In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
“My Lord and my God!” cries out the Apostle Thomas but not without evidence, “My Lord and my God!” but not without an encounter with the divine. He had not the example of twenty centuries, the witness of the martyrs, the faithfulness of the saints; he had only words of ten scared men, “We have seen the Lord.” Yet it was he who brings us to the great climax of the Gospel of John—although there is another chapter, it reads as something of an epilogue— “Ὁ κύριός μου καὶ ὁ θεός μου,” “My Lord and my God!” He calls Christ “God.”
And the witness of the Gospel has been brought about, for the Word we heard in the Gospel last week is confirmed by the Resurrection.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. …
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
— John 1:1–5, 14
This One present before us, testified by John, proclaimed by Thomas, revealed to us through His Church is Lord and God. “for us there is one God, the Father,” says the Apostle Paul, because the source of divinity is in the Father, yet he goes on to call Christ “Lord,” a common way of speaking about God,
of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things, and through Whom we live.
— First Corinthians 8:6
So the proclamation that Christ is Lord, that Christ is God, is made by the beloved disciple who today explains for us the purpose of his Gospel which, too, is the purpose of all the Gospels,
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have Life in His Name.
For the Gospel is given to us not to give us food for thought, not as a philosophical system, not to distinguish us from “other religions:” the Gospel is given that we may have Life. Our world is headed towards death yet we have found the path to Life, our world towards annihilation yet we towards the Kingdom: this is no mere “good news” this is the defeat of all which afflicts us—that all the pains and sufferings of this world, if taken alongside Christ, cannot keep us from Life.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
— Romans 8:31—35, 38–39
And if we, united with Christ, united with God, take up this great calling in our lives and witness to the Resurrection—witness to Christ being our Lord and our God—then we too may be numbered among the elect and inherit eternal Life.
May this be, by the prayers and witness of the All-holy Theotokos, of the Holy and Glorious Apostles and of all the saints.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
To our incarnate, crucified and risen God and Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, be all glory, honour and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-creating Spirit. Amen.
In those days, many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high honor. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. But the high priest rose up and all who were with him, that is, the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the common prison. But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.”
— Acts 5:12–20
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe.” Eight days later, His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 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 be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and My God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.
— John 20:19–31