John 20:24-31

²⁴Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it." ²⁶A 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!" ²⁷Then 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." ²⁸Thomas said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" ²⁹Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." ³⁰Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these are written that you may believe [or may continue to believe] that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

The results of the resurrection, encountered in the first part of this chapter, come to their greatest expression in the case of “doubting” Thomas, the last of the disciples to see the resurrected Lord. Thomas, meaning “twin,” was not so much a doubter as he was a pessimist. It has been said of Thomas, “a man of gloomy spirit, prone to look on the dark side of everything, and live in the shade. His frigid temperament made him skeptical, hasty in coming to unfavorable conclusions. Thomas was a somewhat a negative person; he was a brooder, tended to be anxious and angst ridden. He was like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh. He anticipated the worst all the time, pessimism, rather than doubt, seems to have been his besetting sin.” Thomas was also a realist. The problem with some Christians is that they’re just too gullible. Oftentimes, we just don’t ask the hard questions, and Thomas was prepared to stand on his two feet and ask the really hard questions. He wanted empirical evidence before he would believe.

The account of Thomas’ first sight of the resurrected Christ is in a sense the most perfect illustration of John’s very purpose in writing his gospel, which he will remind us of immediately after he tells us of this event (v30-31). Remember, Thomas was absent from Jesus’ previous appearance to the other apostles. The application in that is this: If you aren’t there, you miss the blessing. Don’t miss the means of grace. Don’t miss the assembling of God’s people together. Jesus had already showed the apostles His hands and side (v20), but Thomas missed it.

Thomas, one week later, is present with the apostles, and Jesus visits again. Nobody told Jesus that Thomas doubted, but Jesus knew. He knows your doubts and questions. And so after the greeting of peace, Jesus immediately confronted Thomas with the evidence of His resurrection. In response, Thomas is filled with a faith in the person of Jesus as the eternal Lord and God of all; and He is not just Lord and God, but to Thomas, “my Lord and my God!” (See also v17 of this chapter.) Calvin says, “Shame compelled him to break out into this expression, in order to condemn his own stupidity.” Thomas begins with the simple, “My Lord,” and he concludes with, “My God.” He moves from making Jesus his master, which is good, to declaring Jesus’ divinity. We must do the same, for Jesus cannot be our master unless He is divine. And certainly, if He is divine, then we must follow Him as our Lord, or master. The very essence of God’s promise of salvation is that God would be our God (Genesis 17:7).

So Thomas finally believes on Jesus. Calvin says, “It was not by mere touching or seeing that Thomas was brought to believe that Christ is God, but, being awakened from sleep, he recalled to remembrance the doctrine which formerly he had almost forgotten. Faith cannot flow from a merely experimental knowledge of events, but must draw its origin from the word of God.” Thus, as the author of Hebrews declares, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” And as Paul says, “We walk by faith and not by sight.” See 1 Peter 1:8 as well. This is what John’s gospel was written for. And this effect can only occur when one is confronted with the exalted person of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God, eternally victorious over death. And for us, no matter what we are thinking, Jesus is saying, “Come to Me with your questions. Come to Me with your doubt. Come to Me with your demands, and I will answer all of them. Just come and rest with Me.” Calvin comments, “We behold Christ in the gospel no less than if He stood with us. Therefore, if we decide to see Christ, what will make us happy and blessed, let us learn to believe where we do not see.” He is no less near now than He was then. John wrote, “We want to see Jesus,” in chapter 12; and he shows us Jesus here.

Jesus did many other signs and miracles that John did not choose to record. It is an important note, because we are re-affirmed that Jesus confirmed who He was by many signs and wonders – not just seven. John chose those events that most clearly display the nature of Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God – events that would designate Him the Water of everlasting life, the Bread which comes down from heaven, the Light of the world, the Good Shepherd and the Door, the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

John has come to recognize that knowing God is eternal life, and he has been filled with the love of Christ, a love which seeks to bring to others the great and lasting good of knowing God, even as Jesus died to bring to men that knowledge; therefore, he is writing these things, so that people might believe in Jesus, and so pass into the eternal life which is in God’s presence and fellowship. In fact, this purpose governs what John has recorded.