A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’ John 20:26-29

Recently a young person in our local church was a little perplexed by a book she was reading. The author is a prominent Christian leader in the evangelical circles. I don’t think it is necessary to mention his name. I don’t have anything against him except that his ideas did not bring comfort to this young person. She recently joined our church and we found her to be very sincere and determined in her desire to follow Jesus. The author stated that in order to fully trust God it was necessary for followers to be radical in their faith. I have no problems so far with his statement. However, he went further to define that trusting God means not having any retirement plan or any kind of financial safety net and depending completely on God to provide for the future. I am sure that many reading this would find this statement rather unsettling. Needless to say this perturbed our young friend. It made her doubt about her own faith and whether she is able to trust her life into God’s hands. For her, it is a huge risk. She does not come from a financially secure family. She worked hard to get to a point of financial independence. She likes her independence and wants to ensure that she continues to have this in the future. She is just like a majority of sincere Christians in the world. However, this author, I am sure who has good intentions, has thrown something into her path that made her doubt about her place in God’s kingdom.

We can imagine her dilemma. It is not a strange feeling for many of us. We might be constantly assailed by these doubts, taking many shapes and forms. Many times people think doubts have to do with questioning God’s existence. However, for the most part, It is mainly about ourselves. We might think that we don’t have enough faith to just make the cut. Sometimes we hear stories of people having stupendous spiritual encounters and we might feel left out and even question if there is something wrong with our faith. Thomas the apostle must have felt that way. Imagine being the only one not seeing the Resurrected Lord. It wasn’t just a great miraculous event. It was a major transformative event that would changed anyone who experienced it. Thomas was the only one who was left out.

I am not going to reflect on the nature of Thomas’ doubts. I have done this many times in the past years. However, I do want to reflect about the sense of spiritual insecurity we feel when we think we are excluded from what we perceive as a spiritual blessing. This is something which is relevant for our ministry among the homeless. All our young people feel like that they have missed out on something special God is doing in this world. Many times they believe that it is because of who they are or a lack on their part. Unfortunately, there is never a lack of people pointing their finger at our young homeless people and saying that they missed God’s blessings due to their own fault. These so-called Christians forget that all our encounters with God occur through the grace of God. None of us have done anything to deserve these encounters. None of us can do anything to merit these encounters. It is only through the grace of God. It was through God’s grace that the Resurrected Christ appeared to the apostles. None of them deserved this special visitation. To the contrary, they wouldn’t have blamed Jesus if He had ignored them altogether and moved away from Jerusalem after He resurrected. After all, the city murdered Him. The apostles knew that they did not stand by Him at the Cross. They were justifiably afraid for their lives. Their faith did not enable them to walk on the waters of chaos. They swam away in fear and hid in a safe place. Their faith was weak. The Risen Lord appeared to them anyway. He forgave them on the Cross and His appearance to them sealed this forgiveness for eternity.

Thomas, unfortunately, wasn’t there. Perhaps he thought that he was lacking something. He needed reassurance. Just like the young person in my church; just like our young people living in the streets; just like all of us. We all need to be reassured that we are included in the group who is able to see the resurrected Christ and be included in this great thing that is happening. The only thing that can reassures us is a personal encounter with the Resurrected Jesus. Nothing else would suffice.

Thomas was actually in a better position than us. Jesus pointed this out to him. He could physically touch the Resurrected Christ. We don’t have this privilege. We are the ones who have to believe without seeing. However, this does not mean that we have to believe without concrete evidence. Believing something blindly without any proof is blind faith. I don’t believe this is what Jesus meant. I believe that we have ample evidence to know that Jesus is Risen and Alive. The thing is that the evidence is there but we need faith to recognize it; Faith, not verbal persuasions nor social pressure nor a religious coercion. Faith is a recognition of a truth that includes our intellect, our emotions, and our entire being; body and soul.

Our faith helps us to embrace the complete human experience. In this world, there is a tendency to divide the human being into different parts. There are so-called “truths” that appeal solely to the emotional aspect of our humanity. They are speak of things that invoke our sentimentality. This is the most common tactic today, unfortunately employed by many churches. They preach a message appealing solely to the emotions. There are those who think too highly of their reasoning power and refuse to believe anything except things which can be proven materially. They forget that are things in Life which make Life joyful and meaningful cannot be reduced to mere physical nor emotional evidence. Love is a good example. Love is neither sentimental nor racional. It goes beyond all this and it always transform the persons involved. On the other hand, emotional and rational “truths’ lack this power to transform life. They just produce short-term changes. However, faith helps to identify and receive these life-changing presences in our lives and faith unites our emotional and reasoning aspects of our souls to act in unison to produce everlasting change in the way we live.

The apostles met the Risen Lord and their lives were transformed immediately. You cannot meet the Risen Lord and not be transformed. We can only meet the Risen Lord through faith. Thomas missed this event but he was surrounded by people who were transformed by this special event. He wanted what the apostles had but he also wanted assurance that he wasn’t left out. He wanted something more which none of the apostles had experienced. He wanted to touch the wounds of our Lord ensure that He was truly the Risen Lord. It turned out that it wasn’t necessary. The evangelist did not say that Thomas actually went through with his demand. Just the mere presence of the Lord sufficed for Thomas to be transformed and be the first the gospels to confess the divinity of Jesus.

We are not going to meet Risen Lord in the same way as Thomas. We will have to believe without sensory experiences or at least without the so-called five senses. However, it doesn’t mean that our encounters will be inferior to that of the apostles. As scripture as reminded us in Hebrews 13:8,

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.

This text, in all likelihood, was written by someone who never met Jesus personally. He or she came to know the Risen Lord the same way we, in our present times, will meet Him in our daily lives. The Risen Christ who ignited the faith of Thomas is the same for all seasons and times. There are no circumstances nor situations nor experiences to hinder Him from manifesting Himself to us. He is able and willing to meet us where we are spiritually and transform our lives in the same manner He transformed the lives of the apostles.

The Risen Lord meets us where we are. This is not restricted just to our spiritual space but also includes our human nature. We, as humans, are social creatures. We learn and acquire virtues and vices through our interactions with people. The Risen Jesus manifests Himself constantly through people. We receive the truth of the Resurrected Lord through the testimonies of people. They were by no means perfect people. They were just people who were constantly transformed by their encounter with the Risen Lord. They were people who were able to sense the presence of the Risen Lord through faith in their daily lives. After all, we do not serve a God who is dead and buried. He has Risen from the dead and active in our midst. We have a long list of people in the history of our faith who reflected the living Reality of our Resurrected Christ. We also have people in the present who reflect this reality. They are not found in high places nor in social media nor on television. We can see the truth of the Resurrect Lord in their lives. God always meets us where we are. He places people in our lives to reflect the reality of the Risen Christ. These people are close to us where we can touch and feel His presence like Thomas was able to touch and feel the presence of our Lord. However, we need to have faith like Thomas did in order to encounter the Risen Christ.

Thomas kept company with those who were transformed by the Risen Lord even though he himself was assailed by insecure thoughts. He chose to remain with those who were touched by the Risen Lord and transformed.

I told the young person to forget about giving up her financial security. Maybe her desire for financial security is an obstacle or maybe it is not. She needs to sense this from the Risen Lord and not from someone who has no commitment nor responsibility towards her. Besides, we cannot earn the right to meet the Risen Lord with our actions. All we can do is offer our souls and bodies as living sacrifices and wait. The Risen Lord will meet us where we are spiritually. Once we meet Him, the reality of the Resurrection will fill our hearts with confidence. Then we won’t be afraid to die to ourselves daily because we know that God will raise us and transform us into something new and great. We will have the confidence to do things that perhaps we thought we were beyond us. The Risen Christ will give us the necessary strength to overcome obstacles in our lives. He will guide us to a place where we can see His Living presence more clearly, where there is always hope and joy. We see Him in the street and we are always filled with joy and hope. His presence gives the boldness to testify to the world;

Christ is Risen indeed!