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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’
Joh_20:29
I. There is one marked difference between this blessing and those others which form the preface to the Sermon on the Mount.—There in each case reasons are given; a specific reward is spoken of as bestowed upon each grace. But no special reward of faith is spoken of in the text. It is not said that the faithful and trusting soul is blessed, for it shall receive the consolations of hope and of assurance. We might, indeed, have expected that our Lord would have given us some such promise. Faith is its own reward; and the law of faith is this: ‘Whosoever hath, to him shall be given.’ Now here is for us a consolation not unneeded at times. Faith may be very true and loyal, and yet may not always be attended by the confident joy and hopefulness of which the Psalmists speak, of which St. Paul speaks, with such assurance. That, indeed, must come in the end; but we dare not permit ourselves to be distressed or despairing because we have it not in such full measure as they.
II. What, then, after all, is this belief?—It seems to be a different thing from open vision, from full assurance. How are we to be sure that we have it? how are we to gain it and make it our own? A mere speculative conviction as to the truth of this or that principle affects conduct but little. There is such a thing as faith without works; but it is dead. Faith in God, in our Blessed Lord Himself, means more than belief such as this; it means trust in a Person.
III. There are two tests by which we may try our faith—the readiness of our obedience, the intensity of our prayers.
(a) Obedience. It is not only a test; it is a source of faith. It is in trying to do God’s will that we learn to hear His voice.
(b) A second test is the reality of our prayers. Prayer is the most rational of all habits; but no man will ever satisfy himself that it is so, unless he prays in his own person and for his own needs. Belief in the efficacy of prayer is best gained in prayer. And for him who believes in that there is nothing that can trouble him, though much that he may not fully understand in the teaching of Jesus Christ his Lord.
—
Dean J. H. Bernard.
Illustration‘On the wall of York Minster there is fixed an ancient sundial: and underneath, a legend is written which is a parable of life: Lucem demonstrat umbra, “Shadows point to the sun.” Were it not for the sun, there would be no shadow; and the direction of the shadow indicates where the source of light may be seen in the heavens. And so with faith in God. Let us observe where it seems faintest, and why; and we shall learn from the shadow of doubt the direction from which the light comes.’