I’m not sure exactly what my point is here, but it is interesting to note that action taking place in the painting seems somewhat apocryphal. After all, when Jesus bid Thomas to, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side,” Thomas did nothing of the sort. Rather, his response was to proclaim, “My Lord and my God,” the fullest and most direct profession of Christ’s deity to that point.

That being said, I love the Luther quote and am reminded of how precious Christ’s wounds are, not only in that it was by them that we were delivered from sin and death, but by and through them that he also speaks to our own pain and suffering.

I guess it is possible that he did do it, but the thrust of the text certainly seems to suggest that his response to the Lord was immediate worship, his eyes having been opened to the reality of Christ’s deity, person and resurrection. I’ve never heard anyone else teaching on this…these are simply my own thoughts. It would be interesting to see how other commentators have taken the incident.

Paul, I looked at some of my various commentaries and it seems that they are pretty split on whether we ought to understand Thomas as actually having touched Christ’s wounds. My most-trusted commentators disagree with me on the issue (which is always disconcerting), but the more thought I’ve given it, the more certain I’ve become. Here are my reasons:

1) Nowhere is it explicitly stated that Thomas did indeed touch him. This does not prove it, but it seems to place the burden of proof on those who would say that he did.

2) In John 20:29, Jesus specifically says that Thomas believed because he had “seen,” not because he had “touched.”

3) There is the altogether reasonable assumption that could be made that what so impressed Thomas was not actually touching the wounds, but the mere fact that Christ bid him to do so. Christ was not physically present when Thomas had made his disputations a week earlier. Now he shows up displaying not only his power over death, but his omniscience as well by offering to Thomas the very thing that Thomas had required in order to believe. Perhaps this is why Thomas is not just excited that Jesus had risen from the dead (they had seen the dead rise before, e.g., Lazarus), but is ready to worship him as his Lord and God.

Just my thoughts…

I’d probably have to agree with you there, Paul. Like I said at the start of my first comment, “I’m not sure exactly what my point is here…” I guess it was just a series of contemplations on what Scripture says (or perhaps doesn’t say, as the case may be!).

Thanks for your service to the Lord in the blogosphere!