Biblion Bible Commentary
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My Lord and My God
John 20:24-29
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came. · WEB
The man who refused secondhand testimony is given exactly what he asked for, and makes the highest confession in the book.
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn't with them when Jesus came John 20:24.
The whole week turns on his absence, and the account does not say where he was. What it has already told us about him is that he proposed going to Judea to die John 11:16 and that he was the one honest enough to say he did not know the way John 14:5.
"Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe" John 20:25.
The demand is stated three times over and it is deliberately physical. He is not asking for a vision or a sign; he wants to touch the wounds.
It is worth being fair to him. The other ten believed after seeing him themselves John 20:20; Thomas is asking for the same evidence they were given, and being called stubborn for wanting it a week late. And they had all disbelieved Mary that morning.
After eight days, again his disciples were inside and Thomas was with them John 20:26.
A week of it. He has spent seven days with ten men who are certain and one conviction he cannot manufacture, and he keeps turning up — which is more than most doubters manage.
Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the middle, and said, "Peace be to you."
"Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side" John 20:27.
The terms are his own, repeated back to him almost word for word — by someone who was not in the room when he set them.
And the offer is made without a word of reproach. What the risen Christ does with a man who demanded proof is provide it, exactly as specified.
"Don't be unbelieving, but believing." The only correction, and it is about which direction he is traveling rather than about the demand.
Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" John 20:28.
The account does not say he touched anything. He is offered the evidence and appears not to take it — the seeing was enough.
And what he says is the highest confession in the New Testament, and the last thing anyone says to Jesus in this Gospel. Two titles, both with my attached, both addressed directly to him. A monotheist raised on the Lord our God, the Lord is one Deuteronomy 6:4 says this to a man he can see, and is not corrected.
It closes the frame the book opened with. The prologue stated it as narration — the Word was God John 1:1 — and here a disciple says it to his face. Everything between is how a reader gets from one to the other.
"Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" John 20:29.
The beatitude is the second in this Gospel John 13:17 and it is aimed past Thomas at everyone reading. It is not a rebuke of him; his faith is accepted and his confession stands.
What it says is that the arrangement about to begin — belief on testimony rather than sight — is not a lesser thing. Every Christian after that room is in the blessed category, and the man who insisted on evidence is the reason we know what the evidence was.
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