Will I yet believe?

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio

Matthew 28:16–20; Luke 24:33–53;  John 20:19–31

The 11 remaining Apostles except Thomas thought they saw a spirit or ghost, when the Savior appeared to them on the evening of the day he was resurrected. By showing them the nail prints and wound in his side, Jesus reassure them that he was a resurrected being with flesh and bone, not a spirit.



Because Thomas did not see the nail prints, spear wound, or the risen Christ, he responded to the other Apostles’ testimonies that the Lord had been resurrected with doubt. Eight days later, Jesus again stood in the midst of the apostles, while Thomas was in attendance. He would not believe without seeing; he wanted proof.

“Have you not heard others speak as Thomas spoke? ‘Give us,’ they say, ‘the empirical evidence. Prove before our very eyes, and our ears, and our hands, else we will not believe.’ This is the language of the time in which we live. Thomas the Doubter has become the example of men in all ages who refuse to accept other than that which they can physically prove and explain—as if they could prove love, or faith, or even such physical phenomena as electricity...To all within the sound of my voice who may have doubts, I repeat the words given Thomas as he felt the wounded hands of the Lord: ‘Be not faithless, but believing’” (Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, May 1978, 59).

The point of this scriptural story is faith or the lack thereof. Do I have faith enough to believe the scriptures and more modern accounts that they Savior, even Jesus Christ, lives? Do I believe He has a body of flesh and bonds as the apostles of old and of modern day testify? Will I yet believe?