“You have to see it to believe it” takes on a whole new meaning this week. My wife and I tried to explain what an eclipse is to my 4-year-old, but she doesn’t quite understand. I resorted to “You’ll just have to wait and see” to which she patently rolled her eyes in annoyance.
But humans tend to place more weight on what they witness. Whether it be a ghost, bigfoot, or any other outlandish thing, we’ve all heard someone use the evidence of, “I saw it with my own two eyes!” Some things simply mean more when you watch them for yourself–the birth of your child, a concert by your favorite musician, a friend being baptized, the lowering of Grandma’s casket.
There is just something about seeing something for yourself. It’s almost like it didn’t happen if you can’t see it. This is the basic rationale for why some people think the Earth is flat. It’s also Thomas’s rationale for being skeptical of Jesus’ resurrection.
He wasn’t there when Jesus first appeared among the now less-than-twelve. But when they told Thomas about seeing the risen Jesus, he scoffed. “Unless I can see him with my own two eyes and touch his wounds, it ain’t real.” That’s my translation of John 20:25.
Jesus then returns to give Thomas exactly what he asked for. “You wanted to see me? Here I am! You wanted to touch the holes in my hands, the wound in my side? Put your finger here!” But seeing Jesus was more than enough for Thomas as he utters the line the Gospel of John has been building toward, “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28)
You would think Jesus would then commend Thomas for his faith. All Thomas needed was what the other disciples got. The relationship is reestablished. Love is shared. “Well done good and faithful servant,” would be the appropriate response.
But Jesus says something else and it’s a word that echoes through the years to you and me. In response to Thomas’ confession of faith, 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. (v. 29)
You are not one of Jesus’ no-longer-Twelve. You aren’t among the women who met him on the road. You have never seen Jesus. He departed this world after his resurrection until he returns to make all wrongs right, but now…we do not see him.
And, yet…you are blessed. You have God’s favor, maybe more than those who got to see Jesus after Good Friday.
Because contrary to what the “Polar Express” movie says, seeing is not believing. Faith isn’t based on seeing something with your own two eyes. That is certainty and certainty is not what is what makes you blessed. Belief is, faith is. Hebrews gives us the Christian description of faith: Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see. (Heb. 11:1)
We don’t need to see it to believe it. We don’t need to wait and see. We don’t need to see it with our own two eyes. Instead, we trust in the word of hope passed down from Christian to Christian back to Thomas and the rest of the not-so-Twelve, “My Lord, and my God.” As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, We live by faith and not by sight.
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