Many of us have run our lives on second-hand or even
third-hand information for a long time. Someone told you that God is good, you
believed it, but you don’t know what His goodness tastes like. To you, the
goodness of God is a phantom of spiritual truths, nothing to be grasped. Yet
the psalmist asserts with a certainty that God is good and invites us to
explore this truth; “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). In
other words the goodness of God is so real, you can taste it and even see it! Sometimes we
really want to believe that what we have heard is true, if only we can find the
evidence to prove it.
Thomas, one of Jesus’
disciples, had a rare threat; The truth along with evidence came looking for
him. After Jesus was raised from the dead, He showed himself to the disciples
in the absence of Thomas. When the other disciples told Thomas, "We have
seen the Lord!" he said to them “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands,
and put my finger where the nails have been, and put my hand into His side, I
will never believe” (John 20:25).
The next time Thomas saw Jesus, he was being
presented with the Truth along with all the evidence he needed to believe. In
that moment, Thomas believed! He proclaimed “My Lord! My God!” In spite of how
the story ended, he still earned the
nickname “Doubting Thomas” because human beings like to focus more on the negative, but “Doubting Thomas” did believe
when The Truth with evidence came to him. Thomas’ encounter with Jesus was
included in the scriptures to teach us about faith to believe even when we have
not seen. The word of God stands true in the presence or absence of physical
evidence. However, there is so much more to glean from that story. What Jesus
did for Thomas He has done for us all.
When Thomas made a
passionate dismissal of the apostle’s story, perhaps he was really saying
“please don’t set me up for another let down.” He was still raw from the pain
of disappointment. His faith had no
structure right at that time because everything he had built up in the past
three and half years had collapsed before his very eyes. The savior they had
put their trust in could not save himself from the cross. The other disciples
received comfort for their grief when they saw Jesus. They had their hopes
restored. Thomas was still in a dark place. Thank God for the love of our Savior
who stoops down to pick us up when we fall, and sets us up on the Rock to stay. When
Thomas asked for the nail print, Jesus saw in Thomas a sincere quest for the
truth, a desire to know God for himself. Let us take a look at the response of
Jesus to Thomas. The Lord looked beyond his words. He did not condemn him for his lack of faith. Rather, Jesus
made out the time to come again, just for Thomas! Jesus wanted to put an end to
his doubts, to heal his brokenness.
Have you ever been
presented with The Truth and evidence of God? A testimony with copies of the
doctor’s report, a life transformed with flashes of the “before” and “after” A
woman testifying of a miraculous baby after twenty years of barrenness; she holds
the baby in her arms with tears rolling down her cheeks. You see a car crushed
beyond repair, yet someone comes out of
it unhurt and lives to testify of the goodness of God. When you are presented
with tangible evidence of God’s great might, what is your response? Do you bow
like Thomas in reverence and say “My Lord! My God!”
Or you persist in unbelief and harden
your heart in stubborn pride? Do you explain away the miracle as an act of
nature, a product of technology, or a stroke of luck? A man of God once
testified of his son that was raised from death back to life. He stated that even
with such overwhelming evidence of God’s power, some people still asked “did he
really die in the first place?” The choice is yours. He who has an ear, let him
hear! (Revelation 2:7).
Jesus came to this earth.
He suffered and died for the salvation of man. He was crucified on the cross
like a common criminal. He was brought down and buried. On the third day He
rose triumphant out of the grave. His death and resurrection set man free from
the power of sin, hell and the grave. The Holy Spirit at work in you is the
evidence that He once was here and He is coming again. Do you believe?
How
will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was first spoken
through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying
with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of
the Holy Spirit according to His own will (Hebrews 2:3-4).
