GC Easter Message - My Lord and My God

By Robin Caldwell

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So 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.” 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!” -- (John 20: 24-28, NIV)

Jesus’ resurrection from the grave is the hallmark of our faith as Christians. He kept a promise in the resurrection, He said He’d rise in three days, and He did.

The miracle of the resurrection is that in a single, promised and delivered act, we received the blessed assurance of eternal life.

And still, Thomas doubted.

Thomas is mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible a few times: once when he is introduced as one of the twelve, another time when Jesus hears of the death of Lazarus and Thomas leads the brigade of disciples to follow Him to Nazareth; at the Last Supper, and after the resurrection when it is mentioned that he wasn’t present at the tomb.

Our final encounter with Thomas involves the day Jesus shows up at the upper room, and tells Thomas to put his finger in the nail hole in His hand and his hand through the Savior’s sword-pierced side. One look at the wounds and Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”

The Gospel of John documents that the doors were locked and Jesus just appears out of nowhere, which would have been more than enough to cure any doubts I’d had of His resurrection. But for Thomas it was the display of those wounds that sold him on the words of his fellow disciples who’d said, “We have seen the Lord!”

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.

There are men and women sitting on the pews every Sunday, hurting and hiding wounds from hurts that have afflicted them heavily. There are men and women who will be visiting our churches on Easter Sunday who wouldn’t dare step into what they think is a holy place, because they are ashamed of their sins and the scars they are hiding as well. They will be absolutely clueless that the usher, perhaps, or the pastor’s wife or any other person sitting beside them is also hurting and hiding wounds too.

Our Easter Sunday friends will leave for yet another year or so without so much as meeting and hearing the testimony of someone – the one person – who will make them comfortable and give them the right word they need to take a step towards salvation, restoration and receiving the unconditional love of Christ. Someone will walk away thinking that they don’t quite measure up to the façades of happiness, affluence, and make-believe joy on the faces of the people sitting beside them.

Before they leave, they will hear a sermon telling them about a Jesus who rose again and then ascended. Maybe in the content of that sermon is an admonishment or two about living right, speaking right and acting like Jesus. The minister will most likely mention that Jesus died for our sins and so that we can have eternal life.

And there will be an altar call and she or he will be urged to invite Jesus into their heart; and then he or she will ask himself, for what?

Now, for some people the answer will be crystal clear. They may invite Him in because they just cannot fathom living in hell for eternity. Or, they may invite Him because it’s time; they’ve reached an age where they can no longer justify living the way they want to live. Or, they feel like impressing Mama and making her proud. Or, they are going through a crisis and reaching out to Jesus as a last-ditch effort.

Yet, for others, the answer will not be so clear after they’ve scanned the sanctuary and seen all of these seemingly holy and happy people. Okay, eternal life will make sense to them. And, the aching in their hearts will beckon them to make a decision for Christ. The one thing that will hold them back, however, will be the shame and embarrassment of having to rise in front of this pristine crew of Jesus’ folks. He or she will think, I’m not worthy, I’m just not worthy. And Jesus will be whispering, I say you are, follow Me. Just look at My scars and believe!

Recently, the Lord got on me about not being transparent. He chastised me for only telling part of the story, the glory part and not lifting up my skirt and showing someone my scars. It was only when I thought the person would walk away for good, not learning any more about me or Jesus, did I relent to bare my naked wounds. As long as I hid behind a mask, she would never know me or my Lord. Was it hard? Absolutely, it was hard.

Would I do it again? I don’t know, but I hope so.

Jesus didn’t have to prove a thing to Thomas, but He did and I believe He did so because He wanted Thomas to be transformed too. He wanted Thomas to have an encounter with Him that would render the disciple useful for future work. If he saw and touched those wounds, the word of Thomas’ testimony would heal, deliver and above all, lead others directly to Jesus. The people receiving that eyewitness testimony would have something to think about and something to cling to in their hours of despair. If this man who doubts believes, they’d think, then maybe there is something to this Jesus. Maybe the words of the prophets are true; by His stripes I can be healed.

I believe that it is also the pain of Thomas’ loss of the Savior that would serve as his own scar and wound. We don’t read another thing about him after this encounter, so it is safe to assume that the wound and scar he carried was internal, it was his grief. Jesus, after all, was his close friend, his confidant and his Lord. Just sharing that grief could have potentially moved someone else, not only to be healed of their own hurts, but could have inspired them to reach out to Jesus for eternal life. When Doubting Thomas reached into Jesus’ side, he had to have realized how precious and priceless that wound was and would be to him throughout his life.

Jesus wounds are precious. As followers of Him, our wounds and scars are precious to Him. It is in our wounding and the testimony of the comfort, the love, the redemption and healing He gave us that He is best glorified. Instead of thinking those wounds are worthless reminders of our sins or other people’s sins against us, we should rejoice in the knowledge that those wounds and scars validate our service to Him and above all, above all, His service to us.

This is not a suggestion to spend Easter Sunday at church preying upon someone to share your testimony. And please don’t literally lift up your shirts and skirts to reveal a thing.

However, when Sister Jones’ son, the drug addict and Brother Johnson’s daughter and her thirteen kids come to church, demonstrate your testimony and the love of Christ with a little patience and with the thought that the day represents the extension of an open invitation to worship and celebrate the risen Savior everyday – all year long and for an eternity. Show these people who only come to church once or twice a year that you get the spirit of the day by forgiving them for sitting in your seat. And maybe by offering them a heartfelt hug and a sincere look in the eye, they will have a revelation like Thomas’ and move beyond their doubts about you and Jesus to exclaim, “My Lord, my God!”