St. Thomas the Doubter

On the following Sunday, Jesus again appeared--in the upper room--St. Thomas being present. He had rebuked his brethren for being too easily convinced that they had seen Jesus, and said that he would not believe unless he felt the print of the nails and the spear wound.

Jesus appeared again in a body like that of His humiliation, with the marks of the spear and the print of the nails. He urged Thomas to be convinced, but told of still greater blessings for those who without those proofs were able to fully believe.--John 20:26-29.

The Bible tells that Jesus is no longer flesh, but a spirit being, since His resurrection. As St. Paul declares, the Church must all be changed, because "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." We must all be changed that we may be spirit beings--like Him, which surely means that He is no longer flesh. He was "put to death in flesh, and quickened in spirit," writes St. Peter.--1 Peter 3:18.

Jesus appeared to His followers three times on His resurrection day, and five times more during the succeeding thirty-nine days--briefly. This was a part of the great lesson that Jesus was no longer dead, and no longer flesh--that He is "highly exalted."--Philippians 2:9; John 6:62.

Saul of Tarsus caught a glimpse of the risen, glorified Jesus, unveiled by flesh, shining above the brightness of the sun at noonday, and the brief glimpse cost him his eyesight. If Jesus had thus appeared to His disciples during the forty days after His resurrection, they would have been alarmed, bewildered, unable to comprehend the matter. St. Paul refers to his glimpse of Jesus, saying, "He was seen of me as one born before the time." His words are explained to mean that all of God's people, the Church of the First-borns, are to be born into spirit conditions by their resurrection. Thus changed they will see Messiah as He is, in His great glory. But Saul saw Him before the time.--1 John 3:2.