Thought for the Day – Sunday 19th April
Today’s words are from John 20: 19-31:
When it was evening on that day,
the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had
met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
“Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again,
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said
this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any,
they are retained.” But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have
seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his
hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I
will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and
Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger
here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt
but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him,
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have come to believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are
written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of
God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Had we been in church today we would have been focusing on Thomas and
this post-resurrection encounter he has with Jesus. Thomas forever labelled
‘the doubter’ because he wanted to see for himself that Jesus had indeed come
back from the dead rather than merely believe the words of his fellow
disciples.
I always think that label ‘doubter’ is a little unfair. All Thomas
really wanted was to experience what the other disciples had experienced – he
just needed to know one way or the other that Jesus had indeed risen from the
dead – that he was indeed the promised Messiah – that he had been right to give
up everything in his life to follow Jesus. I suppose we could say, that he
wanted to know, without doubt, that his relationship with God, through this Jesus
he had chosen to follow, would continue even though Jesus would not be
physically present with him on earth and that’s exactly what he discovered from
this post-resurrection encounter with Jesus.
Indeed, that is probably why John has included this story in his
gospel, because this is something we need to know too!
Jesus says, ‘Blessed are those
who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’ We are those blessed who
have not seen Jesus in person but yet have come to believe in him and let him
change our lives and we know that sometimes believing in things unseen and
having faith in them can be difficult.
However, it struck me when I read these words that in this time of
coronavirus we are almost living an object lesson for this story. For we have
never seen Covid-19, yet we know this little virus exist and we believe in it.
How do we know? Well, not by seeing it in person but rather because we see the
impact it is having on the lives of those around us in our world.
Surely then, that is how others come to believe in the unseen Jesus –
we display Jesus to others, we impact their lives, and in so doing, we hope
others do not doubt but instead know the change Jesus can make to lives – ours
and theirs. Is this not ‘such a time’ to display Jesus to the world?
Prayer
Loving Lord,
We know it would have been so much easier to
believe had we seen with our own eyes and then invited others to physically
‘Come and See’ Jesus too. Yet, we are the blessed, for we believe and have not
seen. Be with us Lord, as we seek to show your love and grace in our world
today that others might see in us a glimpse of you and be 
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