God-man

God-Man

My Lord and my God!

John 20:28

IN WORD The resurrected Jesus showed him His wounds, and floodlights filled Thomas’s mind with truth. He couldn’t restrain his reaction: He not only called Jesus “Lord”—he had likely done that many times before—but he called Him “God.” That doesn’t flow easily from one human being to another. Only a crisis of the soul can lead us to such a conclusion. Thomas had such a crisis. He had doubted the Resurrection and then was confronted with the incarnate Word. It blew his mind.

The same thing happened to Paul on the road to Damascus. Initially, Paul didn’t know whom he had seen, but he knew enough to call Him “Lord” (Acts 9:5-6). The response must have been staggering: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Like Thomas, it blew Paul’s mind.

This world isn’t very comfortable with God-men. We’ve only had one—the only One—and He didn’t fare too well in public opinion polls. Neither have His disciples. We’ve had a hard time convincing the skeptics that there really are holes in the hands and feet, and that there really is a dazzling Lord who can appear to His persecutors whenever He wants. Many in the church are not exactly comfortable with the deity of Jesus, either. Teacher, Healer, Prophet, and such titles are generally not a problem. Even “Lord” seems to fit. But God Himself? In human flesh? A rabbi in the Middle East a couple of millennia ago? We’re not sure we want to go that far.

IN DEED The story of Thomas’s moment of truth is noteworthy because of Jesus’ silence on the subject of His deity. Thomas calls Him “God” to His face—and Jesus never corrects him! Angels who are mistakenly worshiped in Scripture correct their worshipers, but not Jesus. He let it go. He let it go because Thomas wasn’t wrong. His moment of truth was entirely true.

And that’s critical for us to grasp. We can’t worship the Father in truth without worshiping the Son. Maybe it takes a crisis of the soul to get there, but we must. Jesus is our God in the flesh—and that blows our minds.

If Jesus Christ is not true God, how could He help us? And if He is not true man, how could He help us?

—DIETRICH BONHOEFFER