God & Jesus

“My God, and your God”: John 20:17

On the morning of the resurrection, Jesus speaks to Mary Magdalene and gives her a message for the disciples. In it he calls the Father “my God”. What does it mean that Jesus, after rising from the dead, still speaks of having a God?

1The question

How does the risen Jesus speak about God in John 20:17?

2What Christians believe

Christians answer that Jesus speaks here as a man. As the eternal Son he is God, and as a true human being he relates to the Father as his God. Both are true at once, and the Gospel of John holds them together.

Christians also notice that Jesus does not say “our Father” or “our God”. He says “my Father, and your Father; and … my God, and your God”. Early church writers such as Augustine read this as a careful distinction: God is Jesus’s Father by nature and the disciples’ Father by grace.

3What the texts say

After the resurrection

Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
John 20:17 · KJVRead in context →

On the cross

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Matthew 27:46 · KJVRead in context →

The risen Jesus in Revelation

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Revelation 3:12 · KJVRead in context →

In the letters

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Ephesians 1:17 · KJVRead in context →
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
1 Corinthians 11:3 · KJVRead in context →

4What scholars say

Commentators on John agree that John 20:17 is the first time in the Gospel that Jesus calls the disciples his “brethren”, and that the message joins the disciples to Jesus in his relationship with the Father.

Scholars also note that this way of speaking is not limited to one verse. In Revelation the glorified Jesus speaks of “my God” four times in a single verse (Revelation 3:12), and Paul writes of “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:17) and says that “the head of Christ is God” (1 Corinthians 11:3).

The question scholars debate is how these verses fit with others that speak of Jesus in divine terms. Christians answer with the doctrine of two natures, settled at the Council of Chalcedon in 451.

5The Islamic perspective

For Muslims the words need no special explanation. A God does not have a God. Jesus, risen and about to ascend, says the one he goes to is his God and his disciples’ God alike. In the Qur’an the Messiah says the same:

They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said: O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Lo! whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath forbidden paradise. His abode is the Fire. For evil-doers there will be no helpers.
Qur’an 5:72 · PickthallRead in context →
And lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord. So serve Him. That is the right path.
Qur’an 19:36 · PickthallRead in context →

“Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord” (5:72) and “my God, and your God” (John 20:17) say the same thing. Muslims see this as one of the clearest places where the Gospels and the Qur’an meet.

6Objections and responses

“Jesus says ‘my Father, and your Father’ separately, which shows his sonship is unique.”

Response: In the same sentence he also says “my God, and your God”. Whatever is special about his sonship, the God he worships is the same God his disciples worship. The verse puts him with them, not above their God.

“Jesus speaks here only in his human nature.”

Response: In Revelation 3:12 it is the glorified Jesus, after his ascension, who still speaks of “my God” again and again. If the phrase belonged only to his earthly life, we would not expect it from the exalted Jesus in heaven.

7Conclusion

Both sides agree that the risen Jesus calls the Father “my God, and your God”, and that the New Testament speaks of “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Christians explain this through the two natures of Christ. Muslims read it as it stands: Jesus and his disciples have one God.

Read John 20:11–18 and Revelation 3:12, and count how often Jesus speaks of his God.

8Watch and read more

Watch

Video coming soon. [Add your YouTube video link for this topic here.]

Related topics

Sources