• Benny Nalkara, CMI

The Beatitudes are rare in the Gospel of St. John. “You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and who have believed” (Jn 20:29) is presented as the only Johannine beatitude. But there are people who opines that Jn 13:17, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” can be also considered as a beatitude at least partially. If the second one refers to the happiness or blessedness connected with the practical obedience, the first one is more clearly reveals the necessity of unconditional faith without any touch and sight.
The Johannine Beatitude, “You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and who have believed” (Jn 20:29) is given in the context of the risen Jesus’ appearance to the “doubting” Thomas. This beatitude also in a way can be found in line with the beatitudes in the Synoptic gospels. The synoptic beatitudes were the form in which Jesus made his value-judgements. They also are to be viewed as the spontaneous response for the incidental challenges. Interestingly, the same Greek adjective, makarios is used to denote the word, “blessed” or “happy” here in Jn 20:29 also. But at the same time, this beatitude can sound a bit contrasting and paradoxical to the statement found in Lk 10: 23, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.”
“Seeing” is believing in the Johannine language. The call to the first disciples was “to come and see.” We find unbelievers or half-believers like Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman or the Greeks coming to him and seeing him. “This seeing” led them to the belief in Christ. This “seeing” is again coming to the focus in the climax of the gospel. Thomas wanted to see the wounds of the risen Jesus and thus to believe. Jesus responded positively to his request, but asserts doubtlessly that believing without seeing- seeking the signs- more a blessed stance for a disciple. Thomas had heard Jesus once say, “I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (John 9:39).
The generation of the disciples were fortunate that it witnessed the fulfillment of God’s promise. Vision and enlightenment were the occasions of their happiness. In this context, how can we understand the statement that those who do not see but believe are more blessed? This statement announced at the time of the appearance to Thomas, is to be understood in connection with the pronouncement made by Jesus elsewhere, “except you see signs and wonders you won’t believe.” Such faith is little worth. The multitude that was miraculously fed is rebuked because they appreciated only the practical benefits of the miracle and didn’t see or care to see its spiritual meaning. A deeper faith would have realized the truth that Jesus is the Resurrection and life, without waiting for the confirmation provided by the recall of Lazarus from the grave. If Thomas had realized the true meaning of Jesus teaching about resurrection, he would have never doubted the Resurrection of Jesus or sought to bolster up his faith by tests of the senses.
Thomas had been chosen by Jesus to be a unique authoritative witness of his resurrection (Acts 1:22) — that’s why Thomas was granted the gift of seeing Jesus with his physical eyes. But Jesus’s rebuke is clear enough. There were others who had not yet seen Jesus, but still believed in his resurrection. And their believing was more blessed than Thomas’s seeing. Why? Because they relied on their eyes of faith more than the physical eyes. Faith sees a reality beyond what eyes can see, a reality that God reveals to us which is more important, in fact more real, than what we can see with our physical eyes (Hebrews 11:1).
Who are the recipients of such a blessing? Probably a number of the larger circle of the disciples who have not seen the risen Lord with their own eyes but relied on the eyewitness of the other disciples or the Christians living around the end of the first century AD for whom John the Evangelist writes his Gospel. They are proclaimed blessed because they have arrived at the state of believing in the risen Lord without the assistance or proof of immediate, direct and personal ocular experience.
But more this historical answer, this saying of Jesus can also refer to the basic state of mind of a disciple or a believer in him. All of us crave for outward evidence of spiritual things and look for evidences. We are living in a context where people endlessly search for miracles and wonders to believe. Many forget that Faith-seeing, in this age, results in more joy than eye-seeing. Often it’s said seeing is believing. But believing is true seeing. And it is faith-sight, not eyesight, that results in eternal life and that is more a blessed sight.