Paradigms of Reality

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although 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, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:24-29 (ESV)

I have been deeply troubled in my heart, asking myself when did my faith in Jesus become cold and distant. I remember days when it was my delight in knowing him, reading of him, talking with him, speaking to others of him. There were the blessed days of witnessing to complete strangers on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, California, and the Bible studies with dear brothers and sisters who helped me when I first trusted Jesus. When did my trust in the Person of Jesus Christ lose its lustre? And, more importantly, why?

I have been over the familiar rubrics for asking these questions. Unconfessed sin? Certainly. Ungodly thoughts, words, and actions? Most assuredly. Foolishness? Without a doubt. But, even as I deal with these issues, trusting in the forgiveness that Christ promises me in his Word (1 John 1:9), I find myself yearning for more of Christ. And I doubt I am the only one who feels this way.

With deep gratitude to the weekly preaching of my pastor, I have been forced into a much more careful consideration of the physical resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead, than I have ever considered it before this time. What has become a commonplace tenet of orthodox Christianity, has become too commonplace for me. It is too familiar to me; too much is taken for granted. The physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead is much more than a tenet, it is the vindication of all that the Father says of the Son, of all the Son says of himself, and all that the Holy Spirit has to say of the Son (1 Corinthians 15:14). If I have taken the resurrection of Jesus from the dead for granted, then I have taken Jesus himself for granted.

When confronted by the resurrected Jesus, Thomas's confession is, at least in my opinion,  the most profound confession of Jesus as the Christ in all of Scripture, easily exceeding the confessions of Peter and of Paul. Thomas's (my namesake by the way; the older I become, the more apt I think my parents named me) entire worldview was overthrown when Jesus says to him, "Put your finger here." Thomas knew that the Romans were experts at killing people, and in the Roman world, life was cheap. But, standing before him is the resurrected Jesus. Thomas can only reply, "My Lord and my God!"

The grinding of gears that you hear is the shifting of another paradigm of reality. Now, it's time to examine more closely the paradigm of reality that Jesus established by his resurrection from the dead.

And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.   Luke 24:5-7(ESV)