Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: John 20:24-31

Jesus’ resurrection body enables Him to come to the disciples despite locked doors. His resurrected body is visible, His voice is audible, He can be touched and related to just as He could before His death. Mysteriously, He is also able to come and go at will, and is not subject to all of the same limitations of a ‘regular’ mortal body. As Paul would later write to the Corinthians, the body that dies is perishable, dishonourable, weak and purely natural, while the body that is raised is imperishable, glorious, powerful and spiritual (1 Cor. 15:43-44). Jesus’ resurrection body was the same, yet gloriously different.

Far more striking, however, is Jesus’ ability to know exactly what Thomas’ state of mind and disbelief was. Thomas had articulated that doubt and disbelief to the other disciples when Jesus was not visibly present with them. Yet, when Jesus came to them a week later, it was as if He had been there! He responded to Thomas exactly in accordance with what Thomas had said he would need if he was to believe. Clearly, the risen Jesus is able to know what is in a person without being told, just as He was able to do while in the flesh (See John 2:25).

It is no wonder that Thomas responds to Jesus with profound faith. He knows now, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that this is no apparition or hallucination. This is Jesus, risen from the dead! This is his Lord, and he declares it to be so. Thomas has also come to a realization that the others have not yet perceived. This Jesus is also his God (v.28). “My Lord and my God,” Thomas confesses. The honest doubter has become the first disciple to say those glorious words: “Jesus, You are my God!”

Today, if you have doubts about the Lord, don’t feel ashamed to admit that to Jesus. After all, He already perceives those doubts and knows them completely. Bring those doubts to Jesus today and allow Him to gently transform them into faith. It could be that the place of your greatest doubt becomes the place of your greatest faith. It certainly did for Thomas.

Lord Jesus, I do believe. Help me in my unbelief. Amen.