About this sermon
Eight days after the resurrection Jesus again stands among his disciples, now with Thomas present, and invites the doubter to see his hands and side. The text does not say Thomas touched him; Jesus’ offer exposes his unbelief, and Thomas confesses, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus blesses those who have not seen and yet believe. The risen Lord is the same Jesus who came in the flesh, and the gospel was written so that readers may believe that he is the Christ and have life in his name.
Sermon transcript
will pause to allow them. This is John chapter 20. I’m beginning to read at verse 19. This is the word of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So when it was evening on that first day, first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.
But Thomas, one of the 12, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. After eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them.
Jesus came, the doors having been shut, stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger. See my hands and reach your hand and put it into my side. And do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God.
Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Lest are they who did not see. and yet believed. Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
This ends the reading of God’s holy word. Let’s pray together, shall we? Father, we thank you for this gospel of John, Thank you for this particular passage. We pray, O God, for the insight and grace of the Holy Spirit that we might embrace the things that are revealed here for our encouragement, that we would be built up in a most holy faith and in a great love for the Lord Jesus Christ, our risen Savior and King, indeed, our Lord and our God. It’s in his name we pray. Amen.
The narrative that continues in verse 24 is closely tied with what has just preceded in the text, in that Jesus appears again under much the same circumstances as the prior meeting on that first Lord’s Day, that first day of the week when Christ had been raised.
Now a second time, a week later, he appears again. But this time he appears also in the presence of Thomas. Thomas was not there the first day, the first time. Thomas, who was also called Didymus, the twin. Thomas again comes on the scene in a way that can be called characteristic of him and for him. as the disciple who, though evidently, genuinely loyal to Jesus, repeatedly gives evidence of his resistance to Jesus’ departure to the Father and his lack of understanding of that departure.
For example, in John 11, verse 16, Thomas speaks up when Jesus proposes to return to Judea at the occasion of Lazarus’ death. The disciples are dismayed that Jesus would dare suggest such a thing knowing that the Jews were there seeking to stone Jesus. Dare we go there again is the implication. And Thomas there in that context in 11.16 soberly says, let us also go that we may die with him.
Another way of saying, how can anything good come out of this? In chapter 14, verse 5, Thomas responds to the Lord’s great and marvelous exhortation. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. I go to prepare a place for you. And you know the way where I am going.
Thomas, in chapter 14, verse 5, typical Thomas, says, Lord, we don’t know where you’re going. How do we know the way? that he, Thomas, the one of the 12, was for that very reason not in their company when Jesus came on the evening of the first day of the week when Christ had been raised from the dead is an obvious inference. And by that I mean his skepticism, his doubt, his sobriety about this whole business of where this is leading. Though not said in so many words, it is understood that Thomas’s resistance to Jesus’ departure, his doubting and lack of understanding, which were somewhat characteristic of him apparently, had kept him from being there on that first evening when the others assembled and Jesus appeared in their midst. While not said, that’s certainly the implication, particularly as we go on to read about Thomas, who has the infamous nomenclature, doubting Thomas, as you know. So in any case, when the others had told him the great news, we have seen the Lord. How does he respond? As Mary Magdalene had come to the disciples saying, I have seen him and he has spoken to me. How does Thomas respond?
When they speak to him of Jesus’ pierced hands and feet, Thomas not only did not believe it, but he did not even take their word seriously. His reaction, you know it, unless I see in his hands. the imprint of the nails and put my finger in the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. That statement is undoubtedly not intended to lay down a serious condition for belief. In other words, anyone who is going to believe in Jesus has to be able to touch the body of Jesus. But what Thomas is doing is, in his mind, exposing the absurdity of what they tell him. Before I would believe that, I would first have to touch and see and be there. I can’t believe it.
Accordingly, Thomas’ unbelief, about which there is much debate, as you might imagine in the commentaries, does not mean that he, like the people in Cana, want to see signs and wonders before he believes. He’s not one of those unbelievers who is demanding a sign. Unless I see a sign, I’m not going to believe. It means rather that he rejects as impossible the whole idea of the miracle of which his fellow disciples are talking. This doesn’t add up. So it is not as a miracle-hungry Thomas, but as the skeptical, doubting Thomas that He appears on the scene here again in John 20.
Notice how verse 26 ties in very closely with verse 19. Eight days later, hence again on the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection, Jesus’ disciples were once again together in a closed room, but this time with Thomas, who despite himself, despite his doubts, had sought out the company of his fellow disciples. And again, like in the prior episode, again Jesus comes with the doors having been shut. This time that the doors were closed is noted without the explanation for fear of the Jews, as had been a week earlier. And therefore, more clearly here than in verse 19, this closed door setting to indicate the miraculous, the irresistible character of Jesus coming into their midst.
And again, he thus presents himself in their midst with his peace, greeting, peace. be with you.” Only this time, Thomas is present. We draw attention once again that last week in that earlier episode on that first day of that first evening of the resurrection day, Jesus, verse 19, and again in verse 21, repeats the phrase, peace be with you. And now a third time, with Thomas present. Peace be with you.
And having said so, he immediately turns to Thomas and responds directly to the manner in which Thomas had expressed his disbelief. What does Jesus say? Reach here your finger and see my hands. Put your hand into my side. And be not unbelieving, but believing. Many interpreters here think that Jesus’ invitation is intended literally. And that Thomas literally complies before he makes this confession that he makes. And that Thomas does a head. Let me touch it. I really do want to touch that hand. I really do want to put my hand into your side. But the text doesn’t say that, does it?
It seems rather that Jesus’ offer is meant to humble Thomas with his own words. You who said a week ago, I won’t believe unless I can touch. Go ahead, Jesus is saying. It certainly seems unlikely that Thomas comes to his great confession only on the basis of Jesus lifting his robe and opening his hands. An examination of Jesus’ body has to take place here.
The confession more sounds like a direct and a spontaneous reaction to Jesus’ appearance in their midst and the words which totally overwhelm Thomas. Foolish me, my Lord and my God. The confession, my Lord and my God, conveys Thomas’ own deep shame on the one hand and his reverence on the other at now seeing Jesus in his divine glory, resurrection glory, a glory surpassing all human standards. His confession also reflects the strong personal sense with which Thomas immediately, spontaneously, joyfully yields to Jesus.
In the combination of these two titles, My Lord and My God, some scholars refer Again, these two titles, some scholars refer to passages in the Old Testament, in which the psalmist, for example, in Psalm 35, 24, prays to God and says, my Lord, my God. That is while ascribing to Thomas, seeing Jesus, he cries out to God in heaven, my God, what have I seen?
Scribing to him sort of a measure of piety here is the way some commentators approach it. That these words are seeing Jesus, he praises God. They see it little different than the man on the street suddenly struck with an amazing and startling phenomenon, crying out to God, oh my God!
We’re not gonna go there. Other commentators, notably two famous men in history, Augustine and Applinus, have viewed the two predicates, Lord and God, as descriptive on the one hand of Jesus’ human nature, and on the other hand, his divine nature. And so Thomas is giving us a theological lesson here, in terms of humanity and deity, as two natures in one person. We’re not going to follow that quite either here tonight. But in Thomas’s spontaneous exclamation, we do not have a liturgical or a dogmatic formulation. The case was rather that the usual address of respect, my Lord, with which he would have addressed Jesus many times, was simply not enough. For what at the sight of Jesus filled Thomas with awe he had only one word left, my God.
For who could do what Jesus did and thus as the one who was pierced appear now in omnipotence, in resurrection beauty. But he with whom God had united himself in this manner here truly was and is God’s beloved son. But this does not alter the remarkable fact that here, for the first time in this gospel, note well, for the first time in the gospel of John, Jesus is addressed personally, face to face, in the absolute sense as my God. And that with this lofty word, and that this lofty word, at the end of the gospel, near the end of the gospel, comes from the lips of wavering, wavering, unbelieving, doubting Thomas. Here is an important clue to the origin of the high character of the entire witness in John’s whole gospel, to Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the Word become flesh. Here is John’s Christology coming to confession by a disciple of Jesus. For the first time in this gospel, you see, in this gospel, My God.
In the drama of the unfolding details of Jesus’ life, the unfolding redemption accomplished in His death, His resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Messiah, and in this confession of Thomas, mind you, doubting Thomas, however personally it is formulated, my Lord and my God, The fourth gospel here comes to a dramatic climax and in so doing returns to its starting point that is found in the prologue. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. the coming, the work of Jesus the Christ, the Word that was from the beginning with God and was God, becoming flesh, dwelling among us. Here, Thomas is set before us. Thomas himself is set before us as a paradigm for the fact that only the superiority of Jesus’ self-historical revelation, his self-revelation, with many a bump in between times on the way to this point in the Gospels and in the story of the disciples. Though they have stumbled and bumbled and been confused and lacking understanding, here for the first time in a clear, direct, and powerful way, the disciples have been brought to the confession of Jesus as Lord and God. Here it is. Aha! We see it. We see who this one is. And we know that we have witnessed nothing less than the appearance of the Word of God in the flesh. The Word that is God.
And such constitutes the foundation of this gospel’s high Christological message. Jesus’ resurrection is the end and the climax of that historical self-revelation. And on seeing the risen one, it is that Thomas surrenders. and that in him paradigmatically the disciples begin to understand who in truth Jesus was in the authority with which he has spoken to them and in the works that he has done. This understanding will from now on be deepened by the coming of the paraclete, the Holy Spirit who will be poured out, that he will speak of me, Jesus says, you will know that I am he that the Father has sent into the world, the one who was promised them in order to witness with them to this very reality, the witness that they would in turn bear to the ends of the earth through their apostolic witness. But all this does not mean that faith in the risen heavenly Lord will cause the image of the earthly Jesus to grow dim and transform it into that of the heavenly Lord. Suddenly, we forget all about the fact that Jesus appeared in the flesh. But rather, we are reminded that just as no one ascended to heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, so also no one will know the heavenly Lord and Son of God other than in his descent, in his glorious appearing in this world. glory of the incarnate word of God.
To this, Jesus’ last word to Thomas testifies, as do the words with which the evangelist concludes his gospel in chapter 20, concludes his gospel in a certain provisionary way. We’re not done yet. There’s a chapter that follows, to be sure. But at the end of chapter 20, verses 29 and 30, We have almost an end of the gospel. It sounds like the end. We’ve often quoted those verses.
Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
I want you to note well that Jesus does not reject Thomas’ confession. He accepts it. You want to argue with a Jehovah Witness? Anytime anyone tried to worship an angel or one of the apostles, no, no, no, don’t worship me. Worship God. And here is Thomas saying to Jesus, my Lord and my God, and Jesus accepts it, receives it without rebuke. Jesus does not say, do you not know I’m just a creature like yourself? Worship the creator instead of me? No. Jesus accepts Thomas’ confession saying, because you have seen me, have you believed? Whether Jesus’ reply should be even framed as a question is debatable.
But what is not doubtful or debatable is that Thomas’ faith is reliable. This is real faith at work here. His unbelief, his doubting has been overcome and his faith is acceptable to Jesus and his confession is acceptable to Jesus. And Jesus not only then speaks a word to him, but also pronounces a blessing on those who did not see and yet believed.
Some view this as a temporal or a timeless statement that faith doesn’t need or even ought not to be based on any kind of sight. Of course, we know the definition of faith, the assurance of things unseen. And so people have read that with that view of faith that says that we don’t need anything to appear in the flesh. We don’t need any sight upon which to base our faith.
And so then they’re understanding what Jesus says as to be directed against Thomas, a rebuke, if you will, whose faith did rest on site and was therefore inferior to other people’s faith. But I want you to note that Jesus is here speaking of a transition that will come into effect from this point on. From now on, At least after Jesus’ final departure to the Father, people will have to believe without seeing, simply on the basis of the Apostle’s witness. The Apostle’s witness, mind you, they saw something and they heard something and they were there. And such people of the future like you and me, the church of the future, Jesus addresses, speaking out across Thomas, over his head as it were, with his last word, blessed are those who have not seen and yet will believe. A beatitude for them all. There is undoubtedly present in the contrast here something of a general reproach to Thomas.
He has not believed, listen, he has not believed the testimony of his brethren, fellow disciples who have seen. that he doesn’t believe what they’ve seen the Lord. He dismissed it as absurd, even though as one of Jesus’ designated witnesses, he himself will soon be out asking people to believe the same thing he wasn’t believing. He’s gonna go tell the world about this Jesus that he saw that they didn’t see. But believing on the basis of seeing, mind you, is not thereby degraded as a concession that Jesus makes to the weakness of some, a concession that ought not to be needed.
Why do we need a real human Jesus anyway, who appeared in the flesh? If it were that, if it was to say we don’t need a Jesus in the world, we don’t need a real human being in the world like Jesus, then all of the appearances and the miracles in which he has revealed himself in the presence of his disciples would fall under that same judgment, you didn’t need any of this. Then why’d he come?
Some people say he didn’t come, you see. He never did really appear in the flesh. That’s just a myth. The resurrection is a myth, they say. But beloved is no myth. It’s what they saw. And thank God there were witnesses, there were testimonies to be born by apostles who were sent out by Jesus. This view that it wasn’t necessary for an actual appearance not only rests on a spiritualizing denial of the reality of the resurrection narratives as signs of Jesus’ glory, but also conflicts with the entire import of the gospel itself. The good news that the Son of God became man for our redemption. As is clear from that summarizing epilogue to the gospel, that these things have been written that you might believe. that Jesus is the Christ. A real, a really necessary and adequate type of belief does not discard the sign or the appearance of the risen Jesus.
For the visible is an indispensable condition of the words having become flesh. As long as Jesus stood among men, faith had to deal with the one who had become visible. He did become flesh. But now here at the end of the gospel, the beginning of the apostolic age, another attitude becomes possible and necessary, which will be the era of the spirit, the invisible presence of Christ, and the era of signs or appearances is passing away.
Blessed are they who have not seen. who will yet believe through your testimony, Thomas, and the testimony of others. One era, one epoch in the history of redemption proceeds, and it transitions into the other. Jesus is about to return to the Father in full. But for the fact that Thomas and the other apostles saw the incarnate Christ, if they had not seen the Christ, there’d be no gospel after all. But they have a gospel to preach.
And there is such a thing as Christian faith in the testimony that they bear, in the witness that they have borne to us. Or as the evangelist himself phrases it, he has narrated what he has narrated. He has told us what happened, signs and all, so that people may believe and have life, eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Peace be with you. Amen. Let’s pray together. Our Father, we thank you for the situation of this disciple, Thomas. His situation in the gospel narrative, who comes with all of his doubts, fears, and misunderstandings. Who in beholding and hearing the resurrected Christ, is brought to the glorious conviction that here stood God in the flesh, God in resurrection body of a man, and that having conquered death for his people. Our Father, we thank you for that glorious gospel peace which belongs to a people who believe, who believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, the word who became flesh, visible in this world for the very purpose of revealing himself, of accomplishing the salvation we so desperately needed. We praise you, our Lord and our God. In Jesus’ name, amen. Let’s sing together, shall we? Hymn number 69. Hymn number 69. Let’s stand together, shall we?
With glowing heart I’ll praise Thee, For the bliss Thy love bestows, For the pardoning grace that saves me, And the peace that from it flows. Help, O God, my weak endeavor, This dull soul to rapture raise. Thou must light the flame, or never Can my love be warmed to praise.
Praise my soul, the God that sought thee, wretched wander far astray. found thee lost and kindly brought thee from the paths of death away. Raised with love’s devoutest feeling, him who sought And the light of hope revealing, Made the blood-stained cross appear. Praise thy Savior God that drew thee to that cross new life to give. Held a blood-sealed pardon to thee, made thee look to Him and live. Praise the grace whose threads so marbly Browse thee from thy fatal ease. Praise the grace whose promise warm thee, praise the grace that whispered peace.
Lord, this bosom’s ardent feeling vainly would my lips express. Oh, before thy footstool kneeling, Dain thy suppliant’s prayer to bless. Let thy love, my soul’s chief treasure, Lost pure flame within me raise. And since words can never measure, let my life show forth thy grace. Amen. Look up and receive the blessing of our God. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible. Amen.
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