The place was abuzz with excitement, bewilderment and confusion. "They say they've seen Him." "Some of the women are saying the same thing." "Peter says he's seen Him John has also been to the empty tomb."

Could it be? They meet in secret for fear of the Jews, the doors are locked. They're not sure what all of this means for them. They'd seen the seething anger of the mobs. They'd heard the blood curdling cries: Crucify Him, Crucify Him. They're afraid, and uncertain about their future.

Suddenly, there's Jesus! "Peace be with you," He says.

With Jesus these words aren't mere pleasantries. He declares it and it is so. Peace.

Luke tells us they were terrified and thought they'd seen a ghost. Mark tells us Jesus rebuked them for their unbelief. But in doing so, Jesus further lovingly condescends to their weakness; He stoops down to their level to have them understand. "Here," He says, "see My hands and feet, handle Me — a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones as I do, and by the way do you have anything to eat?"

All of their disbelief disappears. They were so glad! They had seen the Lord!

"Peace I give you," He says and then He breathes out and gives them the Holy Spirit, and their commission: "As the Father sent Me, so send I you..." As quickly as He came, He was gone.

With this news, this blessedness, the disciples could not keep still. "We have seen the Lord," they rejoiced!

"Thomas, Thomas where were you, we've seen the Lord!"

But Thomas wouldn't believe a word of it. "You guys are crazy," he was effectively saying. Thomas wanted hard proof: "Unless I see the nail prints in His hands, put my fingers into them, put my hand into the side I will not believe."

Thomas will trust his ten fingers more than the testimony of the ten apostles.

Now it's one week later, again its Sunday, resurrection day, the Lord's Day, and they're together again. This time Thomas is with them too. Again the doors are shut; once again, as if from out of nowhere, there's Jesus.

Thomas sees Him too. He must have expected a stiff rebuke, surely he deserved it. But instead, with tenderness, Jesus stoops to meet the earlier demands of Thomas point for point. Here again He shows us exactly who He is as the Great I AM, the all-knowing one. Even though He was no longer there when Thomas had made His objections, He knows exactly what Thomas's concerns were. There was not a word on Thomas's tongue that Jesus has not known it altogether. Thomas said, Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, Jesus says — look at My hands. Thomas said, Unless I put my finger into the print of the nails, Jesus says, reach your finger here. Thomas said, Unless I put my hand into His side, Jesus says reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Thomas said unless I see all the above I will not believe! Jesus says: Do not be unbelieving, but believing.

Yes, Thomas is rightly repri­manded for not believing. The testimony of the disciples should have been enough. Nevertheless this event has been recorded for our good. In the face of resurrection-denying unbelief we have the inspired record of the nail prints in His hands and spear thrust in His side as abiding proof of His literal, physical resurrection.

Thomas responds in faith! "My Lord and my God..."

Do you hear it? It's the revela­tion the Lord Jesus has been making of Himself throughout this Gospel of John. I AM! It's the confession Jesus has been driving for, the point John has been inspired to write about from beginning to end.

Blessed are you Thomas! Blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but My Father in heaven. Blessed is everyone who so believes, we didn't give it to ourselves, it's the Lord's work.

And what more glorious testimony to the deity of Christ than these words of Thomas. You point that out to the pair of cultist who come to your door. No honest angelic creature or anyone less than the Great I AM could ever do that (e.g. Revelation 19:10, 22:9). Take note too of the richness of the confession Jesus elicits from him. Thomas is not content to say with Nathanael — "You are the Son of God." No, Thomas clasps the Saviour now with all of the tenderness of a living faith and exclaims for joy — my Lord and my God! My God! Luther used to say the beauty of the Bible and the Christian religion is in the pronouns. The blessing of the covenant is not simply that we can say that there is a God, but that this God is our God forever and ever.

Today there are still many like Thomas was for a time, those who want to go beyond the clear declarations and promises of God's Word to look for other tokens. But the Lord has given us His Word — that's all we need. These things were written that you might believe — so we go to Jesus, we cast ourselves on His mercy and believe that He will do as He promised — it's His Word — and He is God, the Christ, the Son of God.

Though we've never seen the Lord Jesus Christ, with 1 Peter 1:8 we may confess: "We love Him, though now we do not see Him, yet believing we rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory." John says that believing on Christ, we have life in His Name.

I don't know what you'd call that, but Jesus calls it Blessed! (John 20:29).