Selections from John 20
One of the Twelve, Thomas (called "Twin"), was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples kept telling him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "If I don't see the mark of the nails in His hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe!" After eight days His disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, "Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don't be an unbeliever, but a believer." Thomas responded to Him, "My Lord and my God!"
Thomas was a five-senses kind of guy trying to feel his way through a situation that made absolutely no sense. I mean, you just don't die one minute and then wake up seventy-two hours later as if nothing's happened. Who could believe a thing like that? Could you?
Carl Sagan once said he didn't want to believe; he wanted to know. He follows in a long line of the unsure and unsatisfied who don't understand that faith has a jumping-off place, and that the bold step from that precipice costs us the safety of our own assurances. It's not a trick implemented by a God who delights in watching people shiver on the high dive, but the far-sighted plan of a loving Father who longs for us to let him hold us in his arms after our first leap - and hear us ask if we can jump again.
Look at it this way ...
Thomas should have believed on the basis of the evidence he had from the other disciples and which was quite sufficient. Jesus said, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Is Jesus saying by this that believing is a blind leap of ungrounded faith? Quite the opposite! Because Thomas insisted on seeing and touching Jesus in his resurrected body, we have been given in the Gospels an even clearer evidence of the Resurrection than we would otherwise have had. But Jesus is saying that Thomas should have believed without this additional evidence, because the evidence available to Thomas before was in itself sufficient. Before he saw Jesus, he was in the same position as we are today. Both he and we have the same sufficient witness of those who have seen and heard and who have had the opportunity to touch the resurrected Christ. In fact, in the light of this sufficient and sure witness, we, like Thomas, are disobedient if we do not bow. We are without excuse. - Francis Schaeffer
A Final Thought:
Believing in Jesus is really an easy step, complicated only by the nervous pleadings of our own pride and fear. Take it from Thomas. He only wishes he'd have dived in sooner.