Experience the Risen Lord!

John 20:24-29

24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” 26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Food for thought!

Thomas the apostle has always received a lot of bad press. He is given such name as “Doubting Thomas,” "Unbelieving Thomas", and others. But as we are going to see, Thomas' primary problem was not his doubting; Thomas was a realist! He is the kind of man that uses his more his head (reason) than his heart (faith). He was the kind of person that needed evidence first before believing. In the Bible Thomas' character always stands out. For instance:

Once when Jesus spoke of the mansions in his Father's house, Thomas asked: "Lord, we know not where you are going, how can we know the way?" Logical, isn't he?

When Jesus turned to go toward Bethany to the grave of Lazarus, at once Thomas feared the worst and said in Jn 11:16 “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

When Jesus died on the cross, Thomas stayed with the image of bloody Jesus, dying on the cross; he got seized by the moment of the cross. When he heard that the Jesus he saw dying was after all alive, he could not believe it. He demanded to have a personal experience first in order to believe: "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe." What Thomas demands is having a direct experience of Jesus prior to believing.

What we learn from Thomas is that there are some things in life you just have to experience for yourself. You cannot borrow the experience of Jesus. We can listen to sermons about Jesus, and we can read all the books on Jesus, and not experience him. Jesus can only be experienced personally. And this is what Thomas was demanding. That's what he meant when he said: "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe." Notice the "I" and "my" and "I" and "my." What Thomas is saying is that if I don't experience PERSONALLY Jesus I will not believe.

And this is what Jesus tells Thomas. Jesus knows that Thomas' problem is realism. That is why Jesus teaches him and us that, "In order to experience me, if you want to have a personal encounter with me, BELIEVE first." Thomas thought the opposite; he thought that we experience Jesus first, then we believe. Jesus says, it is the opposite. Believe first and you will be blessed with my presence and experience. Because they're BLESSED indeed who believe without seeing.

All of this tells us this fact: faith is having a positive outlook, is looking at life positively. When you get any challenge as you do many times, any problem, crisis as you do, believe, that is, be positive that something good will come out of it. That is the faith, which will transform your helplessness into hopefulness.