NT Text: John 20:25-27
OT Source(s):
Source: D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Pillar NTC, 1991); Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Echo
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment
Anchor Text: Zech 12:10 — They Shall Look on Him
Significance: Thomas refuses to believe "unless I see the nail marks in His hands ... and put my hand into His side" (20:25), and the risen Jesus invites exactly that — "Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side" (20:27). John's resurrection narrative deliberately keeps before us the same wounds his crucifixion account framed by Zechariah 12:10: the pierced side of John 19:34-37 persists into the resurrection body, so that the One who is now to be looked upon is identically the One who was pierced. Thomas's looking-and-believing is the personal, ecclesial firstfruits of Zechariah 12:10's eschatological looking-on-the-pierced-one — the same Spirit-enabled gaze that Zechariah promised for the house of David is here granted to a doubting disciple, and it issues not in mere recognition but in worship: "My Lord and my God!" (20:28). The pierced marks endure because they are not an embarrassment to be erased but the abiding credentials of the Savior; the glorified Christ remains the crucified Christ. This is the heart of the gospel's appeal — the wounds that prove His death are the very wounds that invite our faith, so that beholding the pierced-and-risen Lord turns unbelief into adoration and makes Him supremely desirable as the God who bears in His body the cost of our redemption.