42 - Bible Commentary | Karuna Sadan

Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God. (John 20:17)

Notice, Jesus does not say, "I am ascending to ‘our’ Father and ‘our’ God." Instead, Christ clearly makes a distinction between His relationship and the disciples' relationship with the Father.

At the Incarnation, the Father and the Son (Jesus Christ) entered into a new relationship. At the Incarnation, Christ became a servant of the Father. As such, the Father became Jesus' God. The Father was not always Jesus' God, but became such when the eternal Word became flesh.

Christ did this in order that we might become what he already was and continues to be, namely sons of the Most High.

But Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. (John 20:24)

Thomas lost a very important opportunity to meet the risen Lord because he was simply not there. He did not come to church. The bible admonishes us that we are not to forsake assembling ourselves. (Hebrews 10:25)

Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. (John 20:8-9)

The Bible is quick to point out that the experience that they had was in line with scripture. It’s just that they did not know the scripture then.

Any personal experience has to match with scripture. You don’t bring scripture down to match your experience but rather get your experience up to match the scripture.

Chapter 20