It had been a long day.  Mary Magdalene and other women went to the tomb to find the stone rolled away, and angels who said that the tomb was empty because Jesus was alive (Luke 24:1-8).  Later, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-17); also to two of Jesus’ followers who lived in Emmaus (Luke 24:33-35).  But Jesus’ disciples did not know quite what to make of these reports.  They were very frightened, assuming that the authorities who crucified Jesus would target them now that the body of Jesus was missing.

Simple doubt is honest.  It says that we do not know or cannot be sure, but it is open to instruction and help (Mark 9:24).  However, Thomas’s doubt was not like that.  It was wilful, aggressive and hard-hearted (Mark 16:14).  Despite the evidence of the other disciples and the reports from the women who had been at the tomb, Thomas was determined not to believe unless he had physical first-hand evidence.  His doubt had extended to an arrogance which called the other disciples liars and ignored Christ's promise of resurrection (Matthew 20:17-19).
 

Jesus had just rebuked Thomas for refusing to believe the resurrection without seeing His crucifixion wounds (John 20:29).  The recorded miracles are only a selection of the many wonderful things Jesus did. Seeing miracles had been a familiar part of the disciples’ lives, and yet even they had difficulty in believing His words despite the overwhelming evidence of many miraculous signs (John 14:11).  

Although Jesus had not told the disciples to go fishing, it was the best thing Peter could think of doing.  But it was a wasted night on the water.  They caught no fish at all (John 21:1-3).  At dawn they were only one hundred metres from the shore (John 21:8) when they saw a man at the water’s edge.  Despite the shameful ways in which they had denied or deserted Him, the Man called them ‘Friends’.  He called out to them to throw out their net on the other side of the boat; and when they did so they caught an amazing number of fish.