Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen and Have Believed

Guest Writer, Professor John Robinson, Associate Dean of the University of Notre Dame Law School

Lots of divisions wracked the early church. One was between Jews and Gentiles, another between slaves and free persons, and still another between rich and poor. But, of all the divisions, the one that we can most easily relate to was the one between those who had seen the risen Lord and those who had not. We can easily imagine the special status that those few who had seen Jesus after his resurrection enjoyed in the first generation of the Church’s existence. For them, faith in Jesus as Lord would have been so much easier than it was for everyone else—Jew or gentile, slave or free, rich or poor. For them, the resurrection was a known fact at the same time as it was the basis for their belief in the lordship of Jesus. For others, the resurrection itself usually had to be an object of belief, and believing that a dead man has come back to life was then, as it is now, no mean feat.

Early on, the common belief was that the risen Lord, now ascended into heaven, would return to bring human history to an end during the lifetime of those who had seen him after his resurrection. As the Gospels were being written, however, that belief was giving way to one that put the return of Jesus and the end of history at some indefinite time in the future. In that transition from an imminent return of Jesus to a distant return, those Christians who had not seen the resurrected Jesus began to play a different role in the life of the Church. From that point on, it would be the faith of those who had not seen but who, despite that fact, still believed in both the resurrection of Jesus and in his lordship over us that would be at the center of Christian life.

We, of course, are among those who have not seen but still believe. For some that belief is as easy as breathing. For others that belief is a life-long struggle. Those of us who find believing as easy as breathing should be grateful for the gift that they have been given, should be patient with those of us for whom belief is a daily struggle, and should strive to live in such a way that their faith shines through their every deed. Those of us who find belief to be a struggle should seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, should listen to their hearts as well as to their minds, and should, every now and then, act as if nothing were more clear to them than that the one who gave his life for his friends and thereby won his life back again is really the Lord of their own and all other life.