Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
John 20:29
Soon after the publication of his controversial book The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie said in an interview, “Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century.” The patron saint of this era of doubt is the apostle Thomas. “Doubting Thomas” we call him sympathetically, almost affectionately. Consider his pilgrimage:
Thomas the absentee. On Easter Day, in the evening, for whatever reason, Thomas was absent and so missed the blessing of seeing the risen Lord. It is a calculated risk to be an irregular churchgoer. But the following Sunday Thomas was back in his place, and the blessing he missed on the first Sunday he received on the second!
Thomas the skeptic. When the other disciples told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, Thomas should have believed them. Indeed, Jesus reproved Thomas and pronounced a blessing on those who have not seen and yet believe. There are two main ways by which we come to believe anything. The first is by our own empirical investigation; the second is by accepting the testimony of reliable witnesses. So when the others said, “We have seen the Lord” (v. 25), Thomas should have believed them, since he knew they were honest and sober witnesses. Just so, if everybody today insisted on seeing and touching the risen Lord, there would be no believers. Instead, millions have come to faith on the testimony of those who did see and touch. The reasonableness of faith depends on the credibility of the witnesses.
Thomas the believer. Thomas not only believed but worshiped, saying, “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28). And tradition adds that he later went to Parthia, Persia, and India as a missionary. Indian Christians tell us that he planted the church in Kerala and was martyred in Madras.
The ground of Christian faith is still the testimony of the apostolic eyewitnesses. We believe in Jesus Christ today not because we have seen him but because they have. Hence the vital importance of the New Testament, which contains the witness of the apostles. They say to us in writing what they first said to Thomas in speech: “We have seen the Lord.”
