Believing Without Seeing

Believing without Seeing

Eyewitnesses Of The Resurrected Jesus

Read: John 20:19-29; 1 Corinthians 15:6

In 1998, a Congressman announced to his colleagues in the House of Representatives that comedian Bob Hope had died. Within seconds, media outlets across the world rushed to prepare tributes to the entertainer. Bob Hope’s daughter Linda had quite a different perspective. She immediately phoned news agencies to deny the reports. At her home in Pasadena, California, Linda was watching her father eat his breakfast.

The women in the passage in John had a different perspective on Jesus’ death. It’s hard to imagine the emotions of the women who saw Jesus after his resurrection. They had witnessed his slow, agonizing death on the cross. Some of them had watched Joseph of Arimathea wrap his body in linen and place it in the tomb. When Jesus first appeared to the women, they must have wondered—were they dreaming now, or had the past few days just been a nightmare? Jesus came to them in a body that they could touch, yet he could appear and disappear at will. The women’s ecstasy must have exceeded anything they had ever experienced, a deep joy that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Some people think that faith requires miraculous signs and angelic appearances. When Jesus appeared to his disciples, he pronounced a special blessing on those who would believe without seeing him. This blessing includes everyone who accepts the evidence that God has given us. The Bible and other historical accounts establish Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. When we investigate Jesus through the biblical account of his life, God lets us see Jesus with eyes of faith. Then we discover the special joy that comes from knowing that Jesus is alive, not because we saw his body with our own eyes, but because God has revealed him to us.

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.

1 Peter 1:8