We hear the same true story every year the Sunday after Easter, because we know when Jesus showed his scars and his side to Thomas - eight days later.  Jesus appeared eight days earlier, but Thomas was not with the rest of the doubting disciples behind the locked doors on the evening of Jesus' Resurrection.  The following Sunday he was.  It is another eye-witness account of the dead Master now risen.  Thomas was skeptical like most of us.  But when Jesus reached out His hand, seeing becomes believing.  Imagine the room full of joy as they all watched  Thomas examine Jesus' scars.  But we do not get to see.  The Lord knew this.  Yes, Thomas was moved by the grace of God appearing in the Resurrected Lord, and so he confessed, "My Lord and my God!"  (Notice, by the way, Jesus does not turn down the titles "Lord"   and "God.")  But Jesus knew Thomas's good fortune of both hearing and seeing  would not be ours, not until the Day of His return when we too will open our eyes to see Him in full glory.  And so He said, "Have you believed because you have seen Me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."  Jesus did not mean to say the rest of us get some kind of extra credit for believing without seeing.  Rather, believing, having faith, is God's great gift to us who do not yet share the joy of eye-to-eye contact with our Risen Lord.  Peter said it this way.  "Even though you do not see him now you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."  No, we do not now get to see Jesus like Thomas and many others did during Jesus' 40-day pre-ascension stay-over.  But part of the reason we believe, part of the way God creates faith and strengthens it is through the testimony, the real life experiences of those who tell us what they did see.  Is John lying to us?  No, as he exclaims at the start of his first letter, "That which was from the beginning (the Word who became flesh), which we have heard (John listened to Him for three years), which we have seen with our eyes (just like Thomas), which we have looked at and our hands have touched (this is no spirit man, but the risen, physical Lord Jesus), we proclaim..."

 He is risen indeed!