4/28/2019

In John 20:19-31 we hear of Jesus appearing to the disciples following His resurrection. This gospel account teaches many things in a fairly short passage: Jesus has been raised and has a mission for His disciples (“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21) and that Christ’s sacrifice is for everyone’s salvation (But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31).

This passage also illustrates the difficulty some will have in believing in Jesus without having seen him, using Thomas as the example. It may sound like Jesus is reprimanding Thomas when He says “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29), but He is telling the disciples (and us) how it will be from then on – He will be returning to the Father, and it will be up to us to make Jesus real to all our brothers and sisters without them seeing Him.

Jesus calls each one of us to believe without seeing, having faith that God loves us and was willing to sacrifice Himself to save us. We are now part of building the kingdom, not because we deserve it or have any power of our own, but because we are His beloved children.

Heavenly Father, we are ashamed by our lack of faith, and humbled by what You have done in order to save us. Make us whole again, energetic bearers of the Good News to all the world. Amen.

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