John 20:28Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When Thomas, having been assured, found rest, he cried out: "My Lord and my God!"

Thus Thomas touched the Master's hands and the divine side. Filled at once with fear and great joy at the sight of what he desired, he immediately moved his tongue to a hymn of praise and cried to the Lord: "My Lord and my God!"

You are Lord and God. You are man and Lover of mankind. You are the wondrous and extraordinary physician of nature. You do not cut away passions with iron. You do not cauterize wounds with fire. You do not gather healing power from herbs. You do not bind grievous wounds with visible bandages.

Yours are invisible bandages of mercy, invisibly binding what has been divided. Yours is a word sharper than iron. Yours is a command stronger than fire. Yours is a gesture more effective than medicine. As the orderer of the world, You sanctify creation without toil. As Creator, You refashion created things without effort.

You cleansed lepers as You willed. You made the lame swift. You made the paralytics carry their beds. You commanded those blind from birth to wash away their darkness. You drove demons out of Your creatures. You were seized by enemies willingly. You willingly suffered all things in the flesh from the Jews for my sake. "My Lord and my God!"

I have known my Master. I have known my captor and guardian. I have known my King and Lord. "My Lord and my God!" Master, I believe in Your divine economy. I believe in Your condescension. I believe in Your taking authority over me. I believe in Your worshipful cross. I believe in Your sufferings in the flesh. I believe in Your three-day death. I believe in Your resurrection.

I will no longer be inquisitive at last. I believe, and I will no longer give an account. I believe, and I will no longer weigh matters. I believe, and I will no longer investigate carefully. I believe my eyes. I believe my right hand. I have learned that one need not give an account of what one has seen. I have learned not to dispute, but to worship what I have handled.

I know one Lord and God, the Master Christ, to whom be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Obeying the law of the Church, I gathered my strength and ascended this seat. Yet the greatness of the subject overwhelms me. I am at a loss and wholly perplexed about how to undertake the matter and in what manner to speak.

Shall I preach about Thomas as living? But his tomb proclaims his death. Shall I speak of him as dead? But then his deeds bear witness against me. He is both dead and immortal. He died as a man, and he circles the world like an angel. He suffered passions, and he struggles against the passions. He lies below, and he rejoices above.

Nothing could conceal him. No place has hidden him. He illumines the whole world. He received burial, yet everywhere he shines like the sun. The relics of the righteous man have conquered the earth and have proved broader than creation. Grace has sown him throughout the whole world.

All tribes partake of Thomas. He has filled the whole world and remains whole everywhere. His glory has gone out into all the earth, and his trophies have been raised at the ends of the universe. What shall I call him? The sun? But for him there is no night. A star? But he does not grow dim even by day.

At every time he illumines creation and conquers every darkness in the universe. With him there is no longer night. Darkness does not master him. A river does not hold him. The sea cannot swallow him. The ocean knows him. The barbarians honor Thomas. All nations celebrate today and bring his words to the Master as a gift: "My Lord and my God!"

My kinsman and my Creator, my Redeemer and my King! This is what Thomas taught us. This is what he left us as an inheritance, as to children. The human race treasures his words like a treasure. All people hold fast to them. These words are known also to the angels. For them, too, this confession is like an anchor. All creation is adorned with his teaching as with a crown.

Arius alone estranges himself from this word. He alone is deprived of this inheritance. He alone does not share Thomas's faith in Christ as Lord. He does not acknowledge Him with Thomas as God. He calls the Master a servant, the Radiance a creature, the lawful One unlawful, the Creator a thing made.

He does not call the Master Lord and God. He cannot bear the truth. He does not agree with Thomas. He does not follow the righteous man. Yet he too honors his present day and celebrates it with the whole universe, numbering himself among Thomas's friends.

But vice does not deceive virtue. One who is in error does not agree with the guide of truth. The shepherd knows the beast. The hunter knows the wolf. The helmsman knows the wave. The harbor knows the storm. The commander knows the enemy. Thomas knows Arius, knows him, and persecutes him.

The apostle does not accept honor from a blasphemer. He does not enter a den of murderers. He does not consent to them. He turns away from the assembly of the lawless. He abhors the voice that opposes him. He hates the mouth that speaks unrighteousness against God (Ps 74:6). He rejects the tongue that does not name Christ Lord.

He cries out to him from the whole universe: Arius, why do you glorify me? Why do you anoint my head with oil? Why do you celebrate my day, lawless man? I do not accept your praise. I do not agree with your vain faith. I do not acknowledge your lawless teaching.

Do not honor me while dishonoring the Creator. I do not accept honor that gives birth to dishonor. If you insult the Master, why do you honor me, His servant? If you do not share my faith, why do you celebrate my memory? If you do not agree with me, why do you enter into communion with my tomb?

I was taught to confess Christ as Lord and God. I handled Him with my hand and found the truth. I was assured by my own fingers. I do not preach from another's words. I do not speak of the wonder by hearsay. I did not believe those who said to me, "We have seen the Lord" (Jn 20:25).

I did not agree with the apostles. I pushed away Peter when he tried to teach me. I said to him: Man, why do you trouble me? What need have I of a word when there is no deed? Why do you require me to believe on a word? Unless I see, I will not believe.

You have seen. Let me also see. You are convinced. Grant me also to be convinced. You have been taught. I also wish to be taught. Let me see what I must preach, and then I shall preach. No one preaches by hearsay. No one offers teaching drawn from rumor. No one will want to hear me speaking from your words.

If they ask me whether it is true that Christ is risen, what shall I say? If I say, "Peter says that He is risen," who will believe me? Let me see, and then I shall preach. Let me learn, and I shall teach. Let me be assured, and then I shall believe.

Then I too could say of myself: Thomas, an apostle, not from men nor through men. And behold, while I was saying this, the Lord appeared and immediately resolved the dispute. He said to me: What is the matter with you, Thomas? Why are you disputing with Peter? Why are you contending with friends?

Come here. Know the wonder by experience. Learn the resurrection by the deed itself. Put out your hand and examine the body. If you can contain it, hold it. If you have pure fingers, touch the wounds. If you believe, you will succeed. But if you only contradict, you will not find. If you do not believe, you will not know.

If you doubt, you will not receive what suffered. If you are led by passion, you will not understand the Passionless One. Hearing this, I cleansed my soul of unbelief. I loosed the doubt of my thought. I received a convinced mind.

I handled the body with joy and trembling. Together with my fingers I satisfied the inner heart and felt a twofold power. I touched and saw. With my hand I handled the body, and with my soul I saw God. I found the outward thing wondrous and the inward thing fearful. The visible was great, and what was grasped by the mind was marvelous.

Then, struck by all that I had received, I cried out: "My Lord and my God." Truly, I found nothing servile in Him. I saw no abasement in anything. What is of one nature with us shone forth in Him, and the divine flashed out. What was borne was exalted, and what bore it was glorified. And while two things were contemplated, the worshiped person was one.

This I grasped by experience. This I obtained by my finger. This I understood with my soul. But you, Arius, where did you learn your blasphemy? Whence did you come to know what you preach? Did you handle Christ as I handled Him? Did you stretch out your hand to Him? Did you examine His wounds?

Can you appeal to your fingers as confirmation? Did you embrace the Lord? With what hand? Was it not the one with which you robbed the apostles? Was it not the one with which you received the barbarian's spoil? Was it not the one with which you received the wage of impiety? Was it not the one with which you melted down the vessels?

Did you handle Christ with that hand? May it not be! The Master is not so unjust. Christ is not so unwise as to entrust His own flesh to you. You did not embrace Him whom you rejected. You did not handle Him whom you hated. You did not examine Him whom you diminished.

If you had examined Him, you would not have brought Him low. If you had looked carefully, you would not have interpreted so wickedly. Away with your impiety. Be cast down with your allies. Behold, I have already overthrown one of your strongholds. Behold, I have freed Thrace from your power.

A little more, and I shall destroy you everywhere. A little more, and I shall drive you from the whole universe. Now I have struck you on the head, and behold, I shall free the West from your madness. O blessed Thomas! Fulfill your words in deed. Justify their good beginning. Strengthen them with the same end.

Free the West also, as you freed Thrace. Let the robber be beheaded like the rebel. Crown the king with victory. Grant peace to the world. Reward the zeal of those who pray. Receive the supplications of the whole city. Every age of the city's people has its representatives before you.

Old men and youths fall down before your tomb. Maidens and boys embrace your body. Infants, like nestlings, turn their open mouths toward you. Do not despise this sight. Do not leave our labor vain. Give us a reward worthy of our efforts.

We ask nothing unusual of you. We ask for what you have. We seek what you give. We desire what is desirable to you yourself. We desire that the enemy be struck, Arius be cast down, the king be crowned, and the world be converted to Christ. We desire that Christ be glorified, and that from the whole universe together it be cried to Him: "My Lord and my God!"

To Him be glory, honor, and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.

And behold, Thomas touched the Master's hands and the divine rib. Filled at once with fear and joy at the sight that presented itself to his eyes, he immediately sang to the Lord and cried out: "My Lord and my God!"

You are Lord and God. You are man and Lover of mankind. You are the physician of nature, wondrous and extraordinary. You do not cut sufferings with iron. You do not burn wounds with fire. You do not compound medicines from herbs. You do not place visible bandages on suffering members.

You have invisible bonds of compassion, invisibly binding everything that has been weakened. Your thought is sharper than iron. Your word is stronger than fire. Your gesture is more powerful than any medicine. As Creator, You sanctify creation without labor. As Maker, You transform the creature without effort.

"My Lord and my God!" By Your will lepers were cleansed, the lame began to walk, the paralytics became able to carry their beds, those born blind received sight through washing, and demons fled. Yet You allowed Yourself to be seized by Your enemies and voluntarily suffered all things from the Jews in the flesh for my sake.

See how the one who at first did not believe became, through touching the side, an excellent theologian. For he proclaimed two natures and one person in the one Christ. By saying, “Lord,” he confessed the human nature, for “lord” is also used of men, as in, “Sir, if you have carried Him away” (Jn 20:15). By saying, “My God,” he confessed the divine essence. Thus he confessed One and the Same as Lord and God.

He who recently was slow in the matter of faith in Him proves swift in confession. In a very short time he is healed of little faith. Only eight days had passed, and every obstacle arising from little faith was abolished by Christ, who showed the wounds of the nails and His side itself.

Yet perhaps someone will say to this: Tell me, why does the mind of the holy disciples pass through such subtle inquiry and careful examination? Would not the sight of the body, the features of the face, and the measure of His stature have sufficed to prove the truth of the resurrection from the dead and to recognize the Lord? What shall we say to this?

When Jesus showed Thomas what still remained doubtful to him, he cried out, "My Lord and my God!" He touched His flesh and proclaimed His Divinity. What did he touch? The body of Christ. Was the body of Christ the Divinity of Christ? The Divinity of Christ was the Word. The humanity of Christ was soul and flesh.

Thomas could not touch the soul, but he could perceive it, because the body that had been dead had come to life and was moving. But the Word does not change and is not touched. It neither declines nor flourishes, for "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1). This is what Thomas proclaimed. He touched the flesh and cried out to the Word, because "the Word became flesh" (Jn 1:14).

Let those who previously denied that the Crucified One is God acknowledge their error, convinced by the divine Scriptures and especially by the example of Thomas. When he saw the marks of the nails on Him, he cried out, “My Lord and my God!”

You have read that the Father is both Lord and God: "O Lord my God, I cried to Thee, and Thou hast healed me" (Ps 29:3). But the Son too is Lord and God, as you have read in the Gospel, when Thomas touched the side of Christ and said, "My Lord and my God!"

Thus, as the Father is God and the Son is Lord, so also the Son is God and the Father is Lord. The names pass piously from the One to the Other, but the nature of the Divinity is not changed, and the dignity remains unaltered. These are not stores of favors, but gifts of natural love. For unity too has its own property, and this property leads to unity.

Seeing the wounds from the nails on the Savior’s hands and the wound from the spear in His side, Thomas immediately believed, without insisting on touching them. Some, however, affirm that Thomas touched them and then cried out, “My Lord and my God.”

That God is truly called, in a preeminent sense, the God of those who have believed in Him is taught by Thomas. Calling the God of all his Lord or God, he cried out, “My Lord and my God.”

Thomas, when he touched the flesh, believed that he had touched God, saying, “My Lord and my God!” For they all confessed one Christ, so as not to make two out of Him. Believe in Him, then. Believe that Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, the Only-begotten and Firstborn, is both the Creator of all things and the Guardian of mankind. He is first the Maker of the whole world, and then the Redeemer of the human race.

If the Apostle Paul says, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Heb 11:1), then it is entirely clear that faith is conviction concerning things that cannot be manifested. What is manifested has no need of faith, but of knowledge.

Therefore, when Thomas saw and touched, why is it said to him, "You have believed because you have seen Me"? He saw one thing and believed another. The Godhead cannot be seen by mortal man. Thus he saw a man and confessed God, saying, "My Lord and my God." Through seeing, then, he believed. Reflecting on the true Man, he cried out that He is God, whom it is impossible to see.

But He who searches the hearts and reins saw Thomas broken in heart, like the publican of old, and had compassion. He cried to him: “Put your hand here. Tell Me, why do you doubt, O you of little faith? Which of My sufferings has made you unbelieving? Was it the crucifixion, or the putting to death? Or was it My very resurrection? How long will you doubt concerning Me? He whom you greatly desired to see is here. Behold Him, and cry out: You are our Lord and God.”

Thomas was slow in faith, but swift in confession. See what sincerity and perfection his confession has, together with its likeness to Peter's confession. Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16). Thomas confesses, "My Lord and my God!"

Both alike confess the humanity and theologize concerning the Divinity of Christ. Both confess the two natures and the one person of the God-man, the Savior. Peter confesses the human nature by saying, "Thou art the Christ." Thomas confesses it by saying, "My Lord." Peter confesses the divine nature by saying, "the Son of the living God." Thomas confesses it by saying, "my God."

Thomas, already convinced that the hands of Jesus standing before him were truly pierced through, stretches his hand toward the wound in His side. He touches it and, falling down before Him, exclaims, “You are my Lord and my God!” Thomas was the first of all people to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God.

By these words the Lord showed that even then He was present, omnipresent according to the Godhead, in the midst of His disciples. Thomas supposed Him absent when he expressed his perplexity to them at their report of the Resurrection. Thomas wished to be assured of the Resurrection. He receives an incomparably higher assurance, before which he no longer pays attention to assurance of the Resurrection. “My Lord and my God!” Thomas cries. “Having been assured of Your Godhead, I no longer seek assurance of the Resurrection. To You, almighty God, all acts that surpass human comprehension are possible.”

"My Lord and my God." This is a living, full, and exalted confession of faith in the Lord as Messiah. What especially struck Thomas was not only the Lord's appearance itself, nor only the sensory assurance through touch that it was truly He. He was also struck by this manifestation of His omniscience, by which He repeated Thomas's words spoken in His absence.