Title: Open My Eyes (John 20:24-31)
[John 20:24-31]
[24] ♠ One of the twelve disciples, Thomas, called Didymus, was not with him when Jesus came. [25] ♠ The other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." Thomas said, "I saw the nail marks on his hands. [26] Eight days later, when the disciples were in the house again, Thomas was with them, and the doors were shut. But Jesus came and stood in the middle and said, "You [27] And he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and reach out your hand and put it in my side; and do not be a believer, but a believer." [28] Thomas answered and said, You are my Lord and my God. [29] ♠ Jesus said to him, ‘Do you believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and believe. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
Two kinds of disciples appear in today's text. We often think that faith in the disciples shown in the Bible is good, but the appearance of the disciples we meet through the Gospels is a comfort to those of us who are weak in faith. We are confused, we make mistakes, we do not follow Jesus’ words, we go to the mountains and when Jesus tells us to watch and pray, we are dozing and are dozing off. You will see it in the middle.
Then the Lord speaks words that pierce our hearts today. “Do you believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and believe” (20:29) It is okay to believe based on what they have seen. As I read these words, I realize that because of the Lord's consideration for us, our faith should not always remain at the level where we receive it. The Lord visits us and helps us to have faith when we see the evidence that Jesus is risen like these disciples and do not believe, and we miss that opportunity, and now they say that I have to put my finger in to believe. He is a person who is considerate of us by coming to us and asking you to put it in yourself, but what the Lord wants is not such a low level of faith, but a mature believer who can believe in Jesus without seeing it anymore. So, one of the most important things when we believe in Jesus is to change our perspective on the world.
We have been accustomed to doing that in our lives. When we were in elementary school, we often boasted, "We have this in our house." I remember when I was a kid that my friend's house had the first 'videos', and I could collect what was on TV and watch it again later whenever I wanted. My friend brags on her elementary school level, but no one admits it, and he is bullied by us. Everyone didn't believe it because it couldn't exist in this world, but after seeing it in reality, I remember we were fools. Like this, the younger and simpler you are, the more you insist that what you see is real and everything. But what is surprising is whether the world we see is the real world.
In this world, the challenge Jesus gives us today is that seeing with our own eyes is not everything. If you think that the world taught in God's Word is real and real, and that the frame that we can see and touch is everything we have, then we have no choice but to live our life of faith at that level and live on this earth at that level. In chapter 19, although Peter and John clearly saw an empty tomb, they did not believe it. Because their worldview still hasn't changed. The idea of how the dead are brought back to life did not change even though Jesus emphasized it dozens of times during his public life. Because his point of view is so strong that he can't believe even what he sees, he did not give room for the Lord's words and miracles to enter. He is a spiritually blind person who can see but cannot see. Clearly, the Lord had said that he would rise again in three days, and he had clearly heard it, but in reality it was at the level of a spiritually deaf person who could not hear.
The verse that summarizes this in one word is verse 20:9. [They did not yet understand the word in the Bible, that he must rise from the dead.] Despite the fact that the word has been shown, he is still unable to escape from the level of experience he has had in his life, what he has seen with his own eyes, and what has been heard with his ears. This is what you say to your disciples.
I want you to look back at us today with these words. We read, learn, memorize, and know a lot of the words of the Bible. But the Lord is challenging us today. "Do you know it?" The things of the Bible are the Bible, and the fixed beliefs I have are, for example, 'A person who has a lot is good', 'Anyway, you have to try and see success', 'To have power and ability is to do well on this earth', ' This land is led by the strong', 'It is not the existence that determines possession, but the possession that determines existence', etc. There are many things we have learned and heard. While we still have this firmly in our hearts and in our lives, no matter how much we read the Word and try to make it our own, we will continue to cause conflict with each other. The disciples did. They followed Jesus for three years, listened to the word, and received training, but they still have the experience and knowledge they have. As long as this remains, we cannot see the true spiritual world that the Lord speaks of.
The Lord says that the poor are blessed, and blessed are those who are humbled like servants and serve. Furthermore, it teaches us that a life of giving, giving, and serving others is truly a life of victory. We must open our eyes of faith to see the invisible world that Jesus speaks of. Since your world will not end here, he tells you to look at the eternal kingdom of God that I will show you. He tells you to look at your present from the perspective of the kingdom of God and to destroy your future and your past. Instead of maintaining life with the worldview, values, and outlook on life that I have seen through my own ears, which I have seen with my own eyes, let us open our spiritual eyes and open our ears with the world, life, and values shown in the Word. Open our hearts, and if we do not have faith, we ask that you cling to us so that we can have faith even if we touch like a chopping board.
When the Lord speaks, I hope that you will experience a change in your eyes as the words come in and change, rather than the words spill out.