The Confession of Thomas
A. Mackennel, D. D. John 20:28 And Thomas answered and said to him, My LORD and my God. The words imply — I. SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 1. When Thomas says this he is confessing that his past life has been a mistake. The arrogance of his former speech contrasts strikingly with the lowliness of this. A new revelation had been given him, making known the one great need of his souls Lord to control his will, and form his judgment, and give law to his inmost spirit. Our great want is a ruler; submission is one of the deepest of human needs. (1) Let self-will be ever so successful, the heart is still unsatisfied. Ambition is soon sated; and the "head that wears a crown" is "uneasy," not more because of the cares of government than because the monarch is tired of himself. Even the partial stimulus which self-seekers have, while yet they are striving for their object, witnesses to the same truth; a man may choose his aim, but when he has chosen it, it controls him. No man ever found rest till his aim in life was decided on. Seeking an object, men for a time are tranquil, for they are freed from self; but when their object is secured, they fall again into the restlessness of bondage to a self that is insufficient for them. (2) Look now at another class of men of nobler character. The truth-seeker is freed from self, for he feels truth to be absolute, independent of him, and he yields allegiance to it. The lover of right is under an eternal law of rectitude; righteousness is not something that he invents. Right is, and is his lord. Duty is what we owe, not what we choose to give. But what is truth? Its seekers are all in disagreement. What is right? The standard of rectitude in our England is very different from that of ancient Rome. Has duty any higher standard than statute law, or regard for the greatest happiness of the greatest number? These very words set us again upon a drifting sea of self-will. Truth, duty, rectitude — these are cold words. To stir passion and control affection they must be seen embodied in personal form. Love, reverence — these are the heart's deep wants. Cold abstractions can never deliver us from self 2. Thomas had found all he needed in Christ. Christ was "the Truth;" His will absolute righteousness; duty was what he owed to Him. There was no coldness nor vagueness in these names when summed up in the person of His Lord. Love rises to worship in his confession; his heart is at rest when he says, "my Lord."(1) This is the secret of Christ's power over men. He comes among them as their Lord; He claims authority and submission. Christ does not allure men by pleasures, flattering their self-will. He simply bids them "Follow Me," and they leave all and follow Him. He speaks to those to whom self-will is barrenness, and there is fruitfulness. He speaks to those whose selfishness is weakness and disease, and in obedience to Him come health and energy. And herein do we see the meaning of "Come unto Me all ye that labour Take My yoke upon you," &c. For in meekness and obedience our spirits find their end and purpose, and herein is rest. (2) In Christ, too, we see how blessed to yield our wills to the will of God. He who came to tell us that we are ruined, because we seek our own wills and not the will of God, must Himself be submissive. He who came revealing absolute truth and righteousness, claiming our homage for them, must Himself yield them homage. Christ can rule because He knows how to obey. II. KNOWLEDGE OF THE MEANING OF LIFE. 1. It was Christ's perfect knowledge of Thomas which brought from him the confession. (1) Christ had heard the sceptical words; He had been with Thomas, though Thomas had not been with Him. But Thomas could not stop here; as none can rest in one separate instance of His knowledge and grace. He who knew this must know all. All his past life would flash upon him, and he would recognize it all as Christ's plan to educate and bring him to Himself. (2) Christ had done infinitely more than to simply give Thomas his own test for the resurrection; He had brought Thomas to a better mind, and made that test appear absurd. The touch would only have convinced that the risen Jesus was here; Thomas, without touching Him, calls Him "My Lord and my God." Underlying Thomas's wish for sensible proof there had been the unquenchable longing for personal intercourse. That John and the others had seen Christ was nothing to him. Nothing can reveal a personal Lord to us but that Lord's communion with ourselves. Thomas's heart was satisfied now, and to Christ's guidance he could absolutely submit. 2. It is such a guide we want; one who can read our heart and supply every need. It is such a guide we preach in Jesus; not one who lived a few years in Palestine; but One who was "before all things," and who is ever with His people. He knows you, for He formed you for Himself; your life, with all its difficulties and perplexities, is His plan for educating you for Himself and God. Each doubt He is waiting to clear away; even your wilfulness does not drive Him from your side. III. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 1. Thomas recognized the character of God rather than the dignity of Christ, and herein lay the true value of his confession. The mere confession that Christ is a Divine Person is barren; the knowledge that God is come into actual fellowship with us in Christ is new life to the spirit. The looking for God in awful grandeur obscures the perception of God in the perfection of moral excellence, the influence by which goodness sways the heart. It was to deliver men from this very error that Christ came. The disciples were ever expecting that Christ would communicate some stupendous truth concerning God. Gradually their conceptions of Him became exalted; Christ's own words were fulfiled, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." Here at length from Thomas breaks the full confession that this is God. 2. Thomas could not say, "My Lord," without saying also "My God;" for it is shocking to yield the whole heart to any other than God. In the fact that he could not but adore Jesus, that Jesus claimed and had won his homage, it was revealed that Jesus was Divine. If He be not God, then are we idolaters; for idolatry is the love and service of the creature as though it were supreme; and higher love and service than Christ has won from Christian hearts is impossible. If He be not God, then have we two Gods: the one a name, a cold abstraction; the other the Jesus who sways our spirits and to whom we render the consecration of our lives. 3. We may now see why so much importance is attached in the New Testament to the Divinity of Christ. The confession of Christ is not an act of the speculative intellect, it is the movement of the heart and the submission of the life to Him. There are Christian Unitarians who call Christ "Lord," though they hold back from calling Him "God." There are un-Christian Trinitarians who call Christ "God," and yet He manifestly is not their "Lord." It is sad that the words "My Lord and my God" should ever be separated. But he is a Christian, whatever the articles of his creed, who finds Christ sufficient for the soul's need, and whose life reveals that it is under His rule. (A. Mackennel, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. WEB: Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"