Smoodock's Blog

We are told that after eight days, Jesus once again appeared to the Twelve (John 20:26). Most scholars believe this means eight days after the resurrection, which places his visit on the following Sunday. But, this isn’t true! The Passover was an eight-day festival commemorating the Jews’ coming out of bondage. Jesus, the Passover Lamb, was crucified on the first day of that festival, so the eighth day would have been Wednesday, eight days after Jesus was crucified. Leaven, a type of sin, had to be removed from each home on the first day, but as circumstance would have it, men really aren’t that good at being perfectly obedient.

At times a little leaven would be discovered and removed on the second day, as well, and the third etc. So, it was the duty of the faithful to remove leaven from one’s dwelling as one found it throughout the eight days. Jesus came to his disciples on the eighth day, saying “Peace be unto you!” (John 20:26), just as he had done earlier in the week. The first time he returned three days after his crucifixion to remove the ‘leaven’ of unbelief from his disciples who were in the upper room at that time. This time Jesus had come to remove the remaining ‘leaven’ from his disciples, which meant confronting Thomas’ unbelief and probably that of Judas, although Judas isn’t specifically mentioned after the resurrection in any of the Gospel narratives. Nevertheless, his presence is implied in Mark 16:14 (cp. Luke 24:9, 23), and he would hang himself in despair before the Lord would finally ascend into heaven (Acts 1:12-13).

Therefore, Jesus came to his disciples once again, and the doors were shut. Once they saw him, he addressed Thomas, telling him to come forth and put his finger into the nail print of his hands and place his hand into the spear print of his side and don’t continue in unbelief but believe (John 20:27). Thomas responded by saying to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!”

Such a statement has met with some controversy among certain scholars. Some wish to conclude Thomas swore at the sight of Jesus, something like saying: “Oh, my God!” Nevertheless, Jesus didn’t rebuke him for swearing, which he certainly would have done. After all, he was there to cast out the leaven. Thus, by not rebuking Thomas for what he said implies that Jesus accepted Thomas’ address as true and fitting. In other words, John’s narrative begins and ends with a statement of Jesus’ deity. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the Word was made flesh!” (John 1:1, 14), and here we have Thomas’ testimony and greeting his Lord with: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28; cp. 1:10-13).

Jesus responded to Thomas by saying he believed the physical evidence, but blessed are they who believe the witnesses of his resurrection without seeing the physical evidence (John 20:29). Moreover, we have in this account of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances a parallel to his prayer in John 17. The first part of that prayer concerned his going to the Father, and this is what was told Mary Magdalene during his first appearance. When he appeared to his disciples the first time, this was a parallel to the main body of Jesus’ prayer as that pertained to the disciples being of one accord in their faith. The account involving Thomas pertained to that part of Jesus’ prayer for the folks who would believe the message his original disciples preached.

John summarizes his narrative by saying Jesus had done many miracles (John 20:30), but, rather than write a biography about Jesus, John decided to prove Jesus was the Messiah by describing what occurred surrounding seven of those many miracles or signs.

These signs were presented to the reader to convince him that Jesus is not only the Messiah, but God in the flesh, and in believing, he is promised eternal life (John 20:31).