Read John 20 & 21
Key Verse: John 20:28 “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!'”
Arthur John Gossip writes, “That night that Christ came, Thomas had not been present. We do not know why. But is there not here a warning for us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together? How much many miss, who make only an occasional, spasmodic, irregular appearance at the worship of God in his house! ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’, so Christ promises (Mt. 18:20). And sometimes surely had they been there, to them, too, He would have appeared!” (Interpreters Bible, Vol. 8, p. 798).
John has already presented Thomas to us as fatalistically daring (11:16) and bluntly skeptical (14:5). He was pragmatic and honest. He wasn’t about to be caught up in the hysteria and the unreal imaginings of a distraught and devastated group of cloistered disciples. Yes, he was disappointed, bitterly so, just like the rest of them. But he was not going to be party to a delusive reconstruction of Jesus. He was dead, period. so let’s accept that and get real. The sooner we can get on with life, the better.
Frankly, I identify with Thomas. He cherished the truth.
And the Truth cherished him. A week later; Jesus made a gracious concession to Thomas’ skepticism. “Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place in it My side; do not be faithless, but believing” (20:27). Thomas’ response is the response of the Church, “My Lord and my God!”
Church history tells us Thomas was the one disciple who travelled the farthest to a martyr’s grave. In so doing, he brought the message of the risen Saviour to the sub-continent of India. Thank God for Thomas!
