Believing Is Seeing

Rare is the individual today who would purchase a used car without at first taking a look at it; and maybe take it for a test drive. A savvy purchaser may even take it to a trusted mechanic who will give it the once-over, followed by a report back. When we read the story of “doubting” Thomas our sympathies lie with him. The other disciples are spouting a crazy story: “We have seen the Lord.” Why in the world should Thomas believe the accounts of a risen Jesus? It didn’t make sense. Nobody rises from the dead.

Thomas was a modern man, and for modern men seeing is believing. I don’t know how they thought about it in antiquity, but I certainly know that today, when we read the story of “doubting” Thomas, our sympathies lie with him. The other disciples are spouting a crazy story: “We have seen the Lord.” “Yeah, well, he was dead. I saw it.” Why in the world should Thomas believe the accounts of a risen Jesus? It didn’t make sense. Nobody rises from the dead.

Thomas was just like anybody else who hold to, seeing is believing. When we read the story of “doubting” Thomas our sympathies lie with him. The other disciples are spouting a crazy story: “We have seen the Lord.” “Yeah, well, he was dead. I saw it.” Why in the world should Thomas believe the accounts of a risen Jesus? It didn’t make sense. Nobody rises from the dead.

And yet, today’s text challenges us to reverse our normal way of thinking: Not “seeing is believing,” but

Believing Is Seeing.

Or, as Jesus himself said it, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (v 29). In the next few minutes we are going to speak to the fact that (1). life has no meaning, if seeing is believing; (2). There is Someone outside our experience who makes a difference, in the face of death; (3). How those who believe in Christ live in a new reality with meaning and significance.

If Seeing is Believing, Life has No Meaning but Death.

As we listen to today’s Gospel reading we heard something that begs the question: what’s wrong with Thomas’s attitude? “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe” (v 25). What’s wrong with insisting on seeing something before we accept it?

Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe

The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.” (v 25). What’s wrong with insisting on seeing something before we accept it?

Skepticism is a good thing in this life. If you’re buying a car or anything at all, it’s a good idea to test the claims of the seller and see for yourself whether everything is on the up-and-up. Same is true with politics: listen to the various claims of the candidates and then think the issues through for yourself: which candidate really makes more sense?

Likewise when it comes to politics, it’s wise to listen to the various claims of the candidates and then think them through for yourself: which candidate really makes more sense?

So “seeing is believing” is a good philosophy in this world.

But what happens when we apply it to questions about the significance, aim, and meaning of human life?

When it comes to such things, we don’t see very well. Consider Thomas. Can you imagine what it was like for him that week of doubt? It couldn’t have been pleasant for him. A whole week, all his friends were abuzz with the good news of Jesus’ resurrection appearances. But Thomas stuck to the facts of what he had seen: Jesus suffered, died, and as buried. For a solid week, Thomas was holding on to death instead of the good news of life.

And this is exactly our condition too—so many centuries later—if we, like Thomas that first week of Easter, reject the resurrection. We are only left with death!

We live in a death-denying society. A lot of people don’t die at home anymore; they die in a hospital or nursing home. But no matter where they die, we turn the body over to a funeral director, so that he can make the dead person look as lifelike as possible for viewing—not at home but in a church or a funeral parlor. We want to avoid death—avoid seeing it, dealing with it, confronting it. And we really can’t.

Despite our best efforts, death is the reality for each one of us—and everyone knows it. The people who are dearest to us are going to die, as do complete strangers. Poor people die, rich people die—the famous and powerful as well as the humble and ordinary. And—oh, yes—so will you and I. Our death is coming too—unavoidably, sooner or later. Everybody dies.

If we are honest and open about the meaning of life on the basis of what we see, that is, death, we have to say: There isn’t any. No meaning, no purpose, no significance, because it all ends in death. Not only will you cease to see whatever you’ve accomplished, whatever good you’ve done, eventually everybody else will too. They’ll all be dead too, and what good will anybody’s anything do anybody? In our efforts to make sense of everything, we discover that it is all nonsense because of death.

If seeing is believing, that is, if our hope and confidence are based only on what we experience, and what we experience is only death, then our lives are pointless. It doesn’t matter who we are or what we do; it all ends the same way . . . dead. BUT,

There is Someone Outside our Experience Who Makes a Difference in the Face of Death.

This brings us back to Easter. There is Someone who has made a difference—a radical difference—in the human story. Someone for whom death was a reality but not the reality. Someone who could deny death not just in appearances but in truth.

That Someone is Jesus Christ! “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who live, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and Death” (Rev 1:17–18). When death had done its worst, when Jesus was for sure dead—they had pierced his side, they had hauled down his body, and they had put him into Joseph’s tomb—when all that was over, it still wasn’t over, because on the third day, he arose from the dead! He said “No!” to death, and he meant it.

In that single act of defiance, Jesus Christ changed the lot and destiny of man: not death but now life has the last word! And with the gift of life comes everything else that makes life worth living.

Consider again your weaknesses, faults, and failures—what the Bible calls sin—which is the cause of death. On our own we are helplessness. No matter how hard we try, we cannot measure up to God’s Law—and we usually don’t try all that hard. We live in a world that is filled with sin and its consequences—not only out there but here in our own hearts and lives—and we deserve the death and hell that God threatens against sinners.

But the victory of Jesus over death was also His victory over sin, for He had come to assume not only our nature, but also our burden, our obligation, our sin and its punishment. He resisted every temptation the devil could throw at Him. He suffered every punishment that God ever imposed. And then he arose from death, triumphant over it all.

This great victory is what Christ now offers to us in His Word through the power granted on Easter evening: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them” (v 23). No conditions, no strings attached, just forgiveness and all that follows: eternal life and resurrection—yours through faith.

You see,

There is a new Reality of Life with Meaning and Significance for all Who Believe—to See Now by Faith and in Eternity with our Eyes.

"After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, PEACE TO YOU!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing” (vv 26–27).

For those who believe this Word—the Word that Jesus is risen and that he forgives just as he forgave Thomas—everything is different: there is meaning and significance to your existence. Our Lord’s Word of forgiveness to us is for all, and we preach it. A world that is wracked by sin and death is precisely where we spend our lives in loving service to others for the sake of God, who first loved us. Then, when this life is over, we go right on living with God until on the Last Day we rise again with glorified bodies just like Jesus. Then we will see with our eyes what for now we only believe. For now, believing is our seeing, but believing is also the way to seeing, the way to seeing Jesus with our eyes for all eternity.

This doesn’t mean that we never experience anything bad, difficult, or dangerous. No, our lives are filled with challenges, hurts, bereavements. That’s what we still see with our eyes and feel with every measure of our senses. But in the midst of pain, sorrow, and loss, there is a certain hope that rests on the victory of Christ. For now, we see that simply by faith. Believing is seeing.

We don’t yet see with our eyes, but where there is sin, Christ offers forgiveness; where there is hurting, Christ offers hope; where there is bereavement, Christ offers life. All this is sure and certain, for God is greater than our sight—just as Easter shows us: death, our ultimate reality, was not Jesus’ ultimate reality. And what He has obtained, He has obtained for us.

The attitude of doubting Thomas—”SEEING IS BELIEVING”—may be perfectly fine for buying a car or casting a vote, but when it comes to our New Life by Faith, it is “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SEEN AND YET HAVE BELIEVED” (v 29). For, Seeing is Believing has no meaning but death; and only Someone outside our experience makes a difference, in this life; and this someone is Christ. All who believe in Him live in a new reality with meaning and significance; for believing grabs hold of Christ, the risen and triumphant Lord, who makes all the difference, and joins Thomas not in doubting but in confessing: “My Lord and my God.”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.