The Marks of the Nails

​In John 20:19ff., on the evening of Jesus’ resurrection, he appeared to all but one of the disciples—Thomas.  As a result, we are told that when the disciples told Thomas they had seen the resurrected Lord, he says to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe" (v.25).  I don’t think Thomas was being obstinate or that he simply did not trust the men he had spent the last three years with, but Thomas was not interested in a blind faith.  If he was going to commit his life to following someone he saw die on a cross, he needed more that words.  He needed a reason to believe.  Something we all need and should all demand of our faith.  Christianity is not a blind faith.  We don’t believe the gospel story simply because it seems like a good story to believe.  We believe because there is a reason to believe.  Thomas was asking for the same.  Words would not be enough.  “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails,…I will never believe.”  In Galatians 2:20 the apostle Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  Paul was crucified with Christ to his old way of life and that was evident in the radical shift in his worldview and in his behavior, in the way that he loved people and was willing to serve them and sacrifice for them.  He later points this out when he says, “far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (6:14).  Paul did not expect people to simply believe his words.  He expected people to look at the evidence of his transformed life.  He gave them a reason to believe.  The late 19th century British pastor and theologian, G. Campbell Morgan, stated it best when we said that what Thomas said to the disciples, the world is saying to every Christian—“Unless I see in his [or her] hands the mark of the nails,…I will never believe.”  Are we expecting the world to simply believe our words about Christ or are they able to see the evidence of a life transformed by the gospel?  Do they see in our hands the print of the nails?  Do they see that we have been crucified with Christ; thus, it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us?  Are we giving them a reason to believe?