Dear Y:
Thank you for sharing Pastor C's sermon about "Doubting Thomas" with us last Sat.
I totally agree that Thomas' searching for evidences of the resurrected Jesus is very rational and reasonable since he was not there when Jesus appeared to His disciples for the first time. A week later, Jesus reappeared to His disciples and that time Thomas was present, Jesus didn't blame him that he was doubting but instead Jesus welcomed him to reach His side to check the evidences for himself.Thomas finally believed. Jesus then said”"Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."That doesn't mean Jesus has encouraged blind faith in Him. Not really, because Thomas did know those other disciples well who were reliable eye witnesses. They had no reason or any gains to cheat on Thomas about Jesus’ resurrection. So when they reported to him that they saw the resurrected Jesus, Thomas could have believed their eyewitness statements were true. However, resurrection of the dead is so unique and unusual, that of course it is hard to believe unless one sees the evidences by himself/herself.
Now we don't see the resurrected Jesus appears to us but we know those original eyewitnesses are reliable and trustworthy, besides, they had nothing to gain to cheat or to perjury, just the opposite, they might lose their lives by saying "Jesus has risen from the death". All other psychological and motivational reasons we check into, would not give us any reason that they would lie to Thomas or to the generations after them. So we can count on their reliable eye witness accounts. Besides, Jesus had been on earth for 40 days after His resurrection. And so many people had seen Him with their own eyes. One time 500 people all saw Him. That couldn’t be a hallucination. Furthermore,the Holy Spirit will lead us into truth and when we believe in the resurrected Jesus, the Holy Spirit will dwell in us ; though the Holy Spirit is invisible yet true believers of Jesus can all testify the Holy Spirit indwelling in them.
I'd like to comment that most intelligent people do need to go through the process of Thomas' doubting and searching for evidences. Nevertheless, there are other people since they have experienced the reality of God first, they can believe Jesus is God, without going through painful doubting and searching. They are blessed if they come into contact with God first without all the detours in the doubting deserts. I do hope you search for God earnestly.
Don't ever give up!
May God’s truth shine on us!
For further reading. click the link below
John 20: 21 – 29 (NIV): Now Thomas (called 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 it." 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."
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