Confessing Christ as Lord: Faith

John 20:27-31

The story of Thomas is very important, or it would not be at the climax of the gospel. But what does it mean? (In a way that is an arrogant question, since it implies I KNOW the answer.) I can tell you a part of what I believe it means, and what it certainly means to me.
Why Thomas, here at the end? If this book is written so we might believe in Jesus Christ the Messiah, is Thomas the ideal believer?
The list of those coming to living faith in this chapter begins with the writer, John himself, who entered the tomb and believed on the spot! Then comes Mary Magdalene. Then the Eleven, locked in the meeting room, but without Thomas, who for some reason was absent. And now at the very end, Thomas. Are we to strive to be like Thomas? Or, perhaps, we should be like John who was the very first to believe-- he told us himself-- even before he saw the risen Lord?
What this says to me is that John is not holding up either himself or Thomas as models for us to follow. Rather, John is telling us that whoever or wherever we are, if we want him, and if we seek him in love, Jesus will find us and let us know he is alive. In the next chapter Jesus finds Peter in a different way, and restores him to fellowship. But that is another story.
"These are written that you might believe..." All these testimonies-- this entire book is to tell us that the risen Lord is as good as his word. "Go back carefully to the beginning and read what I've written," says John. "'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God...' Read again with faith that entire story of Jesus... see how he spoke like no other man... see how he had authority over life and death and creation... see how he lived and how he died and how he has risen again... read that story, John says, read and believe! Believe and have life!"

It doesn't really matter if you come like John, or like Thomas, or like Mary Magdalene, or like Peter or Paul-- the important thing is to be able to say, "My Lord and my God!" Sometimes it seems like we are all expected to be giants of the faith. But Thomas helps us understand that the good news is for everyone-- great and small. It is not limited to a certain temperament or personality type.
Some of us come emotionally, with tears for wasted years. Some come as little children, and never know the dramatic conversion. Some seem to be able to simply quietly believe, and know they are alive in Christ. Some struggle and agonize and pray, "O God, please give me a sign!" And yet the important thing is that synapse of faith, that spark of recognition that finally says, with Thomas and every other true believer, "My Lord and my God!"
That statement is the climax of the entire Gospel. "My Lord and my God!" comes as the confession we all are to make! That confession by Thomas precedes the text "But these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing ye might have life in his name."

Two other elements of great importance are linked with this confession in this climactic chapter of John's Gospel.

Jesus breathed on the company of disciples, and said to them: "Receive the Holy Spirit!" Faith in the risen Savior is not just a matter of being persuaded of an historical fact, but it is to be a present relationship with a God who is as near to us as our very breath. The presence of God indwells every believer. "Receive YE the Holy Spirit!" It is an inevitable result of believing in Jesus Christ the Messiah!

Jesus also told that little company, the nuclear beginnings of the church, "Go and forgive people's sins!" As we understand that, it was not some confessional power, but a way of saying that if we believe in a risen Lord, and if he is present with us in his Holy Spirit, then our assignment is sharing the good news that God has already forgiven the sins of the world, and that life is to be had for the asking.

But it begins with this inner persuasion: I have met the risen Lord! I know he is alive! I bow before Him! You, O Christ, are my Lord and my God!" That faith enables us to "be more than we are!" It may not be just for giants of the faith-- but Christ comes to live in us, and helps us through the reality of life. And as we stay close to Him, He lives out through us if we will but let him.
As a Post Script:
Some scholars seem to hold Thomas up, if not for scorn at least hold him up, as a poor role model. We are not to be like "doubting Thomas." who needs more and more proof-- we are to be like John who believed immediately. Thomas was not "a giant of the faith" like Peter... or so some say.
But there are in existence in India to this day Christian churches who worship God in the name of Jesus Christ, and who venerate this very same St. Thomas. For however scholars may scorn Thomas's need for proof, it seems that while St. Paul traveled west with the good news of a God who cares, St. Thomas traveled east and preached as far as India where he established the church of Jesus Christ, and where he was finally martyred for his faithfulness to Jesus.
When we say by the Holy Spirit, "My Lord and my God!" the risen Lord Himself enables us to "be more than we are" in our own strength. He gives us his Spirit. He enables us to share his grace. He is with us this very hour.

Prayer - The Lord's Prayer