He Is Risen Indeed!
In case you missed the big message from Easter, here it is: Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and when He rose again on the third day, He defeated death for Himself and for all of us.
That was really hard for the disciple Thomas to accept. It’s even harder for us to accept now. We live in a culture that wants physical proof. We want forensic evidence. We need something tangible to touch and see before we can believe. But having faith that Jesus did these things is what gives us life. As it says in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”.
“Doubting Thomas,” as he was dubbed by later generations, had refused to believe in Jesus’ resurrection until he could put his fingers in the nail wounds and put his hand into the wound in Jesus’ side. That convinced Thomas, but it’s not an option for us today. John wants to help us overcome our doubts. That’s why he ends the story of Thomas by telling us that he wrote his gospel so, “…that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”.
But that’s still a big ask for people who haven’t had the luxury of personally seeing and hearing Jesus, let alone touching His wounds for themselves. Even the other disciples had a hard time believing it at first. But after He’d appeared to them and showed them the proof, they believed. They also believed that He truly was who He said He was. They believed He was the Son of God.
Since we weren’t lucky enough to have been there to see it, we have to rely on those accounts and depend on their testimony. Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Because of that belief, even those who haven’t seen will have life in Jesus’ name.
John knew that people like us who hadn’t seen Jesus would have a tough time believing, so John wrote down everything so that we could come to know who Jesus was, believe in Him, and gain eternal life.
While we can’t put our fingers into the wounds, we can find our own way to be certain of what scripture promises. Through prayer, study, and faith, we can be sure of what we hope for: that Jesus did in fact die on the cross for our sins and because of Him we have eternal life.
Because of what Jesus did, we can know beyond doubt that we have the hope of eternal life because He is risen! He is risen indeed!