? Not a chance. For the greater blindness is to live in the tiny world of the godless and lost.

Blessed? Certainly so. For, beloved child of God, He looks with extraordinary value upon your moments of doubt, where you lack evidence of His resurrection realities, and yet, in these very moments, continue to walk the way of faith.

For before the feet of such as these all hell quakes. And before the feet of such as these heaven awaits. 

For it is such moments of these, that the Lord of resurrection looks on, and speaks a distinct and revolutionary word:

Blessed.

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Reflect:

Do I feel faith right now? If so, give thanks and continue.

If not, remind your soul of this. He spoke into this exact experience. And He said that the one who, in such moments of not seeing, chooses to continue along the way of faith, He declares a word upon you: 

Blessed.

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Pray:

Lord Jesus,

Doubt

Makes me feel that

I’ve done something wrong.

I must have wandered away,

Or been foolish,

Or maybe I’ve just got the whole thing wrong.

And yet, Lord,

You turn this world of certainty and feeling

Upside down,

And offer me a different angle 

On reality.

For what if, Lord,

In this moment,

You are not offering me a chance for despair,

But a chance for devotion?

What if, Lord,

In this moment, 

You are not offering me a chance for hopelessness,

But for resilience?

What if, Lord, in this moment,

You are not offering me the experience of the abandoned,

But an opportunity to receive

The heavenly accolades offered to

The blessed.

And so, Lord,

In these moments,

I walk the fools’ road,

Trusting for greater realities than these,

And hopeful to find you at the end of this story,

With one word for this life:

Blessed.

In Your Name,

Amen

Old Testament: 

For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:

Ezekiel 26-27 | Psalm 128