BibleWorm

This week we’re finishing our study of the Gospel of John with the story of Thomas as told in John 20:19-31. While Thomas is remembered in the tradition for his disbelief, he is in fact the first person in the Gospel of John to confess that Jesus is God, making him a model of belief rather than doubt. But for Thomas to reach that conclusion, both he and the other disciples had to remain committed to one another, despite the tension between their belief and Thomas’s doubt, until Thomas, too, could see Jesus. But this text also calls modern Christians to an even higher bar—belief without seeing, relying only on the testimony of others. It is those believers, each of us here and now, whom Jesus sends into the world as God first sent him: Sent to love the world and not to condemn. Sent as light in the midst of darkness. Sent to lay down our lives for those who have lost their way. If only we can believe.