JOHN 20:25

So the other disciples told him [Thomas], “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

TO PONDER

Another pastor pointed out to me this week something I had never noticed before. In this story from John's gospel, we encounter the doubt of Thomas and from it we get the name or phrase 'Doubting Thomas'. But stop and think about it for a moment, the other disciples who "saw the Lord" as the verse for the day reminds us are still meeting behind locked doors in fear eight days later when Jesus appears a second time, this time with Thomas in the room.

Jesus told them on his first appearance that he was sending them, "as the father has sent me, so I am sending you". And yet, the disciples didn't go anywhere. They had heard the testimony of the women who went to the empty tomb that first Easter morning, they had now seen the risen Jesus appear among them and prove his identity via the wounds in his hands and sides and they are still so full of fear that they meet in secret behind closed doors.

The question I have is who are the real doubters. Is it us? Are we the disciples who know Jesus has risen, who know that he has sent us into the world with a mission to introduce others to him, who know we have been sent to love and serve others just as Jesus came to love and serve us, and yet still only express our faith behind locked doors in our Christian enclaves on Sunday morning?

Sometimes, faith is hard. Thomas wanted to see what the others had seen, he did not just take their word for it. But we have no excuse, we have seen what God has done, we have the testimony of the apostles, the gospel accounts of Jesus, and we have encountered the risen Jesus in our own lives as he has called us to faith through the Word and the Spirit. But hard doesn't mean we simply don't do it. Hard means we need to exercise faith, to trust that when Jesus sends us, he sends us as he did those first disciples, empowered by the Holy Spirit so that we might have the capacity to see to the things he is sending us to do. That's how we show faith.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, Thank you that you have made yourself and your love and mercy known to me in so many ways. Please help me to step out in faith wherever you call me to go, trusting that where ever you send me, you will be wit me. Amen

Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle