Miraculous

John 20:29 ESV

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

Jesus was dead and in the grave, all knew it to be true until he wasn’t. Peter and John had run to the tomb to find what the women had said was true and it was. That evening Jesus appeared to ten of the disciples but Thomas was not present. For this glaring offense, not being with the assembly, he is forever known as “doubting Thomas”. The text does not give us a reason for his absence, simply that he was not there and did not believe the group when they testified to what they saw. Christ in his grace and mercy came again, this time while Thomas was present and Thomas true to his word believed. Jesus at the end of this declaration of the reality of Jesus' person pronounces a blessing “on those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

So, who was he blessing? NONE, of the group present with him at that moment qualified. The women who visited the tomb believed upon seeing. The apostles, trained by Jesus for three years, believed when he was in their presence. The “more than five hundred” witnesses that Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 15:6 are all honorable witnesses to what they SAW. I do not say this to undermine their faith or their sacrifice as my brothers and sisters have given and sacrificed more than I probably ever will, but merely wish to point to the reality that they were with Thomas those who believed because of what they saw. Because of what they saw, they were able to testify to the truth of the resurrection in such a way it is an undeniable historical fact, to the reasonable mind, but the unregenerate mind is wholly unreasonable.

Believing without witnessing is hard. Even witnessing the event itself is not proof belief will take hold, as the guards at the tomb prove. How hard is it? It is: raising the dead, turning hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. In short it is impossible without the Spirit of God moving and accomplishing and choosing to use you as the instrument of such blessing. As with John 17:20, where Jesus prays for “those who will believe in me through their word” at this moment he blesses US. We who never saw are blessed by our savior because we believed what they have testified. Because God himself prayed for us and blessed us, and that is a great comfort for me. No secret knowledge, or modern prophecy, can comfort the way the truth that my savior on the night before he was to die for me prayed for me, and the risen Christ blessed me. Now he sits at the right hand of God continuing to do both, but here it is recorded for the last two thousand years my master's blessing of us!

Believing is hard, “repent and be baptized” is hard. Let us not think that through our meager effort we might raise the dead and create disciples. We must pray. We must petition the divine to do that which we cannot. In his gracious mercy he might use our meager efforts. It was his prayers and blessing that have given us hope for eternity, not our own “common sense”, or ability. Do not be discouraged when others do not believe the testimony you bear. Believing is hard. Do not be discouraged when lip service is given, and “repent and be baptized” is jettisoned, submission is hard. Yet, God raises the dead, and through some miracle even came as a babe in the manger. God does hard things. God does impossible things. God is and does the miraculous.

Coram Deo