Then
he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20:27-28
John 20 [24.] But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
John 20 [26.] After eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the middle, and said, “Peace be to you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.”
John 20 [28.] Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20 [29.] Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”
Meaning:
Thomas had not been with the other disciples when Jesus appeared on the evening of the resurrection. When they told him, “We have seen the Lord!”, he answered, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25). Eight days later Jesus came again, through locked doors, and spoke directly to Thomas. These two verses record Jesus’ gracious answer to Thomas’ doubt and Thomas’ answer of faith, the highest confession of Jesus in John’s Gospel.
- “Then he said to Thomas”
Jesus had not been present when Thomas spoke, yet he knew exactly what Thomas had said. He repeats Thomas’ own conditions almost word for word: the hands, the finger, the side. The risen Lord knew his disciple’s heart and met him where he was.
Thomas is often remembered as “doubting Thomas”, but the Gospel shows more of him. When Jesus decided to go back to Judea, where his life was in danger, Thomas said, “Let’s go also, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). In the upper room he honestly asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (John 14:5). He was loyal and honest, and he wanted to be sure.
- “Reach here your finger, and see my hands”
Jesus invites Thomas to examine the evidence. He does not scold him for wanting proof but offers the very proof he asked for. The wounds of the cross remain in the risen body as marks of his love. Isaiah had said of the Servant, “he was pierced for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). The scars that Thomas could touch were the scars by which he had been saved.
John does not say whether Thomas actually touched Jesus. Jesus’ next words, “Because you have seen me, you have believed” (John 20:29), suggest that seeing and hearing the Lord was enough.
- “Don’t be unbelieving, but believing”
This is both a rebuke and an invitation. Jesus calls Thomas to move from unbelief to faith. The father who brought his son to Jesus once cried, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Jesus is patient with honest doubt, but he does not want his disciples to remain in it.
- “My Lord and my God!”
Thomas’ reply is a confession of faith and an act of worship. He does not only call Jesus “Lord”, a title the disciples had used before; he calls him “my God.” John’s Gospel began with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Now, near its end, a disciple says the same thing to the risen Jesus himself. The Gospel opens and closes with the deity of Christ.
Jesus accepts this worship. He does not correct Thomas or refuse the words, as a mere man or an angel would have had to do. Elsewhere Jesus had said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The New Testament also speaks of “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
The words are personal: “my Lord” and “my God.” Thomas does not merely agree with a doctrine; he gives himself to the one who died and rose for him.
The Significance of John 20:27-28
- Jesus meets honest doubters
Thomas’ story encourages those who struggle to believe. Jesus did not reject Thomas but came to him and gave him what he needed. Honest questions brought to Jesus can lead to deep faith.
- Faith confesses Jesus as Lord and God
The goal of John’s Gospel is that readers would believe “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31). Thomas’ confession shows what that faith looks like. Paul writes, “if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
- Worship belongs to Jesus
If Jesus is truly Lord and God, then he deserves our worship, trust and obedience. One day “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).
Cross-References:
John 20:25: "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Thomas’ conditions.
John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Gospel’s opening confession.
Mark 9:24: "I believe. Help my unbelief!" A prayer for faith.
Titus 2:13: "the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ;" Jesus confessed as God.
Conclusion: Jesus met doubting Thomas with grace, inviting him to see his hands and side and calling him to believe. Thomas responded with the greatest confession in John’s Gospel: “My Lord and my God!” His words show that the risen Jesus is truly God and call every reader to trust and worship him personally.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible