Reflection for Easter 2 – My Lord and my God
Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” John 20:27
In a real way I can connect with Thomas after my experience of isolation. Thomas had not the advantage of the other followers of Christ. He hadn’t been there when the risen Christ had appeared to the others. He had missed out – rather like I missed out on Easter this year! And he wanted the same experience his friends had!
In that closed and locked room after the crucifixion, Jesus appears suddenly to his closest followers for the second time. And it was the invitation from Jesus to Thomas that opened Thomas’ eyes. In all the pieces of art work that I have seen about ‘doubting Thomas’ (including the one shown from Caravaggio c. 1602), Thomas is pictured as poking his finger in the hole in Jesus’ side as Jesus calmly looks on. But the reading from John’s gospel does not actually say that Thomas did this. But Thomas has been saddled with the prefix ‘doubting’ for many centuries.
What Thomas says is much more important! Immediately after the invitation from Jesus he says with the deepest of conviction:
“My Lord and my God.”
My Lord and my God. The wonderful moment when everything changes for this human being. And for many, many others as Thomas lived from then on determined to bring to others the good news of the risen Christ – Lord and God.
So I give thanks to that Thomas from long ago. For his demand to share the same experience his friends had.
I give thanks for the risen Christ, our Lord and our God, who welcomed his closest friends to touch, see and reach out his wounds – an intimate and vulnerable invitation even in resurrection.
May we all have the courage to let/demand that God see our own wounds and ask for the radical kind of healing that the risen life brings with the confession on our hearts, minds and lips:
My Lord and my God.
Blessings
Ceri
