Alive - by Dave Smith

Spirit) when his followers are meeting together.
Moreover, this incident is a particularly instructive lesson on the
different types of faith. There is the Thomas-like faith, which needs to
see before it will believe. Having clearly ‘overheard’ Thomas’
comments concerning his need to ‘see’ and ‘touch’, Jesus very
specifically invited him to touch the physical wounds from his
crucifixion. In 1602 in his painting The Incredulity of Saint Thomas,
Caravaggio tried to imagine the scene and painted the hand of Christ
guiding the hand of Thomas into the wound on his side. There is,
however, no evidence from the biblical text that Thomas actually
touched Jesus – he didn’t need to. Seeing the crucified Jesus
standing before him was enough! In that moment Thomas’
expressions of doubt turned to a cry of faith: ‘My Lord and my God!’
This is one of the strongest affirmations of Jesus’ divinity. As one
commentator puts it: ‘from the furnace of his doubt emerges the
finest confession of Jesus found in the New Testament’. 12 You may be
left thinking: ‘Well, that was great for Thomas: he had a physical
encounter with the resurrected Jesus. What about me?’ Jesus
addressed this concern directly. Rather than commending Thomas for
his declaration of faith and worship, he pointedly said, ‘Because you
have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have believed’ (v29).
So how do we believe without seeing? Not with a ‘blind’ leap of
faith; but rather by examining the evidence of those who did witness
the ministry of Jesus, the empty tomb and his post-resurrection bodily
appearances. Peter, who would have been in the room at that
moment of Jesus’ declaration to Thomas, wrote to Christians
sometime later, summarising the joy available to all who exercise this
kind of faith: ‘Though you have not seen him [Jesus], you love him;