MANY years ago I was taking a school assembly just after Easter.

The bible story was Jesus appearing to Thomas in the locked room where the disciples were hiding following Jesus’ crucifixion (John 20:19-31). With the permission of the headteacher, I arrived late in pyjamas and dressing gown, claiming I had overslept. One of the teachers then brought me breakfast which I proceeded to eat in front of the children. On asking the children what their parents might say when they told them what had happened in assembly that morning, thankfully some of them replied, ‘they won’t believe us because that sort of thing doesn’t normally happen in assembly’. The point of my stunt, which I’m relieved to say some of them grasped, is that seeing is believing. They saw what happened with their own eyes, they knew it was true.

It was exactly the same for those disciples of Jesus. They weren’t expecting the resurrection. They’d followed Jesus for three years and had come to believe in him. But all their hope and belief evaporated at the crucifixion. As far as they were concerned, it was game over.

All that changed when on that first Easter Sunday evening Jesus broke in to their locked-in world, bringing his peace and joy. In a way that was absolutely real he appeared before them. Their reaction – ‘they were overjoyed’.

But poor old Thomas wasn’t there, he missed out. So when his friends told him what had happened, he was having none of it. ‘Unless I see the nail mark in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe it.’ He wanted, needed to see Jesus for himself, to know for sure that God’s power had triumphed over sin, evil and death.

A week later what he asked for happened and on seeing Jesus his response was unequivocal – ‘My Lord and my God’. Then Jesus said something which speaks directly to you and me – ‘Because you (Thomas) have seen me, you have believed; happy are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

In a chaotic and very uncertain world, to know that the God shown us in Jesus really does have the last word, gives a joy and peace which cannot be found elsewhere.

Rev Paul Reynolds

Retired minister, Cotford St Luke