And eight days after, his disciples were again within, and Thomas with them. Jesus comes, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace [be] to you.
A week has passed since the resurrection evening, and the same room is shut again — this time with Thomas inside. Why did the Lord wait eight days, and why come back for the one man who would not believe?
The second meeting falls on the same day of the week as the first. One writer sees the Lord marking that day out by His own act.
Here the Lord, by His actions, sets apart the first day of the week for His meeting together with His own, in spirit here below.
The disciples met again on that day, and Thomas came with them. What were they expecting?
But on the first day they are together again, and Thomas with them. Does this not show they expected to see the Lord on that day? Otherwise why were they together as before, and Thomas as well? Nor were they disappointed: the Lord appeared, and Thomas believed.
John mentions the shut doors a second time, and a second time they fail to keep the Lord out. One writer sees the whole visit as aimed at the one disciple still in unbelief.
Again the closed doors did not keep Him from His disciples, and what a cheer His greeting must have given them. But this visit seems to have been specially for Thomas, since He spoke to him twice. He looked on him with pity and met his unbelief with infinite grace.
His first word is the one He had already used twice on the resurrection evening. The repetition ties His peace to His presence.
Again, in verse 26, when the doors were shut, Jesus came into the midst of His own. The same words were on His lips: "Peace be with you." This surely stresses that the presence of the Lord among His own brings His own peace with it.
Thomas had spoken his unbelief when the Lord was not visibly in the room.
Why such a pointed word to Thomas? No one had seen the Lord visibly present when Thomas spoke his unbelief. None of the rest had told the Lord about it. Of that we may be sure. But He knew it. He had heard the words of His disciple, and now made Thomas aware of it. Unseen by human eyes, He sees, He hears, He knows all that goes on.
The same grace that exposed him also met him where he stood.
Everyone present eight days earlier is now rejoicing in the full assurance of His glorious resurrection. That does not lessen His loving care for the one who was absent... The Lord takes Thomas up gently yet firmly, on the very ground Thomas had chosen for himself. He lovingly invites him to convince himself in the way his own mind had suggested.
The Lord restored Thomas, but only after a week of doubt he need never have had. One writer draws out what his absence cost him.
Thomas may have thought it made no difference whether he was with the other disciples. But he had to do without the Lord's presence. He had to wait eight days, until the disciples came together on the first day of the week. For there and then the Lord was pleased to reveal Himself to his soul.
One writer looks past the room to a later day. As Thomas believed when he saw the Lord, so Israel will one day see and believe.
It is a wonderful picture of the fruit of Christ's resurrection in the latter day. The picture is not the Church, but "the great congregation" (Ps. 22:25), brought by infinite grace to know and praise the Lord, when He is no longer hidden but visibly reigning. Those before will have had the good portion, which shall not be taken from them — they did not see, yet believed. Israel will see and believe: truly blessed, but not in the same high measure.
- Day — The Lord met His own on the first day of the week, then came back on the next one; His own act marks the day.
- Doors — Shut doors could not keep the Lord out; He stood among them as He had before.
- Peace — His first word both times was peace, showing that peace comes with His presence.
- Grace — He had heard Thomas' words while unseen, and used the man's own demand to win him back.
- Loss — Thomas gained everything in the end, but lost eight days by being absent; the delay is the warning.
Then he says to Thomas, Bring thy finger here and see my hands; and bring thy hand and put it into my side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.
Thomas had said he would not believe until he could see and touch the wounds. Days later the risen Lord walks in and offers him exactly that, which raises two questions: how did Jesus know the demand, and why does He grant it?
Jesus repeats the exact terms Thomas had set — and no one had told Him about them.
Why such a pointed address to Thomas? No one had seen the Lord as visibly present when Thomas spoke his unbelief. No one of the rest had told the Lord about it. Of that we may be sure. But He knew it. He had heard the words of His disciple, and now made Thomas aware of it. Unseen by human eyes, He sees, He hears, He knows all that goes on... Thomas now needed nothing more. It seems he did not touch the Lord, or probe the wound the spear had made. What he saw was indeed the crucified One.
Jesus does not argue with the terms Thomas set. He adopts them.
Everyone present eight days before now rejoices in the full assurance of His glorious resurrection. That does not lessen His loving concern for the one who was absent, who has since fallen so sadly into the grievous sin of unbelief... We grieve at this evidence of sin abounding. Yet far more do we rejoice over the grace that abounded much more. Gently yet firmly, the Lord takes Thomas up on the very ground Thomas had chosen to stand on, and lovingly invites him to convince himself in the way his own mind had suggested.
Jesus points to the nail marks and the wound in His side. That settles a question: was the risen body the same body that died?
He bore our sins on the tree in that body, and that body was laid in the grave. It was the same precious body that was raised again, but quickened now by the Spirit. His blood had been poured out for our redemption. The marks Thomas saw convinced him. They declare plainly that it was the very same body: the temple raised from death to die no more.
The command also touches a faith that stops at the cross and never moves on.
Again, many doubts grow in the heart because there is no faith in a risen Saviour. Too many linger over the cross as if Jesus were still there — as if He were still a dying and not a living Redeemer. On the cross He finished the work. The blood He shed there made peace. But a living Jesus, a risen Jesus, is the object of faith. As He shows you His hands and His side, His words to you are: "Do not disbelieve, but believe."
Those wounds do more than end an argument. They warm a cold heart, so the words reach past Thomas to anyone who has drifted from the Lord.
It was as though He said, "Those wounds were for you. Come near to them, Thomas, see what My love has done for you. Do not doubt Me. Do not stand coldly by with a heart of stone. I want you near Me, to know what I have suffered for you. Do not disbelieve, but believe." ... If you have become cold, if divine things have lost their shine and reality to you, if a distance has come in between you and the Lord, what do you need? You need to come afresh into the realization of what Jesus suffered for you.
Commentators also see a picture here of a whole nation that will believe only when it sees.
Thomas represents the Jews in the last days, who will believe when they see. Blessed are those who have believed without seeing.
Grace met Thomas on his own terms. It will meet that nation the same way.
Grace will stoop to those who demanded signs and tokens before they would believe. When Messiah returns here below, they will stand overwhelmed and ashamed at the fullness of visible proof.
- He hears. Thomas set his terms when Jesus was not visibly present. The Lord answered them word for word. He sees and hears all that goes on.
- He stoops. He does not rebuke the demand. He takes Thomas up on the very ground Thomas had chosen — grace abounding over unbelief.
- He proves. The nail-prints and pierced side identify the risen body as the very body laid in the grave, raised to die no more.
- He warms. Those same wounds say "this was for you," which is the cure for a heart grown cold and distant.
- He will do it again. Commentators see in Thomas a picture of Israel, a nation that will believe when it sees. The blessing goes to those who believe without seeing.
Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God.
The last of Jesus' twelve disciples to believe is the first to say out loud what John's whole book set out to prove. Thomas had refused every witness but his own eyes. Now he stands in front of the risen Jesus and calls Him by the titles a Jew kept for God.
John opened his book by declaring who the Word is. At the very end, a man finally says it out loud:
At last human lips confess who He is, the close of the Gospel answers to its beginning. And it was Thomas who saw and believed and confessed. Not eager Peter. Not John, who had leaned on His breast at the supper. It was Thomas — dull, calculating, materialistic Thomas. The last man of the twelve disciples we would have expected is the one who confesses at the end the truth that the whole Gospel was written to reveal.
Thomas found that Jesus knew the doubts he had spoken in private, and the marks of the cross did the rest.
It seems as though this visit was for Thomas alone, because his Lord addressed him by name twice. He discovered that the thoughts of his heart were not hidden from Him. The wounds he saw in that incorruptible flesh were silent witnesses to him. They said He was the One with power to lay down His life and take it again. The scales fell from his eyes, his heart lost its faithlessness, the glory of the Only Begotten was no longer veiled from him.
Some read the words as a burst of surprise aimed at nobody. The text blocks that reading, and so does what Jesus said next.
Those who deny our Lord's deity have tried to escape the force of this. They treat it as a mere exclamation, aimed at no one in particular. But the record plainly says that Thomas spoke the words to the Lord. In the original language the wording is very emphatic, because he used the definite article twice. The risen Jesus was the Lord and the God to him. What is more telling still, the Lord answered him, "Have you believed because you have seen me?" So He clearly treated Thomas' joyful cry as faith taking hold of FACT.
The silence of Jesus here carries weight. He let a man call Him God and said nothing to correct it.
Suppose the Lord Jesus were not what Thomas confessed Him to be, but only a good and true man. Then He would have rebuked him for speaking foolish words. It would be terrible wickedness for one man to accept from another the worship that belongs to God alone. But He did accept it, because it was His right.
The word "my" makes this personal. The wounds put Thomas under a claim he could never take back.
When Thomas saw the wounds — the wounds his Lord had suffered for him in love — he fell down before Him and cried, "My Lord and my God!" Could he ever claim himself for himself again? If we come to that point, can we claim ourselves for ourselves? … The One who was wounded to death because of His love to us is our Lord and our God. Here we see His twofold claim upon us, and we cannot deny Him.
Several writers read Thomas as more than an individual. He would not believe on testimony; he had to see — and that, they say, is a nation's story.
Thomas, then, stands for the slow mind of unbelieving Israel, who will see the Lord after the present age is over. This is all the more striking beside Mary Magdalene in the earlier verses. She pictures the Christian, taken out of Judaism. She is no longer allowed the old Jewish contact with the Messiah, but is a witness of Him now that He has gone up to heaven.
Another writer reads the very titles Thomas used as part of that picture, set against the names Jesus used in verse 17.
"Lord God" is how the Jew has addressed their covenant God in the past, and how the Jew will address Him in the future. "God and Father," as seen in verse 17, are the names Christians use, since they are linked with Christ in His own relationships.
Thomas is blessed. The next verse says others are more so.
Our Lord has settled it: believing has a value beyond sight. "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." That is just the difference between the Jews when their blessing comes, and the Christian, whose blessing now is greater in moral value.
- Sight — Thomas would believe nothing he could not see and touch. The wounds in the risen body convinced him.
- Speech — Thomas said the words to Jesus, in emphatic form, and Jesus answered by calling them faith.
- Silence — He did not correct the worship, and that silence is one of the strongest proofs of who He is.
- Surrender — the possessive "my" turns a confession of deity into a claim on the whole of a life.
- Still greater — Thomas believed because he saw; Jesus calls those who believe without seeing more blessed still.
Jesus says to him, Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed blessed they who have not seen and have believed.
Thomas has touched the proofs he demanded and confessed his risen Master. The Lord answers with a blessing that reaches past that room to everyone who would believe later. His words weigh two kinds of faith: one that waits for evidence, and one that rests on a word.
The Lord does not scold Thomas, yet neither does He hold him up as the model. Commentators note that sight produced this confession, true as it was, and that this marks its limit:
Some have thought that the faith of Thomas here rises far above that of all the other disciples, and that nothing higher in testimony ever came from apostolic lips. This opinion, though common, cannot be founded on the general context. Christ, in reply to Thomas, pronounces those more blessed who did not see, and yet believed. It can hardly be called even Christian faith, as our Lord hints. Christian faith is believing in Him whom we have not seen — walking by faith, not by sight.
If sight is not the ground, what is? One writer separates faith built on evidence from faith built on Scripture. He warns how little the first can do:
To "see and believe" therefore falls wholly short of what the work of God gives; just as traditional faith or evidence answers to it now in Christendom. It is human. It leaves the conscience uncleansed and the heart without communion... Faith, to be of value and have power, rests not on sight or inference, but on Scripture... The faith that is founded on evidences may strengthen a person against Deism, Pantheism or Atheism. But it never gave remission of sins, never led one to cry, "Abba, Father," never filled the heart with His grace and glory.
Believing without proof is no poorer arrangement. It honours God:
We can render to God no tribute that is more welcome to Him than taking Him fully and simply at His word without asking for any confirmation by sight or by feeling.
He speaks the blessing over people not yet born. Writers tie them to believers of today, while the Lord is away:
The Lord does own the faith of Thomas. But He adds, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." This is the blessed portion of those who form Christ's assembly during the time of His absence, as the apostle Peter can say, "Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory" (1 Peter 1:8).
One writer reads the whole scene as a sketch of God's dealings, with Thomas standing for Israel in the last days:
Thomas's doubts disappear. It is the expression, in this remarkable summary of God's dealings, of the position of the Jewish remnant in the last days. They will believe when they see Him, and Jesus makes the difference between believers who have not seen Him — our position — and those who will believe when they see Him. The blessing rests upon us. Thomas's confession, true and right as it was, shows, it seems to me, the Jewish position... The testimony of the others will not have convinced them. They will see and look on Him whom they have pierced.
Both groups are real believers, and both are happy; the difference is where the Lord places His special approval:
The latter order or character is that of today, for we "walk by faith, not by sight." The former order is that of the future — the day of the coming of the Lord, when every eye will see Him... Both classes are happy and privileged, but the Lord, by His words to Thomas, has placed a special mark of approval and favour on those who believe on Him during the time of His absence.
This blessing is not vague believing. It has a content — who the wounded Man in that room really is:
Happy Thomas, yet happier are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Believed what? That the One who bears in His body the wounds He received on the cross of Golgotha is none other than the Eternal Word, by whom all things were made. He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
We may wish we had stood in that room. One writer answers that wish:
We can easily imagine what a wonderful thing it was to have looked on Him and to have heard Him. But no thinking believer need hesitate to say this: we have far more of Himself in and by the word than if we had seen and heard Him all through His life and ministry on earth without that word.
- Sight — Thomas believed because he saw. His confession was true, yet the Lord does not call him blessed for it.
- Word — the faith Christ calls blessed rests on Scripture, not on evidence. Taking God at His word is a tribute He welcomes.
- Blessing — He speaks that blessing over believers of today, who love and rejoice in a Lord they have never seen.
- Reach — Thomas pictures those who believe only when they look on the pierced One. The blessing rests on those who believe while He is unseen.
- Result — believing without seeing is no second best. Through the word we have more of Christ than eyes alone could give.