Job saw and believed; Peter saw and believed. But Jesus offered:
John 20: 24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
This is the case for each of us. We haven’t seen, yet we are to believe. We don’t have the direct experience of Peter, catching fish when none were caught before only due to Jesus’s direct and visible intervention; we most certainly would prefer to avoid the experience of Job…
I recall something I have mentioned before: God isn’t done with you until He breaks every bone in your body. He did this to Job. Humility; complete and total humility before God. This is why Jesus opens the Beatitudes:
Matthew 5: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
It is just this humility – to be poor in spirit – that opens the door to the kingdom of heaven. There is no entry without it. Such humility is something that requires God’s intervention to achieve – we can take no pride in our humility! It takes the breaking of every bone in your body.
Such humility is also is the first step necessary for the Christian journey, a better summary of which cannot be found anywhere else than the path Jesus offers in the Beatitudes.
