The Blessing of Believing

One of the stories around Easter that almost everyone can relate to involves a young man named Thomas. Thomas is just like you and me. Not content to just believe the reports of the witnesses, Thomas had to see for himself. He wanted to examine the evidence. He would have made a good CSI detective.

You can’t blame him. He saw how it all went down. He saw the guards come into the Garden of Gethsemane with their torches and weapons. He saw them arrest and bind Jesus and lead Him away.

He was aware of the “trial” they put Jesus through. He knew how brutal a “scourging” at the hands of Roman soldiers was. He heard about the crown of thorns they twisted together and pressed upon His head.

Thomas was no dummy. When a man gets a Roman death sentence there’s no endless string of appeals and retrials. There’s no Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton stirring up the masses to protest this great injustice.

When a man gets handed over to be crucified, that’s it. It’s all over. Death by crucifixion was the most horrible way a man could die, and the ruthless Roman soldiers were experts at putting people to death in the most horrific ways possible.

When a dead body is laid to rest in a tomb, that’s the end of story. When the stone is entrenched in place, secured, sealed and guarded by a squadron of Roman soldiers, there’s no way out. No hope for another miracle. He saved others, but now He’s gone.

So when his friends told Thomas that they had seen the Lord Jesus alive, you can understand his hesitancy to accept their report. I would have been skeptical, too.

“Alive? No way! Not after being crucified. Not with that tomb locked down. I say no way. Not unless I see for myself those nail marks in His hands. Not unless I place my finger into those marks and into His side. There’s no way I’m believing it.”

Isn’t that the doubting mind of faithless men ever since? We cry out, “Show me the money!” And refusing to believe, we condemn ourselves to a futile lifelong pursuit of something more, something real, something eternal. We search in vain for something that will satisfy the deepest longings of our heart. We seek for happiness, peace, hope, truth and meaning in life, but come up empty. We’re looking for love in all the wrong places.

Friend, may I say to you that everything your soul longs for is found in Jesus? He is the Door through which we are saved and find pasture. The devil is the thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus is the One who has come to give life, and give it to the full. He’s the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep.

And He not only laid down His life for us, but He also had the power and authority to take it up again. Satan has no ability to destroy Christ in death. The burly Roman soldiers had no chance to keep Him down. The stone was rolled away – not so Jesus could get out, but so we could see He’s no longer there.

When Jesus appeared eight days later to Thomas, all doubt disappeared. Thomas didn’t even need to study the case, for the very real and living presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords convinced him beyond a shadow of a doubt. All he could do was fall at Jesus’ feet and cry out, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus responded, “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). That’s faith. That’s why we rejoice eternally in Christ. And that’s why we’re blessed.

Maybe you can relate to Thomas’ initial doubts. But please don’t stay there! See for yourself that Jesus is alive. Need a personal revelation? Then come join us Easter Sunday morning at 10:45. Come and see, believe and be blessed!