One of my favorite stories in scripture is about Thomas, a young man who couldn’t believe the good news about Jesus without some tangible evidence. Even though his friends offered verbal testimony to their own encounter with Jesus, Thomas just couldn’t wrap his mind around it and responds with the words, “Unless I see...I will not believe”. The reason it’s one of my favorite stories is not only because I resonate with the desire to see, but also because Jesus’ response to Thomas leads me to believe that he understands our human need to for hard facts. Rather than condemn Thomas for his lack of belief, Jesus walks through locked doors and presents the fleshed out evidence of the resurrection. See...put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. (Jn 20:24-31)
We live in a world filled with a multitude of testimonies, filled with words that are seeking to sell everything from Coke to candidates, from insurance to ideologies. Os Guiness accurately labels this as the inflation of words and points out that in a world where there are too many words on the market words in and of themselves have lost their value. In this word drenched world which is overflowing with testimonies perhaps it is time for the followers of the fleshed-out God to walk through locked doors and let people see some physical evidence of the presence of Jesus in their lives.
After all, Jesus never asked his followers to believe in him on the basis of his words alone. He uses words to describe his ministry saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”(Lk 4:18) But he does not stop at words he only begins with them and then steps out and puts legs on his letters and fleshes out the good news.
Wouldn’t it have been sad if Jesus had testified, “I’m good news to the poor,” and then never did one thing on their behalf? Wouldn’t it have been tragic if he had said, “I can make blind people see,” and then left everybody in the dark? Wouldn’t it have been disappointing if he had proclaimed, “I came to set all the prisoners free,” and then left them behind locked doors? How disappointing if Jesus’ words were his only proclamation.
But Jesus’ words were not empty, he meant them when he said them and his life backed it up. And I am so grateful that I follow a God who understood the human need for fleshed out evidence for certainly I was someone who needed God to walk through the locked doors of my life. We are disciples of a Savior who manifested in the flesh what he proclaimed in words. I pray that this week all of our letters will have legs, that our words will take on flesh and that those around us would see the evidence they want so that they may believe in the God they need.
