What it Takes to Believe "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:  blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."  - John 20:29 Our  first belief that Jesus is alive is based largely on the testimony of other people, whose witness we trust.  1.  Doubts about the resurrection are not wholly unreasonable.  2.  We are blessed because our faith has come without material proof through the loving testimony of people we trust.  3.  Prevenient grace:  God supplies what is necessary to enable faith.  Having trusted the testimony of someone else who knows Jesus, we enter into our own saving relationship with God, and become witnesses to other people of our own experiences in Christ.

Quotes & Notes

• Those who have never seen the Christ can believe in him, for they can touch his very body from which his blood outpoured.  It is not fanciful to see here a reference to the Eucharist, and also to the very material love of Christian believers one for another and for the whole world, for all men who bear the marks of suffering for whom Christ suffered. 

- Massey H. Shepherd, Jr.,  Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary, p.727
• The word seen here implies the evidence not only of sight but of either or all the senses.... The hearts and souls that rightly will to accept it, must do it by a faith that is above sight and above sense... God will judge whether the not-able is an honest inability to believe when there is the spirit of faith, or whether it be a not-willing, deceiving the obstinate unbeliever into the false opinion that he is not able to believe. - D.D. Whedon, Commentary, p.414
• The second appearance, resolving the doubt of Thomas, is peculiar to John and represents a manifest concern of the subapostolic age -- how is it possible to believe in the risen Lord if one has not seen him?  The answer is that even to see him is no guarantee of faith (consider Thomas).  Even the disciples had to make the leap of faith when they saw him.  It is therefore possible for those who have not seen him to make that same leap.  This does not mean that seeing the Lord was not necessary for the original witnesses.  They had to see him precisely in order that they might become witnesses, and through their witness enable those who had not seen him to believe. 

- Reginald H. Fuller, Preaching the Lectionary, p.258
• This statement of Jesus is for those whose faith rests on the report of others.  Such faith is of a nobler order than Thomas's.  It is the kind of faith which has sustained the Christian church to the present time.  Ultimately true faith must always be independent of sight.

- Donald Guthrie, New Bible Commentary: Revised, p. 967
• The narrative leads up to this crowning confession, which witnesses to a faith that rises above the necessity of being shown tangible proofs of the passion. Jesus declares that sensuous evidence is an insufficient ground of faith.

- A.J. Macleod, New Bible Commentary, p. 896
• It is a greater instance of the power of divine grace.  The less sensible the evidence is the more does the work of faith appear to be the Lord's doing.  Peter is blessed in his faith, because flesh and blood have not revealed it to him (Matthew 16:17).  - Matthew Henry, Commentary, p.1223
• Henceforth, a living faith must ever be a personal faith, standing in the power of a Spirit-given demonstration to the conscience and consciousness, and ever centered on Christ. 
• - Herbert Lockyer, All the Apostles of the Bible, p.183
• Any religious system or philosophy failing to bear those nail-prints is to be rejected.  Those Calvary marks are a sure sign of authenticiy.  Further, as the Lord's "sent ones," it is essential for us to bear those marks.  When the godless around "se the print of the nails" in our life and living, they cease to be "faithless" and become believers, and with uspass into a radiant confidence and joy. - Herbert Lockyer, All the Apostles of the Bible, p.183
• "When this scared, frightened band of the apostles which was just about to throw away everything in order to flee in despair to Galilee; when these peasants, shepherds, and fishermen, who betrayed and denied their master and then failed him miserably, suddenly could be changed overnight into a confident mission society, convinced of salvation and able to work with much more success after Easter than before Easter, then no vision or hallucination is sufficient to explain such a revolutionary transformation."  ["The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective," Page 125, as quoted by Brian Stoffregen in Gospel Notes for Next Sunday, Number 3756.] 

Resource Collections
 

Commentary Texts

Gospel Reading
1. Calvin, John
2. Darby, John N. 
3. Geneva Study Bible, 1599 
4. Gill, John
5. Henry, Matthew 
6. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown 
7. Johnson, B.W.
8. Robertson, A.T.
9. Wesley, John

Assorted Links

1. Catholic Encyclopedia: ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE 
2. The Gnostic Apostle Thomas 
3.  Patron Saints Index: Thomas the Apostle 
4.  St. Thomas the Apostle 
5.  Biography: Thomas the Apostle (21 Dec NT)