Jesus and His disciples had finally undertaken a journey that would conclude in Bethany where in Jesus’ own, words, He said: “Let us go to him (Lazarus).”
Basically, Jesus was telling His followers that they were going to go see a dead man. And then Thomas spoke – yes, this is Thomas who has been referred to as the “doubting” disciple. I’d like to offer a slightly different take on Thomas, at least in this particular passage found in John 11: 16. John recorded that one of his companions, Thomas, said to his fellow travellers, “Let us go too, that we may die or be killed with Him.” This doesn’t sound like Thomas doubted Jesus was the Messiah. The fact is he even showed his loyalty to Jesus by saying he would die right along beside his Master.
But there is something I read in these words. It is resignation – even disappointment. It is almost as if Thomas is telling his friends, “Well, if we can’t talk Jesus out of walking right into a hornet’s nest, I guess we’ll just have to walk along with Him – and even die if necessary. Under the “we’ll go with You Lord” exterior was a disappointment expressed by the way Jesus apparently ignored their advice to stay away from the “hotbed” in Judea. I’ll go a step further for I think the disciples had, for nearly 3 ½ years, given up everything to follow Jesus. And if I had been right there with them, I think that I would have been discouraged that Jesus hadn’t moved faster to expand His ministry. And sadly, when we are discouraged, we frequently resign ourselves to whatever happens. In his wonderful book Disappointment With God, author Philip Yancey quotes one of my favourite old time writers, George MacDonald who as Yancy notes, “summed up Christ’s approach: ‘Instead of crushing the power of evil by divine force; instead of compelling justice and destroying the wicked; instead of making peace on the earth by the rule of a perfect prince; instead of gathering the children of Jerusalem under His wings whether they would or not, and saving them from the horrors that anguished His prophetic souls – He let evil work its will while it lived. He contented Himself with the slow unencouraging ways of help essential; making men and women good; casting out, not merely controlling Satan…To love righteousness is to make it grow, not to avenge it…Throughout His life on earth, He resisted every impulse to work more rapidly for a lower good.” This appears to me to be the very reason Jesus didn’t take the shortest route and fastest vehicle to Bethany in the first place. It is the reason He waited two days. And it is the reason He chose to go through Judea. And if it discouraged those closest to Him, be it Thomas or Mary and Martha – Jesus’ design took into account not just the present problem but the future as well.
As J. R. Macduff correctly observes: “How often are God and man thus in strange antagonism with regard to earthly ‘happenings.’ Like Thomas we may give up and just say ‘I can’t understand why God does certain things.” “Where is now my God?” “This sickness – why prolonged?” “This thorn in the flesh – why still buffeting?” “This family crisis – why permitted?” “Why the most treasured and useful life taken – the blow aimed where it cut most severely and levelled lowest?” As Macduff so encouragingly pens:
“Your trial, whatever it be, has this grand motto written upon it in characters of living light; – we can read it on anguished pillows – aching hearts – on the very portals of the tomb – ‘This is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified!’ At the very moment we are mourning what are called ‘dark providences.’ – ‘untoward calamities’ – ‘strokes of misfortune’ – ‘unmitigated evils’ – Jesus has a different verdict – ‘I am glad for your sakes!’…It is indeed a comforting assurance in all trials, that God has some holy and wise end to sub serve…The delay on the present occasion, though protracting for a time the sorrows of the bereaved, was intended for the benefit of God’s children in every age, and for the more immediate benefit of His disciples.”
“You meet me in gentleness.
You come close,
You take my coldness
and warm me from the inside,
As my cold heart melts, Lord,
let Your streams flow through me
that I may play my part.”
Ulrich Schaffer
Affirmations:
“Lord, come as sweet, healing oil into my weary mind, my bruised heart and my dried-up soul.”
Angela Ashwin
Ref: Dorothy Valcárcel, Author
When A Woman Meets Jesus
