Thoughts - John 11:16

"So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, 'Let us also go, that we may die with Him.'"
- John 11:16

This came up in a Bible Study yesterday. There was a point to it, but it kind of got lost. And it shall stay lost, as I think this verse is extremely interesting in its own right.

If you're like me, you're already quite familiar with the context of this story. Jesus is out teaching, and He hears that His friend Lazarus is sick. He waits for a couple of days, and then decides to head to Bethany to see about healing (at this point, actually, raising) Lazarus.

Now, the problem with going to Bethany is that Bethany is within the region known as Judea. And the muckity-mucks of Judea are quite convinced that Jesus needs to die. These folks, however, are not mere thinkers - they also have the influence and drive to help Jesus meet His Maker (logical quandary intended) in an expeditious manner. With this in mind, the disciples try to dissuade Him from this mission - first stating the fact (v. 8) and then arguing the necessity of the trip (v. 12). Thomas put an end to the discussion with his statement, noted above.

There are a couple interesting elements of Thomas' statement. First, Thomas has very little hope here. He's pretty sure Jesus is going to die on this trip, and the rest of the group may join Him. The annoyance and resignation in his voice is almost palpable in the text.

Second, however, Thomas never questions following Christ. He's pretty sure they're all going to die, and yet he chooses to still go with Jesus. The level of dedication felt here by Thomas is simply amazing. The fact that no one sees fit to argue with him seems to indicate that the feeling was mutual.

Now, if this were a happy Sunday School lesson, everything would turn out peachy, and the disciples would learn to trust God to keep bad things away. The problem is, that isn't what happened. The irony of this whole story, you see, is that Thomas and the other disciples were right - although it took a couple stops, it was on this trip into Judea that Christ was captured, tried, and crucified!

What do we make of this, then? I think there are a couple important points. First, it's not inappropriate to think rationally about your actions - what the disciples deduced as happening did, in fact, happen in part. Second, though, they recognized that their reason had to be subservient to their priorities - they were going to go with Christ, whether it seemed smart or not. Third, when they did this, God gave them neither what reason nor hope would have expected - instead, He gave them infinitely more, a place in the founding of His Church!