²⁸Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Worship is learned by example as well as by teaching. One model of worship can be seen in one the less prominent apostles, Thomas, whom we unfairly label, “the doubter.” Which of us wouldn’t also be skeptical of such a fanciful report of resurrection from the dead? Sure, the apostle John readily believed—but he saw the empty tomb, and Thomas didn’t. Peter believed, but he benefited from an exclusive, personal audience with the Lord (Luke 24:34, 1 Cor. 15:5). Even Mary Magdalene didn’t believe until she saw the Lord outside the tomb and heard Him speaking (John 20:16).

So, let’s stop the nonsense of singling out this apostle as “doubting Thomas.” None of the others had the same total lack of exposure to the risen Christ as did he. All he had to go on was the testimony of the others, and that wasn’t enough! And rightly so—he had to be an eyewitness of the resurrected Lord to be counted among the twelve appointed witnesses of Christ (see Acts 1:21-22) where the eleven disciples determined that Judas’ place among them needed to be filled by someone who had “become a witness with us of His resurrection.”

If the apostle Peter had been in Thomas’ sandals and been the only one not to have seen the rise Lord, it would be hard to imagine him not insisting on personal, eye-witness proof. In fact, when he and John heard the Magdalene’s testimony of an empty tomb and having seen the lord, they both ran to verify the empty tomb for themselves. While John believed with that as sufficient evidence, Peter apparently reserved judgement until he saw the Lord for himself (John 20:8).

So, rather than obsess with Thomas’ insistence on examining the evidence, let’s acknowledge that his actions are noteworthy. They are evidence that the apostles were not given to groupthink and that none of them relied on the testimony of the others for their authority. They each could stand alone and testify of firsthand exposure to the evidence.

So, what does this have to do with worship? We see in Thomas a supreme act of worship when he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus is divine, God in the flesh. This proclamation is similar to Peter’s response when asked what he thought of Jesus: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Thomas also called Jesus “Lord.” In the context of attributing divinity to Jesus, his statement recalls the many quotations in the NT taken from the OT referring to God by His covenant name, Yahweh, which the NT routinely translates as “Lord.”

In this simple interaction, we find the essence of worship: a complete acknowledgment of and submission to the deity and lordship of Jesus Christ. Everything Jesus does, all that He is, emanates from these two truths: He is God, and He is our Lord. How can we not humbly bow before Him with our entire being oriented in His direction, pointing to His glory?

Lord Jesus, God in the flesh, may the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart always be toward You, consciously and habitually. Let my whole life reflect that You are my Lord and my God!