Is seeing believing?

John 20 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; ¹² and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. ¹³ And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

¹⁹ So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹ So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” ²² And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

²⁴ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

²⁶ After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷ Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” ²⁸ Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

³⁰ Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

“Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” Thomas, though he had known Jesus as a man and though he had walked with the other disciples would not believe until he saw with his own eyes. Upon seeing and touching Jesus, he responded: “My Lord and my God!”    There were only a chosen few who saw Jesus both when He walked with them as a man and also as the glorious risen Lord. Certainly they were blessed to have the privilege of seeing and knowing Jesus in both of these forms. But Jesus says:  “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”   He says we are blessed, those of us who believe that He is the Lord and King, having never seen Him with our natural eyes. We are blessed because we believe by faith not by sight.

Those who do not have faith cannot understand the power of faith, they still seek physical evidence, they need proof in order to believe in Jesus. Hebrews 1:1 says: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.        Faith provides its own evidence. What we see and experience with our physical senses changes constantly. If we rely on the evidence we receive from those senses then what we believe will also change constantly.  If on the other hand we believe by faith we have substance, or assurance of what we believe. We have a revelation of who Jesus is, not merely a perception based on unreliable senses.

It is interesting that those who knew Jesus most intimately, those who had walked with Him, fellowshipped with Him, shared meals with Him daily did not recognize Him when they saw Him. He was no longer the same as who or what they had known with their senses. Their sight was no longer reliable as evidence of Jesus. Back in John 4: 23-26 when Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well He gives us an explanation of how we are to know Him:    But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.”  Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”   

Jesus is speaking about worshipping God, but I am convinced that to see God, to know God will be to worship God. Throughout scripture those who saw God, experienced His awesome holiness and magnificence worshipped Him. Even John, the disciple who describes himself as “the one who Jesus loved,” even he who at the last supper laid his head on the chest of Jesus, even John who at the cross was given the privilege of taking responsibility for Jesus mother, even he responded to seeing the risen and glorified Christ by worshipping Him. In Revelation 1, John does see Jesus again, verses 12-17 describe it for us:    Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;  and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.  His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.  His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.  In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.  When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last…”      The Jesus John saw that day was/is quite different from the one he had known as a man for several years.

We, as disciples of Christ, are to live and be an example of Christ to the world. Our problem lies in the fact that we try to be Jesus to their natural, physical senses, in doing that we focus on singular aspects of who Jesus was. We try to represent Jesus as merely a man who walked the earth for a short period of time. We try to live like He lived, say the things He said and do what He did. But at best we are poor, imperfect reflections of all that Jesus is. How can we possibly represent the risen, glorified Christ, the one who John saw and fell at His feet, to the world? The Jesus who the disciples knew was not the same as the Jesus who rose from the grave. We cannot be all that Christ is to the world. He is “the first and the last.”  In Revelation 1:8 He says: "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." If we bear witness of anything less we tell only part of the truth. We encourage others to believe only what they see and what they see in us will usually be disappointing.

Jesus says:  “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth”    We have been given the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, that we might both worship in Spirit and also represent Christ in that same Spirit, not in our flesh. In Galatians 5:16-25, Paul describes life walking in the Spirit as a representation of Christ:     So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want…   The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions   and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Jesus says:  “You are the light of the world… let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, the risen King; You are the beginning and the end, He who is and was and is to come. Thank You for giving me Your Holy Spirit, through which I have been given the revelation of all that You are. By that same Spirit may I also live so that others may believe in You and be blessed.  Amen