Today’s Scripture:
“But these are written 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.” — John 20:31 (ESV)
Reflection
Today’s passage is about Jesus appearing to the disciples twice. The first one being to ten of the disciples, and then the second one being to the disciples and Thomas, since he wasn’t there the first time. The first time Jesus appears, he comes in and stands among the disciples even though the doors were locked. Jesus gives them a peace blessing and then sends them off like how the Father sent Jesus on the mission. Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit to give them wisdom to announce the forgiveness and the withholding of forgiveness to others. The second time, Jesus appears to Thomas after he refuses to believe that Jesus is actually alive until he sees Him with his own eyes. Thomas believes after he sees Jesus again, and Jesus says that those who believe without seeing are blessed.
I found the part about announcing forgiveness pretty interesting. This doesn’t mean that they have the authority to forgive sins, which is reserved for God. This means that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and reliance on the Gospel, the disciples could declare that someone’s sins are forgiven due to their faith, or that their sins still remain due to their lack of belief. Kind of a weird idea, but it does make sense.
Thomas asked for a sign and God graciously answered his sign. But this doesn’t mean God will show us every single sign that we ask for. The phrase “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” is so amazing because it can be interpreted in two ways. The first way is the way that we read it: Those who believe although they have not seen are blessed. I think this includes all of us, who believe although we have not seen Jesus face to face. The second way that I interpreted this is that the fact that we believe although we have not yet seen is a blessing. God blesses us with faith without the sight of Jesus. Our faith is not blind faith, but it’s not one where we can clearly see Jesus without doubts. Even Thomas doubted Jesus’s resurrection until he saw Jesus face to face. It’s okay to doubt in our faith as long as we truly believe.
John’s Gospel is not a comprehensive Wikipedia article on every small detail of Jesus’s life. There are many parts that are missing that are covered in the other Gospels, and there’s some info that probably didn’t make it into any of them. Yet, the purpose remains the same no matter which Gospel we read: Believe. I love P. Abe’s sermon on Good Friday where he told us to please believe. There’s a friend that I’m thinking of who doesn’t believe. I know he knows a lot of the stories, but he just doesn’t hold them to be completely true. I pray that this friend of mine can recognize the purpose of the Gospels and really the purpose of the entire Bible, which is to believe in the resurrected Jesus who gives us life.