Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them .

John 20:26

We often skip these words when reading about Thomas’ experience with our risen Lord. The dispirited apostle needed evidence to believe the resurrection, and our gracious Redeemer willingly gave him just that. That’s a characteristic of His love – to give us what we need to keep us from falling (Jude 24).

So, how was Jesus going to give Thomas the evidence? We know the showing of the nail marks and the spear-wounded side. But I see the principal evidence Thomas didn’t ask for – the miraculous appearance (John 20:26).

Thomas’ experience with Jesus had been physical for the past three and a half years. As the Apostle John wrote later, “That … which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched …” (1 Jn.1:1).

That was the experience of the Apostles with Jesus. But that had changed after His resurrection. A new way of experiencing and believing in Him had opened; and that demanded a new perspective. They were not going to experience His physical presence like before. Their resurrected Lord wore a spiritual body now. That was how they, and all of us who have believed Him through their witness, are going to experience Him. As Jesus told the woman at the well, “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in Spirit and truth” (4:24).

Jesus was not going to come to them through a physical door. Nothing physical can stand against His resurrection body. It defies every physical barrier. He can be anywhere without resistance; and that was what happened on that day. Jesus came to them in a way that gave Thomas the surest evidence. With all doors locked, “Jesus came and stood among them.” Whatever followed was secondary evidence.

Regard carefully, what happened after Jesus invited Thomas to experience all he had asked for before believing.

“Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God” (28).

No touching. No feeling. Just Jesus’s presence in the locked down room to convince a doubting Thomas. Though he saw Jesus’s nail-pierced hands and His spear-wounded side, Thomas did not touch and feel them. A new way of knowing and experiencing Jesus was open to him; and that was enough for his high confession. Thomas saw his Master in a new realm – the realm of the Spirit by which we all must know and experience Him by faith.

Though we may not see Him physically in the limitations of our lives today, He is with us always. The walls of your home cannot restrain His presence. Neither can the walls of our churches, hospitals, prisons, workplaces, factories, or any other Jericho wall domineer and restrain your progress.

So, don’t go after physical evidence and be deceived. Don’t let physical or spiritual limitation stand against you. See Jesus in the Spirit. Know Him by faith. Experience His grace flowing all over you to deliver and give you a sustained victory till He comes.

“Peace be with you.”