John 20:19-31

Jesus meets you where you are on the road of belief.  He exemplifies this in the way he deals with the disciples.  Their world had crumbled.  Crushing fear pinned them behind locked doors.  They abandoned everything to follow him.  They burned bridges, cut business ties and strained family relationships.  Now they were targeted by the law.

Jesus took all of this into consideration in the way he approached them.  He didn’t come in rebuking them for their fear.  His first words to them were “Peace.”  He then offered them proof by showing them his wounds.  He is telling them “You don’t have to doubt me.”  And he had a habit of doing this.  One time he approached the father whose son the disciples had been unsuccessfully trying to heal.  Rather than rebuking the man, he told him to believe and not doubt.  The man replied with those infamous words “I believe; help my unbelief.”  Another time, Paul expressed that he and his companions in Asia Minor became so discouraged they no longer wanted to live.  Jesus encouraged them.  In all these instances, Jesus came to the place where they were: afraid, hiding and needing proof and reassurance.

Sometimes we struggle in our walk of faith.  We are decidedly unlike the disciples in that we did not get to witness the resurrection with our eyes.  Jesus underhands that.  And he approaches you wherever you are on the road of belief.