Have you ever been in the situation where all your friends are talking about something you haven’t yet been able to experience? A TV programme they can’t stop talking about, or a place they have visited, or simply a new biscuit you haven’t yet managed to taste? How do you feel when your friends once again start talking about this topic and you aren’t able to join in the conversation? Frustrated? Annoyed? Angry?
In today’s bible reading someone had to put up with this situation for a whole week. A week during which all sorts of thoughts and emotions would have filled his life, a week which might have flown past for his friends in their excitement, but which I guess dragged by for the one who wasn’t able to enter into the conversation. Read John 20: 24-31
What sort of reputation have you got? Are you known for always being early or for always being late, for making lists or for being untidy? Do you think you deserve the reputation you have? I feel Thomas suffers somewhat unjustly with being known as ‘Doubting Thomas’
When we look at the other occasions in the gospels where Thomas is specifically mentioned, we see a man who seems to say what everyone else is thinking but who are too shy or embarrassed to say it.
In the week leading up to Palm Sunday, Jesus announces that he is going to travel to Jerusalem. The disciples knew that being in Jerusalem could be dangerous for Jesus as the authorities were already looking for ways to quieten his voice. It is Thomas who says to the other disciples “Let us also go, that we might die with him” (John 11:16). Thomas is brave and loyal.
Then during the ‘Last Supper’ Jesus tells the disciples that he is going away. He says (John 14: 3-6) “I will go and prepare a place for you. You know the way to the place where I am going.” It was Thomas who said out loud what the other disciples must have also been thinking “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way.” Thomas was honest and straightforward.
From these couple of glimpses into Thomas’ life we see someone who is maybe a little blunt and always ready to raise questions, but also someone who is brave, loyal, honest and straightforward. Not so much a doubter, as someone who likes to be sure of his facts before trusting wholeheartedly.
Having spent a whole week listening to his friends talking about Jesus being alive, Thomas finally sees the risen Jesus and his response to this encounter, was perhaps the most perfect of responses. Thomas’ declares ‘My Lord and my God’ note he didn’t say, the Lord he is god. Thomas got it absolutely right in his use of ‘my.’ We cannot depend on Jesus being someone else’s Lord, not matter how close that person is to us and it is certainly of no use to us if Jesus is the Lord of a friend-of-a-friend and it is not even much use Jesus being the Lord of the church you attend. For us to know the reality of the promises Jesus makes, we need to know Jesus as ‘my Lord’
Thomas not only says ‘my’ he also addresses Jesus as both Lord and God. Why do he use both titles? Thomas declares that he knows Jesus to be God. He acknowledges that Jesus is Emmanuel (God with us), revealing to us who God is, and so then acknowledges that the only acceptable response to make to God is to recognise that he is Lord. This is more than addressing Jesus respectfully as sir, master or boss. Thomas knows that in those days the servant who served a Lord was not free, but was the property of his or her Lord. A person who served a lord, gave up their own rights and acknowledged the lord’s right to be in charge of every aspect of their life, and this is the declaration Thomas is making.
Around that time, throughout the Roman Empire, people were being encouraged to declare: “We hail Caesar as our Lord and entrust ourselves to him to be our saviour.” Thomas’ statement shows where his loyalty lay, as he declared Jesus to be his Lord, and shows his willingness to submit to Jesus’ authority,
One of the first missionaries to China, Hudson Taylor often said;
“If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all”
Pause and consider what it means for Jesus to be Lord of your life.
Reflect on what power and authority we allow Jesus to have in our lives. Say the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ and recognise how many of these well-known phrases relate to us letting God be Lord of our lives.
He is Lord! He is Lord! He is risen from the dead and he is Lord!
Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!
(© 1986 Curb Wordspring Music)
Sunday arrangements
Either today or tomorrow many of you will be contacted by a Church Leader to see if you want to book a place at church for our 10:30am gathering. If you aren’t in contact with a Church Leader you can book a place by text or email using the contact details on the church website. We will live-stream the non-copyright part of this gathering on the church facebook page from around 10:45am. - Stephen