A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Three times in John’s gospel John the Baptist declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God, God’s Chosen One. The clarity of John’s understanding of who Jesus is seems quickly lost. Then, near the end of chapter one, Jesus calls Nathanael to be a disciple. Nathanael’s response to his calling is to exclaim, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
Sometime later after feeding the five thousand, Jesus begins talking about people eating his flesh and drinking his blood. He questions the disciples; will you leave me, too? Peter speaks for them all when he says, “We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6: 69)
The next revelation about Jesus is from the man born blind. Jesus heals him but the man does not know it until he washes in the Pool of Siloam. Before he sees Jesus he sees the Pharisees. Under questioning, he realizes the full significance of what has happened. As a result, his testimony changes. First, he says Jesus is a man, then he calls him a prophet. When he finally meets Jesus in person, he calls him “Lord.”
Finally, during the conversation after the last supper, the disciples say that they, “…believe that you came from God.” (John 16: 30b)
Was there ever a question that Jesus was the Son of God? Well, yes. Over and over again the disciples rediscover who Jesus is. When Jesus appears to Thomas, he too discovers for himself that Jesus is, “My Lord and my God.”
Application: Discovering Jesus is not a one-time thing. We are temporal beings. We learn over and over who Jesus is and how real he is. The challenge we face, like Thomas, is being open to Jesus when he appears out of nowhere and steps into our locked rooms.
Food for Thought: How do we “stop doubting and believe?”
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I think it is a process of growing as we know Jesus better and better. As in any relationship, we learn and know someone better and better as we spend time with them.