..."My
Lord my God!" Thomas said.
Then Jesus told him, "You
believe because you have seen me. But blessed are those
who haven't seen me and believe anyway."
Jesus' disciples saw him do many other miracles besides
the ones told about in this book, but these are recorded
so that you will believe that he is the Messiah, the
Son of God, and that believing in him you will have
life.
TLB
Jesus
told them all he would return. They witnessed him make miracles
happen and Thomas chose to believe that Jesus would die
like all others and be gone from existence, perhaps believing
that they would meet again only in Heaven.
This
lesson is telling us that we will all feel like
Thomas did at that time and all our lives we will
have those ah hah moments as knowledge and wisdom
are imparted to us as we are able to comprehend
the deeper mysteries of the Bible and the ominipotence
and omniscience of God.
Jesus
tells us how to learn these lessons in verse 21
is our first lesson.
He spoke to them again and said, "As
the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."
Then he breathed on them and told them, "Receive
the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they
are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they
are unforgiven."
Forgive
those that sin against you. This does not mean forget
and let them continue to torment you...it means
forgive them for they do not know what they do and
if you did something to another in equal ignorance
you would want forgiveness from them even if you
are never bright enough to catch on that you harmed
another...purposely or completely of ignorance of
their sensitivity.
