My Lord and my God!
“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. (John 20:28). I’m always so moved by this declaration by the Apostle we so often refer to as Doubting Thomas. Upon his recognition that the man standing before him was in fact the risen Messiah, he gives to Jesus the homage that is very truly His due. Have you come to this conclusion, this declaration of faith that Thomas came to? True, Thomas did I suppose have the benefit of having Jesus standing before him, challenging him to touch the wounds in His hands and His side, inflicted during His most agonizing crucifixion. Thomas had his doubts prior to this very real revelation. How could one possibly believe that someone could raise or be raised from the dead.
Well…it wasn’t that long prior to Jesus’ death that Thomas had quite bravely “said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let’s go, too-and die with Jesus’” (John 11:16), when the rest of Jesus’ followers were fearful of the inherent dangers of returning to Judea. Upon their return to that place where the Jewish leaders had just recently tried to stone Him, Jesus commanded his now 4 days dead friend “Lazarus, come out!” (John 11:43), which the freshly risen from the dead Lazarus obeyed, still bound in his graveclothes. Had Thomas learned nothing from this unprecedented and unbelievable miracle? How could he doubt, after that incredible turn of events, that the Lord whom he had been following for so long, who had performed so many healing and deliverance miracles, including the raising of Lazarus, that Jesus himself could not be raised from the dead? We wonder at the blindness of Thomas, only becoming enlightened upon the revelation of Jesus himself. “Then Jesus told him, You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me’” (John 20:29)
In this day and age, if you are a follower of Christ, you are among those who believe without seeing. Thomas had seen much but failed to believe until he saw again. We at times wonder at how Thomas could have lost his faith, or his spiritual sight in such a short time. I think that we need to offer Thomas a somewhat more charitable criticism, however. True, unlike us today, Thomas physically saw the risen Saviour before him, heard His voice, and recognized the nail marks and the spear wound. In defense of Thomas however, we have been blessed with much that can aid our acknowledgment of Jesus’ being “my Lord and my God”. Sadly, we often…too often have the same tendency as Thomas, to lean towards doubt and discouragement, until the reality of Jesus death and resurrection is presented to us yet again. We must remember that at this juncture in Thomas’ faith journey, the promised Holy Spirit had not yet indwelt the believers and followers of Christ. We as believers on the other hand do have that most blessed and powerful guidance and understanding in the form of God as the Holy Spirit living within us. We also are in possession of the completed Bible, the word of God, in the old and the new testaments. Yet we still fail. We still have doubts, sometimes that God will do what He has said He would do, sometimes that He is who He says He is.
We need to always keep the understanding that there are many influences that are working against us, trying to remove from us the acknowledgement of Jesus as our Lord and our God, just as Thomas faced. In his case, he had just gone through the shocking tragedy of his friend, his rabbi, his Messiah being brutally beaten, crucified, killed, and then buried. Next was the shocking revelation that Jesus’ body had apparently been taken from the tomb to a place that the disciples did not know. Thomas, being a firsthand follower of Christ lost his understanding of Christ as God due largely to trauma and circumstance, again, until this truth was presented to him right in front of his face. How much more could we be in danger of falling off the wagon of faith? We often hear the claims of dramatic healings, of people being raised from the dead, of incredible miracles being performed in the name of Jesus, but it is admittedly rare to see much of this firsthand. Thomas did. He was there in the midst of Jesus’ miracles.
First, we are of a fallen race, yes…redeemed as followers of Christ, but still influenced by that fallen nature. That nature is working to please self, to press us to choose to follow our own truths and desires rather than those of God. This fallen nature often results in our view of Christ being skewed somewhat.
Second, the enemy of our souls, just as in the days when Jesus walked on the earth is trying to pry our hearts away from loving our Lord and our God, to tempt us to not necessarily follow or worship the devil, but rather, anything other than the one true God. His hatred of us is rooted in his hatred of God. There is truly such a plethora of things, people, powers, wisdom, etc. out there to worship, that we can’t recognize that it is worship that we are giving to some of these things. Our fallen nature, along with the temptations that the enemy sets in our paths too often results in our falling off the path of faith, leading us to, much like Thomas, have doubts about who Christ is and what He has done in and for us. We then seemingly need a confrontation or a wake-up call to bring us back to that place where with amazement we can once again cry out “My Lord and my God!”.
Thomas had been presented with the testimonies of his fellow followers of Christ, telling him excitedly that they had encountered the risen saviour, along with Jesus own words prior to His death, foretelling of what was to come. Thomas had much evidence to convince him that Jesus had indeed risen. As do we…we have those same voices proclaiming to us that Jesus is indeed risen and alive as our Lord and Saviour. Those voices of the disciples telling us through scripture, backed up by the stories and prophecies found in the Old Testament, along with the words of Jesus Himself, often marked in red in the gospels. These all come together to reveal to us that Jesus truly is my Lord and my God. If we hold to these, no fresh revelation will be required.
