GC Easter Message - My Lord and My God

It is funny how someone who’d followed Jesus for three years under the best and worst of circumstances, had trouble believing that He had risen and was standing right before him. Thomas was with Him when Jesus gave Him a preview of what was to come by summoning a stinky, dead Lazarus from the grave.

It was, I believe, simply in his nature to question everything and doubt until that one day when Jesus appeared to him bearing His wounds. On that day, all of the Master’s teachings and the parables and the promises Jesus made, congealed, and Thomas got the memo.

“My Lord and my God!”

On that day, he was able to identify the Lord Jesus by His wounds. Thomas saw the Lord Jesus as He really was and for whom He really is, the wounded God-man. Moreover, he discovered that Jesus would bear those scars and wounds for all eternity as He stood before Thomas with his newly transfigured body – a new body bearing the old wounds. Ain’t that something?

Staring at Jesus in disbelief, the apostle Thomas probably recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah when he wrote, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53: 5, NKJ)

Likewise, those of us who follow Christ will bear our wounds for all eternity. While we may be free of the inner sufferings caused by the receipt of those wounds, we will carry the scars, the remnant of every stripe we incurred in life. And we will do so like Jesus, with a new body.

Many people are disbelieving about Christ and the impact He’s made in our lives until we, the Church, are transparent enough to show our wounds; lift up our shirts and skirts to show our scars; tell our testimonies and expose our wounds without fear of rejection or being mocked. For some odd reason, only known to them and Jesus, they will not receive or believe in His transforming powers until they see exactly what we have been healed of by His stripes.