Luke 10:23
—Are those who see blessed, or those who do not see?
Problem:
Here Jesus tells His disciples: “Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see.” However, later He said to them, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (
John 20:29
). Which one is right?
Solution:
First of all, there is a different meaning to the word “blessed” in each passage. In the first case, it seems to mean that they were
highly favored
because they were seeing these miracles occur (cf.
10:17–19
). In the John passage, “blessed” means worthy of praise, which is a reference to those who believe in Christ without having the opportunity to place their finger into the crucifixion wounds in His resurrection body.
Further, even if “blessed” is taken in the same sense, there is still an important difference in the object of Jesus’ commendation for what they saw or didn’t see. There is a difference between requiring sight as
the ground
of faith, as Thomas apparently did, and using sight in
process
of exercising their faith, as the disciples did. There is nothing wrong with evidence used to
support
one’s faith, but it should not be used as the very
basis
of it. God alone and His self-revelation is the basis for believing, not the miraculous evidence for it. So we should believe in God because of Himself, not merely because of the evidence for Him. Evidence, at best, merely give us grounds for belief
that
God exists. Only God Himself, through our free choice, can persuade us to believe in Him. Therefore, to demand that we “see” more evidence before believing in Him diminishes the merit of faith (i.e., our blessedness).