What happened to your hands? (2)

John 20:25

John 20:25 ESV

25 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.”

John 20:26–28 ESV

26 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.” 27 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.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Are we alone in our doubt, our unbelief?

Another mysterious element is the fact that Jesus was often not recognized at first sight. “Some doubted” (Matt. 28:17), a statement that is best understood to mean that they doubted Jesus’ identity. Mary Magdalene mistook Jesus for the gardener and did not even recognize his voice (Jn. 20:14–15). While this may have been caused by Jesus himself, as was the case with the disciples at Emmaus (Lk. 24:16), it is equally possible that the change which the resurrection had brought about in Jesus’ body also played a role. “None of the disciples dared ask him, ‘Who are you?’” (Jn. 21:12). They knew it was the Lord. One may conclude that Jesus’ appearance was more or less unusual and made some disciples uncertain as to his identity.

Moisés Silva; Merrill C. Tenney, “resurrection of Jesus Christ.,” ZEB, 5:101.

It is rightly said that the best of men are men at best. Even the greatest human leaders will let you down at some point. John the Baptist showed this after his arrest by Herod, when he briefly doubted Jesus. But Jesus stands apart from every mere man—even a great man like John the Baptist—because he lacks any of our limitations and is utterly without flaw. Every other person ultimately will fail simply because of death. This is how John the Baptist’s ministry ended: he was callously executed by Herod. But Jesus’ ministry was not ended by death: he rose from the dead and lives forever to be the unique Savior we can fully trust.

Daniel M. Doriani, Philip Graham Ryken, and Richard D. Phillips, The Incarnation in the Gospels, Reformed Expository Commentary; Accordance electronic ed. (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company, 2008), 181.

There is nothing wrong with godly traditions, until they become an end in themselves, as they tend to do. The Pharisees trusted Moses, but doubted Jesus’ teaching. How this would have dismayed Moses, since he pointed to Christ! As Jesus earlier said, Moses himself would judge them for their unbelief: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46). Moreover, there is particular irony in the Pharisees’ opposition to Jesus’ miracle of giving sight, since the prophets had specified this as a sign of the Messiah. “In that day,” Isaiah wrote, “out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see” (Isa. 29:18).

Richard D. Phillips, John 1–10, Reformed Expository Commentary 1; Accordance electronic ed. (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company, 2014), 606.

11:16 We often remember Thomas as “the doubter,” because he doubted Jesus’ resurrection (John 20:25). But here he demonstrated love and courage. The disciples knew the dangers of going with Jesus to Jerusalem, and they tried to talk him out of it. Thomas merely expressed what all of them felt. When their objections failed, they were willing to go, even though it appeared they might have to die with Jesus. They may not have understood why Jesus would be killed, but they were loyal. There are unknown dangers in doing God’s work. It is wise to consider the high cost of being Jesus’ disciple.

Life Application Study Bible, Accordance electronic ed. (Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), paragraph 13244.

Like Paul on the road to Damascus (Act 9:1-18), or the guys on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-50), God will hid us with the truth and reality of his existence, the road being our journey here on this earth.

We don’t come to god out of fear but because of his reconciliation on the cross back to union and subsequent risen from and conquering death

“She was clasping His hand as she asked Him, “Que paso con tus manos?”—“What happened to Your hands?”

That question, I suspect, contains the answer to the doubt of the skeptic, the duplicity of the believer, and the despair of the suffering.”

“But “What happened to your hands?” answers what it takes to rescue this life of mine from self-serving intellect or from ”

“self-glorifying moralizing. It offers a visual answer as to the lengths Christ has gone to reach my own pain, and it brings me to a place from which I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. It buries the self that seeks the self and brings to birth the fullest person that God has so uniquely endowed.

That is to say, in the cross I find my definitive loss that I might obtain my greatest gain. Only when the skeptic and the believer can see those marks that prompt “What happened to your hands?” can life’s questions cease and answers pour forth from the depths of the soul.”

Before then men had groped about in the dark and their hopes dashed and fears ended in death, but now in a flash of blinding light such as later encountered Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road it became indubitably clear that the Crucified Jesus Christ is actually the very Son of God, the Saviour of the world.

it is at the Resurrection that we learn the real secret of Christ’s Person to be not human but divine

Identify verse where disciples doubted, ran away from Jesus, then after resurrection they believed

Peter, Thomas, road to Emmaus

Message to start with scripture doubting Jesus, Peter, Thomas

with the miracle that a crucifixion had been transformed into a blessing!

Jesus didn’t come to be an earthtly king, kingdom that come and go, governments come and go, but he came to establish an eternal kingdom

Disciples desert Jesus

John 6:60–71 ESV

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

The resurrection message burst through frontiers and was universal: Christ has been raised not as an individual but as Israel’s messiah, as the Son of man of the nations, as humanity’s ‘new Adam’, and as ‘the first born of all creation’. The Orthodox Easter icon brings out the collective character of Christ’s resurrection particularly well: the resurrection begins in the world of the dead. The risen Christ pulls Adam with his right hand and Eve with his left, and with them draws the whole of humanity out of the world of death into the transfigured world of eternal life. His new beginning in his end is the beginning of God’s new world in the passing away of this one. Whether this world will come to an end, and whatever that end may be, the Christian hope says: God’s future has already begun. With Christ’s resurrection from the catastrophe of Golgotha the new beginning has already been made, a beginning which will never again pass away because it issues from the victory over transience.

Moltmann, J., 2004. In the End—The Beginning: The Life of Hope, Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.

References

The Bible records that several people were raised from the dead. Elijah raised a widow’s son from the dead, another widow’s son was raised by Jesus, and Lazarus was also raised by Jesus. However, their revitalization (or resuscitation) is absolutely not the same as Christ’s “resurrection,” which is anastasis in Greek. They arose only to die again; He arose to live forever. They arose still doomed by corruptibility; He arose incorruptible. They arose with no change to their constitution; He arose in a significantly different form. When Jesus arose from the dead, He was glorified, transfigured, and became life-giving spirit. All three happened simultaneously. When He was resurrected, He was glorified (Luke 24:26). At the same time, His body was transfigured into a glorious one (Phil. 3:21) and became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).

Carpenter, E.E. & Comfort, P.W., 2000. Holman treasury of key Bible words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew words defined and explained, p.378.

Toward the end of our thinking about Christology we have come to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ—but this was actually the point at which we began, for it is in the light of the resurrection that the Person of Christ is properly to be understood. It was the resurrection of Christ which converted the band of hesitant and doubting disciples into Apostles of Hope. It was the fact that they saw and encountered their Lord risen from the dead that sent them forth with a Gospel to preach. Before then the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth might almost be called a defeat! He had won but few disciples, and even they all forsook him and fled at the decisive moment in his life. Even Peter who had made the great confession that Jesus was the Son of God and who appeared to have reached through the Spirit knowledge of the reality of our Lord’s Person wavered, and fell before the taunt of a servant girl. Still it was the miracle of the Resurrection which really and finally awakened faith in its proper and powerful form in the disciples. It was the resurrection which gave them the proper understanding of Jesus Christ, such as they have testified to. Christ is risen! The Lord is risen!

Torrance, T.F., 2002. The Doctrine of Jesus Christ, Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers.

“They were talking about everything that had happened the previous week when Jesus Himself appeared and walked along with them. But somehow they were kept from recognizing Him. Jesus asked them why they were so downcast, and they responded by asking Him if He was the only visitor to Jerusalem who didn’t know what had happened there over the weekend.

The delightful irony of their question is that He was the only one who did know what had happened! Luke tells us, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).”

Excerpt From: Ravi Zacharias. “The Logic of God”. Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-logic-of-god/id1441053117

“Suddenly, the disciples were stopped in their tracks and they recognized Him: Jesus! Whether when He broke the bread they were reminded of a meal shared with Him previously, or when they caught a glimpse of the wounds in His hands, their eyes were opened to Him. ”

Excerpt From: Ravi Zacharias. “The Logic of God”. Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-logic-of-god/id1441053117

“If one could only be face-to-face with Him from whom life comes, how delightful would be those moments when the most confounding and painful questions of life are raised. Though unaware that they were walking with the risen Christ, the men who walked on the Emmaus Road said that their hearts burned within them as He opened up the past, the present, and the future. When they realized who He was, a light for all of history had been turned on.”

Excerpt From: Ravi Zacharias. “The Logic of God”. Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-logic-of-god/id1441053117

Luke 24:13 (ESV): On the Road to Emmaus

“At the close of Luke’s gospel, we see Jesus’ disciples disillusioned, confused, and fearful following the crucifixion. In the last chapter, Luke tells us that on the Sunday of Jesus’ resurrection, two of Jesus’ followers are walking to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking about all that had happened the previous week when Jesus himself came up and walked along with them—but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them what they were talking about, and they, in amazement asked him if he is the only visitor to Jerusalem who didn’t know what had happened there over the weekend. The delightful irony of their question is that he was the only one who did know what had happened. His explanation of the significance of these events was detailed, profound, and persuasive, going right back to the writings of the prophets as he unfolded the eternal plan of God.

The seven miles flew by, and before they realized it, they had arrived in Emmaus. True Easterners, they invited Jesus to join them for dinner. He accepted their invitation and as they sat down to eat, Jesus, the universal member of all cultures, became the host as he took bread in his hands and gave thanks to the Father for it. Whether it was the way he broke the bread that may have reminded them of a meal they had shared with him previously, or whether as he did so, they suddenly noticed the wounds in his hands, their eyes were opened to him, and they understood God’s eternal presence in all things throughout history, even when hope seems lost.

As “Jesus left them, the fatigue of the miles they had walked that day vanished, and they joyfully retraced their steps to Jerusalem—all seven miles of them—to tell the other disciples the good news Jesus had shared with them.”

Excerpt From

Has Christianity Failed You?

Ravi Zacharias

https://books.apple.com/us/book/has-christianity-failed-you/id398991077