So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
The other disciples want Thomas to be able to share in the experience they've had of the risen LORD. So they tell him about what they've seen. But it seems to have the opposite effect. His heart is still no doubt crushed because the passion. There are rumors that the LORD lives and Thomas has probably heard these. He is no doubt pulled between hope and despair. It is probably wearing him down, little by little. And the disciples want to tell him that the hope is true, the despair is fading, destined to disappear. But instead they just make him feel more isolated. Why everyone else but not him, Thomas probably wonders.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
Jesus does not abandon Thomas to doubt. He in fact provides for exactly what Thomas requires.
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
But just the presence of Jesus is enough. Locked doors of fear and doubt are no obstacles to Jesus. Thomas's heart swells with faith in response.
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Why does Jesus reveal himself in this way? Why create a situation where most of the disciples encounter the LORD but not Thomas? For one thing, he wants his resurrection to be known in the context of community and fellowship and not as an isolated stranger.
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
But perhaps even more than that Thomas's doubts seem to give way to an even more profound experience of belief. And the experience is not just for him but for us all. When we have doubts we have one in heaven who can sympathize with us. In the world we can often only see the human side of a situation and not the divine, the death and not the resurrection. Thomas only sees the human side of the situation until Jesus comes to reveal himself to him. But Jesus comes to Thomas. When we don't have the faith to see the divine at work and can only see the human and the hopeless Jesus comes for us as well. He reveals himself to Thomas to reveal his heart for us all. Does this mean the LORD can even use our doubts to reach others? Emphatically yes!
Even as we once doubted we now join with our fellow citizens in the Church to tell the world that we too have seen the risen LORD.
Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Peter Furler - Hold On
"Just believe, I know you're gonna make it"
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