This is part of our Thursday series on the encounters with the Risen Savior that are shared in the four gospels. Today’s encounter is shared with us by John.
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Last week we looked at Jesus appearing to the disciples. As John finishes his account of that event, in chapter 20 verses 24- 29 he then goes on to say this:

I’m just going to say it. I think Thomas gets a bad rap. For centuries he has literally been referred to as “Doubting Thomas.” But based on last week’s readings, if we call him Doubting Thomas, then we should be calling the other apostles Doubting Peter, Doubting John, Doubting Andrew, Doubting James and so on. All of the disciples had two opportunities to believe without seeing that Jesus is alive, but they hadn’t. They didn’t believe Mary and the women. They didn’t believe the disciples from the Emmaus Road. None of them believed until they saw Jesus. In fact in Mark’s account of Jesus’s appearance to the disciples he says that Jesus “reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.”

Thomas was not alone in his disbelief, and when he saw Jesus like the others had he immediately confessed, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus’s response to Thomas doesn’t come across too harsh, but still echoes that “reproach” that Mark talks about. Jesus said to Thomas:

The ones who were closest to Jesus, those He’d been teaching for three years, had been hesitant or scared to believe He had been resurrected. They had to see for themselves before they believed, but Jesus said that those who believe without seeing are blessed.

That is you and I if we are believers. We had to accept and come to the point of saying you are “My Lord and my God” to Him without physically seeing Him or being able to touch His wounds. It is what we call faith. As the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 11:1,

​We did not see Him resurrected as the disciples did, but we have conviction of things we didn’t see. We have assurance in the hope of salvation, and Jesus calls us blessed.

But just as the disciples were far from perfect, so are we. We all have times and areas where we struggle with belief. We may not doubt His resurrection or our salvation, but maybe we have moments where we struggle to believe His love for us, His goodness, His faithfulness to equip us to do what He has called us to, and more. In those moments we need to show ourselves a little grace and realize that moments of unbelief didn’t disqualify the disciples and they don’t disqualify us either. In those moments we need to place our eyes on Jesus and cling to Him until we can find ourselves in midst of our struggles and disbelief finally recognizing the Truth and confessing as Thomas did, “My Lord and my God!”

This is part of our Thursday series on the encounters that Risen Savior shared in the four gospels. Today’s encounter is shared with us by Mark, Luke and John.

It was Sunday evening. The women had discovered the empty tomb that morning. They had seen Jesus and told the disciples, but the disciples didn’t believe them. That afternoon Jesus had traveled with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they ran back and reported to the disciples when they had finally realized that they’d been talking to the Risen Savior.

But now, it was Sunday evening. John describes what was going on like this:

John 20:19

They’ve been told twice that Jesus has risen, but the disciples are still doubting, scared, and confused. They’ve shut themselves into a room, hiding out if you will, because they are scared the Jews will come after them next. And in the middle of this Jesus suddenly appears with the words “Peace be with you.”

Luke describes their reaction in chapter 24, verses 37-41:

Although the disciples had been told two different times that Jesus was alive, and even when He stood in their midst, they doubted. They literally couldn’t believe their eyes. Even when He showed them His hands and His feet, Luke says that they “still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement.”

It’s easy to say that they had Jesus right in front of them and could see His hands and feet, so how in the world could they doubt. Let’s remember what the last week had been like for these disciples though. They walked alongside Jesus as He entered Jerusalem one week before to the praises of the crowd heralding Him as their Messiah, the one they believed God had sent to rescue them from Rome. Throughout the week they saw many things and heard many teachings which they did not fully understand. Then on Thursday night, one of their own had betrayed Jesus and turned Him over to religious leaders. He had been arrested, brought before numerous leaders, beaten, mocked, and eventually crucified. He had been dead and buried. They had been grieving for three days. Probably grieving the loss of the friend and teacher, and grieving because they thought He was the Messiah and didn’t know how all this could happen. And they were afraid that the same thing might happen to them. But now, in the midst of their fear and grief, this Messiah who they had been grieving over was standing in their midst saying, “Peace be with you.” If we’re honest, we’d be pretty confused and struggling to believe too.

I find it especially interesting when Luke says that they “still could not believe it BECAUSE of their joy and amazement.” Have you have been there? You are so amazed and overjoyed about something you’re almost afraid it can’t be true. Some people might even respond to a situation like that by saying “pinch me” because they’re afraid they must be dreaming. The disciples were seeing, hearing, and touching Jesus. Their senses were telling them that the Messiah was alive, but their brains just couldn’t fully comprehend or believe it yet. They’d never seen anything like this. It was incomprehensible, but it was obviously true.

While we might not have Jesus physically standing in our midst eating a broiled fish, much like the disciples there are times in our lives when we see God doing something that just doesn’t make sense to us. We see His work and we hear Him, but our brains just can’t comprehend or fully believe what is happening is real. Those are moments in life when faith is challenging. Our brains may eventually catch up like it seems happened with the disciples, but sometimes there are things about God and His work that we may never fully comprehend. In those moments, I think He would say to us just as He did to the disciples in that room, “Peace be with you.”

That is my prayer for you and I today that even in moments of confusion, fear, joy, amazement or doubt our hearts will no longer be troubled because we will hear the soft, still voice of God whispering in our ears “Peace be with you.”

This is week five in our series on what Scripture teaches us about the value of wonder in our lives and ministries.
  
Today’s Scripture passage is Luke 8:25 (KJV)

As we have been looking at examples of wonder in the Bible, we have seen a lot about wondering in awe at the works of God and our awe and wonder in remembering those works, but as we see in this verse sometimes we wonder out of perplexity and confusion instead of awe.

When we first started talking about wonder, we looked at the following definition:

Wonder - a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

There is another definition for wonder though. Sometimes wonder means:

Wonder - feel doubt.

The storm they were experiencing led them to wonder. They wondered what was going to happen to them. They wondered why Jesus was sleeping. They doubted their safety. Jesus recognized this as He asked them where their faith was. Like the disciples, we have times where our wonder comes from a place of doubting too. We wonder why He is doing what He is doing, or why He is allowing something, or why He won’t do something. Like the disciples we find ourselves in the middle of a storm, scared, confused, and wondering in doubt.

The storm got pretty bad before the disciples went to Jesus with their doubts and concerns. We often do the same thing. We’re so focused on the storm and maybe wondering why God isn’t already doing something about it. We try to handle it on our own or conceal our doubts, but like the disciples finally did we need to take our doubts and concerns to Him, and let Him help us through it.

There’s one more important definition for wonder:

Wonder - Desire or be curious to know something

Sometimes the doubting type of wonder leads to amazed wonder which leads to this curious type of wonder. The disciples took their doubts and concerns to Jesus and then saw Him do something amazing. He spoke a word and calmed the wind and the waves. There was definitely surprise from something unexpected and inexplicable, but there was also curiosity over something. They were curious how He calmed the storm. This was not normal human behavior, so they wondered who He was and how it was possible. Sometimes we see God working and we wonder in amazement and it also drives us to wonder more about Him. This can lead to a deeper faith and a deeper relationship with Him which is always a good thing.

So if you are finding yourself in the middle of a storm or a season of storms, it’s okay to have doubts and concerns, but take them to God. Let Him help you through it until He brings you to the point that you can look at what He did in amazement and longingly desire to know Him more.