Hello Church,

It has been a week since we celebrated Jesus rising from the dead. I’ve been thinking about this some and my thinking drew me to relook at the history a bit. I was curious about what happened around a week after Jesus rose from the dead?

It’s a somewhat familiar story. One place it’s recorded is in the book of John.  At this point Jesus had revealed Himself, alive, to a few people. Among those were His closest disciples, but a couple weren’t there.  Judas had taken his own life by this time and also, Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus came to them. They all had talked about seeing Jesus and Thomas, who famously declared that he wouldn’t believe Jesus was alive unless he could see the nail marks in His hands AND put his finger in those spots.

Just over a week after Jesus died and rose again, He entered the house where His disciples were gathered - including Thomas.  The doors were locked and Jesus just appeared among them. After appearing, Jesus addresses Thomas and I love what He does.  Jesus doesn’t ask questions; He knows Thomas’s doubt. He invites Thomas to get the proof he needed in order to believe.  He doesn’t berate him, He meets him where he’s at, and leads Thomas to belief.

I love the picture of Jesus that this story paints. He longs for people to believe, He’ll meet us where we are at, and He’ll invite us into relationship. As we go through this week, let’s be people who are looking for where God may be inviting us.

Pastor Graig Austin
On Behalf of the Elder and Minister Team