“Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ ” (John 20:29, NIV)
All the world generally fits into one of two categories: 1) those who saw Jesus, and 2) those who didn’t. And yet, in at least some sense, even those of us in the second category can see him.
After Jesus resurrected from the dead he made a point to show himself to his followers. For a period of forty-days he appeared to many as way to make it clear that he was no longer dead—that death no longer had a hold of him. In one of the more striking stories of his appearances, Jesus is on a beach while his disciples are out fishing on the lake. They had been out all night and hadn’t caught anything. Jesus, from the beach, called out to them—though they didn’t know it was him—and he told them to drop the net on the other side of the boat. They obliged and they caught so many fish that they struggled to haul the net back in. As they were struggling to bring the net full of fish back in, Peter recognizes Jesus and he said, “It is the Lord!” Peter, then, jumped in the water and swam to shore to get to Jesus. The disciples followed, and from the shore—where Jesus had been cooking some fish—they met again their crucified Lord.
There was no mistaking the fact that Jesus had died on the cross and his body was placed in a tomb. And, now, there was no mistaking the fact that Jesus was alive again, and with them.
Why?
Because they could see him.
The disciples were looking at Jesus with their own eyes. They were really seeing him. They were seeing him because they were there. His disciples are a part of the first group—those who saw Jesus. You and I were not there and so we didn’t see him like them. But, there is a way for us to see.
Do you know how you can see him?
You can read that story I summarized above in John 21. It’s there for you and it’s not hiding. You can see Jesus by reading what John wrote about seeing him. This is the miraculous gift of Scripture. God’s word makes a way for us to see what we weren’t there to see.
Now, some of you may be thinking to yourself, are you saying that Jesus was wrong in John 20:29 by saying that some people can’t see.
Absolutely not.
Paul talks about being assured of what we can’t see, of “knowing” what we can’t see, of, perhaps, seeing what we can’t see. He says, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV). There’s no disagreement with Jesus back in John. There are things we’re not able to see because we weren’t there to see them. We weren’t there to see what Thomas and the other disciples saw. We weren’t there to stand along side Mary and see the empty tomb. We weren’t there with John and his mother to see Jesus on the cross. And yet, Jesus calls us blessed.
He calls us blessed even though we weren’t there to see because we can see by what has been left behind. Scripture has been left behind for us to see.
Therefore, pick up and read and then by reading, see.