John 20:24-31

According to this Lent reading plan we have today reached Good Friday when the Christian church will remember the crucifixion and burial of the Lord Jesus. We have already read what will follow and witnessed the wonder of the resurrection. Today we will read of one disciple’s struggle with the reality of the resurrection, and another’s determination that we should know and believe.

Poor Thomas gets a bad rap I think. Perhaps he is a rational thinker, maybe he’s just so wounded by what has happened he is afraid to believe. Whatever his reason after a week of doubting Jesus appears once again and addresses Thomas’s fears directly and invites him to see for himself that it really is the Lord. Thomas bows the knee to his Lord and God. Jesus doesn’t rebuke him, but reaching into the future blesses those to come who will believe, after Jesus has ascended, through the preaching of the gospel.

Jesus knows Thomas’s doubts and comes to meet him where he is and he will do the same for us if we call upon him in our moments of unbelief.

John tells us he has written down only a few of the things Jesus did, but he has chosen them that we may believe and go on in the faith finding life in Jesus’ name.

Response: Choose a word, phrase, idea or action that strikes you as significant at this moment in your life and spend a few minutes reflecting on it.