Seeing is believing, right?

That’s what people always say. And while it’s true that Christians often say “we don’t have to see to believe” (a thought derived from Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:7), we all concede that seeing is believing, it’s just not the only way to believe.

I don’t have to see Paris to know it exists. I don’t have to see a million dollars to know someone out there has it.

On the other hand I believe Dodo birds have gone extinct (so does everyone else). But if you showed me a living, breathing Dodo bird, I would believe. Because seeing is believing.

With that said, what do you make of this:

Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.

John 20:8

John and Peter ran to the tomb of Jesus on the morning of His resurrection, because they’d been told that the Lord’s body was missing. Upon arriving we’re told that John looked into the sepulcher “and he saw, and believed.”

Question: WHAT did John see?

Answer: Nothing.

John literally saw nothing. He saw no dead body of Jesus. He saw no living body of Jesus. He saw no note from Jesus saying “be right back.” He saw no official Roman decree stating where they had moved the body to. He saw nothing. There should have been something there, but there was nothing. And because there was nothing where there should have been something, John believed.

Because for John. seeing nothing meant believing!