Resurrection Sunday
John 20:27-29 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." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Peter Believed
Peter reminds his audience that they loved someone that they had never seen (see 1 Peter 1:18). Thomas had trouble believing in the One he had seen. He no doubt believed that the Lord was the Messiah, but until he saw the Lord, He didn’t believe that He had been raised from the dead. I believe in the resurrected Lord Who is coming again, and I hope you do to.
We not only believe on Resurrection Sunday, we who believe, believe all the time. That is what gives life purpose. That is what removes despair. The cross was awful and is quite believable because of man’s inhumanity to man. But the empty tomb–now that is unbelievable to the natural mind. But when I read the accounts in the Bible of those who saw the resurrected Lord, it gives me confidence that the Lord really did come (Josephus, the Roman historian, records this), He really did fulfill prophecy and he really did die for my sins. And He proved it all by leaving the tomb empty three days after dying and ascending into heaven forty days after the resurrection while the disciples watched.
We Who Are Saved Believe
I don’t know who Anne Rigby Richter was, but she wrote the following hymn that expresses my thoughts with regard to the Lord Jesus:
We saw Thee not when Thou didst come
To this poor world of sin and death;
Nor yet beheld Thy cottage home,
In that despisèd Nazareth.
But we believe Thy footsteps trod
Its streets and plains, Thou Son of God.
We did not see Thee lifted high,
Amid that wild and savage crew;
Nor heard Thy meek, imploring cry,
“Forgive, they know not what they do!”
Yet we believe the deed was done,
That shook the earth and veiled the sun.
We stood not by the empty tomb,
Where late Thy sacred body lay;
Nor sat within that upper room,
Nor met Thee on the open way.
But we believe that angels said,
“Why seek the living with the dead?”
We did not mark the chosen few,
When Thou didst through the clouds ascend,
First lift to Heaven their wondering view,
Then to the earth all prostrate bend;
But we believe that mortal eyes
Beheld that journey to the skies;
And now that Thou dost reign on high,
And thence Thy waiting people bless,
No ray of glory from the sky
Doth shine upon our wilderness;
But we believe Thy faithful Word,
And trust in our redeeming Lord;
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of March 27, 2016