Generally, I avoid the awards shows like the Emmys and the Oscars. I avoid them for several reasons: During an election years especially, I think we have to listen to too many political speeches. Then, too, until recently it almost seems as if there was a concerted attempt to hire really obnoxious off-color commentators as hosts. I will admit I occasionally watch the Tony’s because those folks know how to behave in front of a live audience.
Anyway, as I was preparing this message I thought of Sally Field’s famous speech for her second Oscar win. She had won the Oscar in 1979 for Norma Rae and then 1984 she won for Places in the Heart. I was still watching awards shows then and heard her famous acceptance speech. She said, “The first time I didn't feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!" As it happens, her speech is usually remembered as, “You like me, you really like me.” It’s been the focus of jokes and comedy routines. She’s a fine actress but that speech is what comes to mind when people think of her.
Thomas is another person who’s often remembered for a comment he made.
I’m talking about the disciple who will forever be known as “Doubting Thomas.” You and I have joined countless others in pinning that name on him.
If we do we're being just a little unfair. After all, unlike us, he had never experienced an Easter. And, unlike us, he had seen a crucifixion.
We know very little about this man Thomas. John tells us what we do know. . His name means "twin" so he probably had at least one brother or sister somewhere. That brother or sister is never identified in the Bible.
Let me remind you of what was happening. On the third day following Jesus' execution, several women went to the tomb and found it empty. They immediately reported to the eleven disciples; Peter and John went to the tomb and confirmed what the women had found. At this point, no one was quite certain what was happening. Though John may have walked away with a degree of faith, perhaps no more than a hunch, about what had happened.
As the morning wore on, a strange report reached the frightened, hiding disciples. Mary claimed to have seen Jesus, raised from the dead. What could it mean?
On the evening of that first day, while they were still frightened and confused, Jesus appeared to ten of the disciples. For reasons the Bible never explains, Thomas wasn't present for that momentous event. But he heard about it as soon as he returned.
He had no more than entered the room when his friends exclaimed, "We've seen the Lord!" No doubt they told him every detail of the visit, maybe they told him more than once.
Thomas listened respectfully and then said, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
So Thomas goes down in history for saying, “Not so fast. For something this big, I’m going to need more than your word.”
Well, a week goes by. We don't know if Thomas made his statement only once or repeatedly as he heard his fellow disciples retell their story. It doesn't matter, because suddenly Jesus was back.
His disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them this time. Here’s John’s account:
Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. "
There before Thomas was the proof that the cemetery isn’t the final destination. Jesus was alive--the same Jesus who had taught them for three years, the same Jesus who had walked the dusty roads of Judea and Galilee with them, the same Jesus who had been nailed to a cross, whose heart had been pierced by a Roman spear.
It’s a shame Thomas is so little remembered for that second statement.
As John tells the story, Thomas is the first to put it all together and reach a startling conclusion about Jesus, the man the disciples had travelled with for three years: When they had walked with Jesus they had been walking with God.
Let’s let Thomas’ words be a starting point for exploring the issue of the Deity of Christ Jesus.
(1) Almost certainly, his words invited his fellow disciples to look back over their years of association with Jesus. And, although we can only joint them in our imagination, we will benefit from making the attempt.
As we join countless Christians in years past on this exercise, we will see Jesus saying and doing things that provide hints to his identity.
What were some of these hints?
Jesus used titles for himself that his Jewish people only applied to God. For example, in John 8:58 Jesus applied the divine title, “I AM,” to himself. The response of Jesus enemies suggests they understood his bold claim. He had not only claimed to be greater than Abraham, the founder of their religion, he had claimed to be God.
Jesus insisted he had the right to forgive sins—a right possessed only by God. In Mark 2:1-12, we read of such an occasion. In the story of a man brought to Jesus by four friends, an interesting bit of dialogue appears.
LK 5:20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are
forgiven."
LK 5:21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to
themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins
but God alone?"
LK 5:22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you
thinking these things in your hearts? [23] Which is easier: to say, `Your
sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Get up and walk'? [24] But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . ."
Did you follow that? The Scribes and Pharisees claim that only God can forgive sin--a point which Jesus doesn't refute. Jesus claimed for himself the divine right to forgive sin!
Jesus taught he would be the Judge during the final judgment at the end of history. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned there would be a day of judgment. Who would be doing the judging? Listen, “On the day of judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, ‘We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles.’
But I will tell them, ‘I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!’”
But I will tell them, ‘I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!’”
Jesus encouraged people to pray to him and worship him. After healing a man who had been handicapped for nearly forty years, Jesus began talking to the people about his relationship to God. Among other things he said, “The Father wants all people to honor the Son as much as they honor him. When anyone refuses to honor the Son, that is the same as refusing to honor the Father who sent him.”
We can imagine the disciples recalling incident after incident where Jesus, explicitly or implicitly, hinted at his identity.
--He allowed himself to be called "good" and then reminded the speaker that, "No one is good except God alone." (Luke 18)
--He claimed to be the only way of access to God. "I am the Way: I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me."
--He claimed equality with God. (John 5:18) Again his opponents were ready execute him for blasphemy. They knew what he was saying.
Maybe, as the disciples reflected on what they knew about the man they had known so well, one of them—Matthew, for instance—reasoned he should try to discover more about him. Who better to ask than Mary?
Perhaps this was when the future gospel writer first heard the remarkable story of the Virgin Birth. It was a remarkable story, but to some extent the early Christians seem to have treated the virginal conception—to use the proper term—with an attitude that said, “Of course, what else!” You see, it’s not so much that his virginal conception points to his deity as his deity points to his virginal conception. Someone as remarkable as Jesus would naturally come into the world in a remarkable way.
Of course the early Christians would have known the Greek myths of the gods impregnating young women but this story had none of the characteristics of such stories. Besides, no Jew would borrow a clearly pagan notion to apply it to the birth of the Messiah. Then, too, the Jews don’t appear to have expected the Messiah to be born of a virgin. The Isaiah 7:14 passage isn’t cited as pointing to the Messiah.
At some point, as Matthew reflected on the story, he seems to have recalled the verse from Isaiah. He saw that it fit. Isaiah had said the baby to be born as a token of God’s commitment to the nation eight centuries before would be called “Immanuel,” which means “God is with us.” While that was true on one level for the prophet’s people, when Jesus was born, God was truly with us in an even more remarkable way.[2]
If we could ask the disciples, they might say, “The clues were there all along but we didn’t see them until we saw them in the light of Easter morning.”
(2) Thomas’ confession may have meant something to the gospel’s earliest readers that we in the twenty-first century might miss.
Thomas was applying to Jesus the very words Caesar had been applying to himself. As the first century moved toward its last decades the emperors were making bolder and bolder claims for themselves. In time, they would demand to be worshipped.
But keep this in mind. The Caesars who used these words for themselves often came to the throne because they were willing to deal out death to others. The Man standing before Believing Thomas had been the victim of deadly violence, not its perpetrator.
And, of course, one by one the Caesars would be carried to the grave and never return. This Jesus was carried to the grave and returned alive. Anyone thinking about this would have realized that Jesus was the real power in the world.
The power of Jesus was ultimately greater than that of Nero, greater than that of Domitian. Even the popular myth of Nero redivivus—the myth that Nero would return—paled before the reality of the empty tomb.
When these believers faced persecution and death, they were sustained by the knowledge of Jesus’ power.
(3) We need to remember that countless believers would come to echo Thomas’ testimony as they affirmed their faith in Christ and began their lives of discipleship.
New Testament scholars seem to be agreed that the earliest Christian creed was the simple statement, “Jesus is Lord.” According to Ben Witherington, the statement “… became for the early church the central Christian confession regarding Jesus.”[3]
Paul told the Romans that becoming a Christian involved such a confession: “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
He would tell the Corinthians that only when they could genuinely testify to this truth would their worship authentic: “I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”
Finally, Paul shows that the early church looked forward to the day when all the world would honor Jesus Christ: “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that ‘Jesus Christ is Lord,’ to the glory of God the Father.”
and every tongue confess that ‘Jesus Christ is Lord,’ to the glory of God the Father.”
In other ways, the early believers referred to Jesus as “Lord.” Why was this important?
The Greek word kyrios was used kings and emperors. It was also used for others in places of authority, for people who were in charge. And it was often used as a term of respect. During his earthly ministry people sometimes addressed Jesus using the word. Of course, when these people used it they were just being respectful.
But after the Resurrection, when believers used “Lord” when referring to Jesus, it had a special meaning. This was especially true for the Jewish Christians. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, kyrios was the word used to translate Yahweh (God’s personal Name) and Adonai (a title signifying God’s sovereignty). So when Christians with a Jewish background heard Jesus referred to as “Lord,” they would have thought “God.”
This testimony would continue throughout Christian history. Those popular writers who claim Christians didn’t believe in the deity of Christ until the fourth century are just wrong. Consider these words from some early Christians.
Ignatius of Antioch (30-107) wrote: “Jesus Christ our God;” “
Justin Martyr (100-165) wrote of Jesus, “who…being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God.” In his Dialogue with Trypho, he stated that, “God was born from a virgin” and that Jesus was “worthy of worship” and of being “called Lord and God.”
The earliest Christians were convinced Jesus is God.
That belief transformed their lives. That belief changed how they saw God. That belief changed how they related to one another. That belief brought peace in the face of death. That belief changed their driving force from selfishness to selflessness. That belief gave them purpose.
What has that belief done for us?
[1] Of course Jesus also said, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” I’m not convinced Jesus is criticizing Thomas. He may be speaking to generations to come. Jesus may simply be saying that those who come to faith without such a dramatic experience are nonetheless blessed.
[2] Raymond Brown comments, “no search for parallels has given us a truly satisfactory explanation of how early Christians happened upon the idea of a virginal conception—unless, of course, that is what really took place.” (Cited by Hank Hanegraaf in The Search for Jesus Hoax.)
[3] “Lord,” in Green, J. B., McKnight, S., & Marshall, I. H. (1992). Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (484). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.
