The objection
The risen Jesus calls the Father his God, likewise in Revelation 3,12. Someone who has a God above him seems unable himself to be the highest and true God.
1. The same passage contains both statements
John 20,17 reports Jesus' words about his God. Only a few verses later Thomas answers him with the address “my God.” Jesus does not rebuke him. John therefore does not first narrate an exclusion of Jesus' deity and then overlook his own contradiction. He connects Jesus' relationship to the Father with recognition of his deity.[1]
A viable interpretation must explain both statements. Making one the prior decision about the other does not explain the chapter.
2. Resurrection does not abolish incarnation
Jesus was not human merely for a few decades. The risen one shows his wounds, meets his disciples and remains their Lord as the one who died for them. His human relationship to God does not become unreal because he rises.
The one Son truly possesses human nature. His Father is therefore also the God whom he trusts and serves as a human. Correspondingly, Thomas Aquinas distinguishes the Son's equality in deity from his human mediatorial office.[2]
3. No second person within Jesus is praying
The answer must not be formulated as though “the human Jesus” spoke alongside the divine Son. It is the Son himself who speaks to the Father as a human. Statements about his human relationships apply to his person without automatically describing his divine nature.
This is the same fundamental distinction necessary when the New Testament speaks of the Son's birth or death. The one born is the Son; his divine existence does not therefore begin only in Bethlehem.
4. The address does not make the Father the only divine being
The objection presupposes that Jesus' person can have only one nature. Under this premise, his human relationship to God would indeed exclude his deity. But the biblical witness of incarnation disputes precisely this premise.
Revelation 3,12 changes nothing here: The exalted Christ remains the same incarnate Son. He leads his church into fellowship with his God. The statement proves his real distinction from the Father and abiding human mission. It does not prove that John's explicit address to Jesus as God must be intended figuratively.
Biblical texts in context
Sources and further study
- Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian FaithJohn 20,17 and 20,28 read together, pp. 297–298.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiaeIII, q. 26, a. 2: Christ's human mediatorial office.