What is your reaction to Jesus? Do you react at all? Do you still wrestle with doubts about Him? Have you allowed your doubts to keep you away from Him? Have you chosen to know more about Him or walk away from Him?
Each person reacts differently to Jesus. Yet, there are only two general possibilities for us. We either accept Him as Lord and Savior or we reject His authority. Jesus doesn’t leave us any other options. But that doesn’t mean we may not waffle between the two at times.
Thomas had followed Jesus for three years listening to His teachings, seeing the miracles He performed, and ate many meals with Him. Thomas had heard Jesus declare that He would die but would rise again on the third day. Yet, he wouldn’t believe He had done just that until he saw Jesus himself.
We often give Thomas a hard time. Yet Peter and John did not believe the report the women brought to them, and they ran to the tomb to verify it was empty. How would we react to hearing someone we loved had risen from the dead? Probably much like everyone else did initially. Even the women were asking where they had moved His body.
When we do accept Him as Lord and Savior, fully accept Him, what will our reaction be? Will we react like Thomas? See how he reacted in today’s passage. He exclaimed in awe and wonder that Jesus was Lord and God. It wasn’t just the words Thomas spoke but the emphasis he put into them. He put his whole heart into his exclamation. He likely fell to his knees, looked up into Jesus’ eyes, and had several emotions running through him all at once, including amazement, joy, fear, wonder, and hope.
I pray we all react to Jesus in the same way Thomas did. I pray we fall to our knees and proclaim Jesus as Lord and God. I pray each one of us seek to know Him with both our hearts and our heads. Accept Jesus as Lord and God. Accept Him as Savior. Be in awe and wonder. Give Him your whole heart. Seek to know Him fully.
John 20: 26-28 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though 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; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Marty Pressey 