Not Seeing Is Believing

A five year old boy got his hand stuck in an expensive vase. The vase was especially precious to his mother. The vase had been her grandmother’s and it had been given to her on her wedding day. No matter what the boy’s parents tried, his hand would not come out of the vase. Dad suggested breaking the vase as a last resort. Mom suggested contacting the family doctor. They were able to get in to the doctor’s office, and the doctor examined the vase to see if maybe someone with pottery skills could cut a section out of the vase without too much damage.
Then the doctor looked at the boy’s free hand. He took the boy’s hand, opened his palm, and curled the thumb toward the little finger. Then he asked the boy if he could do that with the hand inside the jar. The boy said, “I can’t do that. If I do, I’ll lose the quarter I’m holding.”
We often hold on to things because we’re afraid of losing what we know. We do not believe that we may actually have greater blessing if we let go and trust in God. That is the basic struggle we have with faith. That struggle is reflected in two statements that come directly from today’s gospel lesson. The first is from Jesus. He says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The second is from Jesus’ disciple, Thomas, who said: “Unless I see…I will not believe.”
Do you feel like I sometimes do? Lord, unless You show me the answer to my financial problems, unless you show me the answer to my problems at school, unless you show me how to function within this organization, unless you give me a break from the illness that I’m dealing with…unless you come across, I’m really not going to believe you are a loving, helping Father anymore.
But you and I can’t make deals with God. He says to us, “Believe in me, and I will show you more than you ever dreamed could happen in your life.” Now, this is not “stay positive and you will get ahead” type thinking. This is Jesus asking you to notice the people whose faith released his power—the Roman centurion, the demon-afflicted man, the woman at the well, the paralyzed man, and many more. God doesn’t make deals. He will always escape you until you see Him revealed in Jesus His Son. So often in our relationship with God, we are pounding on a door that is already unlocked. Jesus is the key. Getting to know Jesus and trusting in Him means that the door to God is open. Faith like that is so simple, yet it can be so hard for us to grasp.
A Christian was talking about the age-old problem of human suffering. “Why does God allow it?” he asked. A friend of his answered, “This much I know: I have seen a lieutenant send one of his men, a dear and trusted friend, to certain death because the mission had to be accomplished. And the man spent no time in asking why. He saluted and went. And in my own life sometimes I do not know why, and I am not asking. I am just saluting, if that is my post.”
In your own heart, are you willing, no matter what confronts you, to say, “God knows. He has a reason for allowing this to happen. I trust him. That’s enough for me.”
That is the challenge Jesus has for you and me. It was the challenge he had for Thomas. “Stop doubting and believe.” It sounds so easy. It’s anything but. There are so many pressures tempting you not to live a life of faith. Our own laziness and self-centeredness do not help, either. But Jesus won’t make deals, and he’s not interested in excuses. He just wants to know, are you willing to walk by faith and not by sight? “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Let me assure you today this faith is a gift from God to you which comes when you repent of your sins and trust in the healing power of Jesus. He has saved you from eternal death and makes you a child of God. If you want to be and remain a child of God, it will mean letting Jesus work in you through faith, breaking through your doubts, and letting him say to you, as he did to Thomas, “You are blessed. You haven’t found all the answers to the questions in your life, but you have still believed in me. You are blessed.”
There was a woman who was well known in her community for her great calm in the midst of many troubles. Another woman went to visit her one day, thinking, “I’m going to find out the secret of her happiness.” And as she met her she said, “So you are the woman with the great faith I’ve heard so much about.”
“No,” came the reply. “I’m not the woman with the great faith. But I am the person with the little faith in the great God.”
Can you say the same?