How Jesus Responds To Sincere Doubt

"My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20.28)

"Thomas? was not with them when Jesus came." (Jn 20.24)

The room was alive
with the story
Thomas missed.

Hands moved
as they retold it.
Voices rose
as each man added
his piece of the moment.

And yet John tells us:

"Thomas? was not with them
when Jesus came."
(Jn 20.24)

Everyone else
had seen Him-
Thomas had not.

So when they said,
"We have seen the Lord!"
(Jn 20.25)

Their excitement
collided with his absence-
and he answered with words
that sobered the room:

"Unless I see in His hands
the mark of the nails,
and place my finger
into the mark of the nails,
and place my hand into His side,
I will never believe."
(Jn 20.25)

Eight days passed.

Eight days
of hearing their story
without having one of his own.

Eight days
in a room marked
by a moment
he never saw.

Eight days
to sit with the idea
that Jesus had come-
but not for him.

Thomas stands
in the same line
as John the Baptist-
another man
who questioned Jesus.

John asked,
"Are You the One
who is to come?"
(Lk 7.19)

Thomas said,
"Unless I see?"
(Jn 20.25)

And Jesus answered
their doubt.

For John-
The blind can see.,
The lame can walk.,
The dead are reaised.
(Lk 7.22)

For Thomas-

"Put your finger here,
and see My hands.
Reach out your hand,
and place it in My side."
(Jn 20.27)

No one else
had asked for this.

Because Jesus knows
not every barrier
is the same.

Some face
an intellectual barrier-
they need evidence.
Thomas lives here.
He wasn't resisting Jesus.
He was asking for what
the others had already received.

Some face
a lifestyle barrier-
they're not ready
for Jesus to interfere.
They need a friend
who stays close
until life breaks them open.

Some face
an emotional barrier-
wounded by a religious person
or a religious moment.
Give them information too soon,
and it reinforces the wound-
they grow defensive,
even argumentative.

But Jesus meets each barrier,
each person,
with what's needed.

For the honest mind,
He gives proof.
For the running life,
He waits at the bottom.
For the wounded heart,
He comes gentle.

And Thomas-honest enough
to refuse a faith he didn't have-
answered with the clearest confession
in the Gospel:

"My Lord and my God!"
(Jn 20.28)