13 And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.
14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
It took a lot for the apostles to believe that Jesus was alive. Each of the evangelists tells a different version of that first day of the week, but the one thing they all agree on is the difficulty they had in believing.
In Mark’s version, the women who had first gone to the tomb didn’t tell them what they had found. Mary Magdalen had told them that she had seen him, but they didn’t believe her. Were the two that he had appeared to as they were walking into the country the same two that were heading for Emmaus in Luke’s version? There’s no way of knowing, but maybe. In John’s version, Thomas isn’t there when Jesus appears to them the first time and insists that he will need to touch his wounds before he believes.
It’s hard to know why they had such a hard time believing, but would you or I be any different? In one sense, we have to believe without seeing. We believe because of what others have told us. We choose to believe because we see the evidence of God working in our lives. We believe the promise; the promise that began in the Garden of Eden and renewed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and finalized on the cross.
In John’s version, Jesus tells Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
We are blessed by Jesus because we believe.
Thank you, Lord for these witnesses to your resurrection for it is by their testimony that we have come to know you. Amen.
