"My Lord, My God"

JESUS IS GOD. 

The familiar first four verses in the book of Hebrews speak eloquently about this: ‘’Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. 4 This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names’’. (Hebrews 1:1-4). Today Christians don’t have to be told Jesus is God. But once there was a man who had to find this out the hard way–-St. Thomas, the Apostle.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work (2Tiimothy 3:16, 17). There are a number of ways to study the scripture. One among them is to study the characters that walk through the pages of the Bible – their strengths and accomplishments, their weaknesses and mistakes and what we can learn from their lives. This essay tries to make an honest assessment of one of the New Testament’s controversial figures.

“Doubting Thomas” is a common phrase in the English language (and a few other European languages) that is just carelessly thrown about. This is an example of how language conditions the mind and the mind conditions the language. What is this terrible thing this man did that that turned him into a “proverb among nations”?

For a start, Thomas is not the only doubter in the Bible. Gideon was just an ordinary man who was threshing wheat in a winepress, trying to hide the grain from enemy raiders. When an angel appeared to him to inform him he was chosen by God to ‘judge’ the Israelites and free them from the Midianite oppression, he was incredulous. He asked for some supernatural sign as proof this was God’s command. When he was given one, he asked for another!

When Zechariah was offering sacrifice as high the priest at the temple the archangel Gabriel appeared to him and introduced himself. The message he delivered was that his wife was going to have a baby. His response was so ambiguous, the heavenly messenger had to rebuke him and strike him dumb for good measure.

John the Baptist was Jesus’ prophesied forerunner--the voice that cries in the desert. “The One who comes after me is greater than me. I am not worthy of undoing his sandals” he had predicted. Coming face to face with Jesus, he witnessed ‘’He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”.  It is this John that developed doubts when he was imprisoned and sent his disciples to Jesus in order to find our from Him  if he was the real Messiah!

 

Charges against Thomas were rather serious. John 20:24–29 tells how Thomas was skeptical at first when he heard that Jesus had risen from the dead and appeared to the other apostles, saying, "Except I shall see his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe”. He had made his position clear.

Now, everyone who heard about the resurrection passed through four stages of belief: 
1) Disbelief was the initial reaction of everyone. Jesus had told His followers in so many words that He will die, but will rise again on the third day. They didn’t understand. It must have sounded like a fairy tale to them.  Or they had completely forgotten.

2) At first they thought the story was a fabrication. Mary Magdalene who found the tomb empty thought the body had been taken away. Peter and John went to the tomb and found it empty. They were puzzled; They returned but did not do anything about it. Perhaps didn’t tell anyone at that time.

3) Then came the direct encounter with Jesus. The Lord met the women on their way back and accepted their worship.  He then appeared to the ten disciples who were huddled together in a locked room.  Thomas was not among them. The same day Jesus met two of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and revealed Him to them. A week later He appeared to the disciples inside the (same?) locked room again. Thomas was there, saw and believed.

4)  Followers committed themselves to Lord; devoted their lives to serve joyfully as they realized the full reality of His presence with them.

The personality of Thomas presents a fascinating study. He was not very ‘popular’ among the disciples, but his character comes through with consistency. He was a doubter, but his doubt had a purpose. He wanted to get at the truth. Doubting was not a way of life with him, but a way of response. When he was supplied the evidence, he was satisfied and proceeded from there. Thomas was unique, not as outspoken and impressive as Peter, nor sentimental and affectionate like John. He was not of Jesus’ ‘’inner circle’’, but of his courage, loyalty and a deep sense of love for his master, there can’t be any doubt. He had a deep desire to get at the bottom of the truth, to prove things right,  straighten the records.  Thomas is mentioned twelve times in the New Testament. Out of them, I have picked up six for our study of the man, all of them from John’s Gospel:

1) John 11: 16--Jesus informed His disciples that their friend Lazarus had died at Bethany and they must go there. The disciples reminded Jesus that it was not safe for them to go to Judea at that time. It was only recently the people there sought to kill Jesus. Thomas was the only one who said they must go where the Master wishes to go,  and they must be prepared to die along with Him.

2) John 14:6--The chapters 14 to 16 contain Jesus’ long “farewell speech” before his crucifixion. When others were quietly listening, Thomas is the only who interrupted and told Jesus they didn’t know where He was going and they didn’t know the way. It was this query of Thomas that elicited one of Jesus greatest declaration about Himself. Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me’’.

3) John 20:24--The resurrected Jesus entered the locked room to meet the disciples. Thomas was conspicuous by his absence. Probably he kept away, to express his disbelief, keeping with his unique nature.

4) John 20:26 --Obviously he had a change of heart, probably had been prodded by Holy Spirit, probably his incredulous nature wanted to get to the bottom of the case. He was present along with the others.  Jesus again entered the closed room, addressed Thomas and invited him to feel His wounds, to put His hand on His side.   He implored him not to be faithless any more, but to believe.

 

5) John 20:28—Thomas was overwhelmed. He spontaneously blurted out ‘’My Lord, my God.’’ This is a very hard thing to do for a Jew, who has been brought up in monotheistic traditions and to abhor the polytheistic practices of the neighboring nations.  It was blasphemous to call anyone God, except the Almighty.

 

6) John  20:29 Seeing is believing. Thomas’ service for mankind is unique. By publicly raising doubts about Jesus’ resurrection and having it cleared, he left a great legacy of incontrovertible proof of the resurrection on record.

Many doubted the truth of the Lord’s resurrection. It was natural. There is nothing wrong in doubting. Doubt encourages rethinking and sharpens the mind. Doubt is an antidote to superstition. Doubt can be used to pose a question, get at the truth and insist on a decision. Look at the following list of doubters:

1]  Mathew  28:16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!

2)  Mark 16:11 But when she told them that Jesus was alive and she had seen him, they didn’t believe her.

3)  Mark 12, 13 Afterward he appeared in a different form to two of his followers who were walking from Jerusalem into the country.  They rushed back to tell the others, but no one believed them.

4)  Mark 16: 14 Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead.

5)  Luke 24:10, 11 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.

6) Luke 19:40  As he spoke, he showed them his hands and his feet.  Still, they stood there in disbelief …..

Peter had confessed Him as the Messiah, Son of the living God.
Simeon saw Him as the Salvation of Israel.

Herod saw Him as a rival. The shepherds believed He was the Saviour.

The Magi recognized him as the long-awaited King and High Priest.

The thief on the cross knew Him to be a king.

Pilate had no hesitation in calling Him ‘The King of the Jews’.

Philip recognized Him as the one Moses and the prophets wrote about.

The Centurion at the crucifixion testified He was the Son of God.

The public saw Him as a great prophet.

Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man.

But the privilege of seeing Him as God Himself was reserved for Thomas. He was the only one who saw Him as the Almighty God during Jesus’ lifetime on earth and addressed Him as such: “My Lord, my God’’!

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