Jeremy Robinson - The Didymus Contingency

They had only a quarter mile left and had entered a grove of red grapes that twisted and stretched its vines toward a white brick home.

Sally looked at the home. “Please tell me that’s where we’re stopping. My feet are swollen.”

“Be glad you’re still wearing sneakers,” Tom said. “It was an entire year before I got used to these sandals. I don’t think my feet will ever become smooth again, even after we get back to our own time.”

“Tom, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” David said.

“About what?”

“Going home.”

“What about it?”

“Are you sure you want to?”

“Of course. What do you mean?”

“Well, there’s Mary.”

“She’s coming with me.”

“What about Lazarus, Martha, her family? She has more reasons to stay than you do to go…” David flashed his watch to Tom. “And I can always come to visit.”

“I…I just don’t belong here… I don’t fit in. What good is a quantum physicist in 30 A.D.?”

“Maybe you have more to offer than your science…”

“Like what?”

“Didymus! David!” Matthew’s voice boomed through the air as he barreled toward them.

“Matthew!” Tom shouted with a smile.

Matthew gave Tom a crushing hug, lifting him off the ground. “Where have you been? I have so much to tell you! You’re not going to believe it!”

Tom’s face was turning red as the air was squeezed out of his injured chest. “Okay! Okay! Just put me down, you big ape.”

Matthew put Tom down and noticed Tom holding his chest. “You’re injured? What happened to you? Was it the Romans? Or those wretches in Jerusalem?”

“It’s a long story, my friend,” Tom said, as he stretched out his chest, realigning his ribs.

“Is it them?” Peter yelled from the doorway of the home.

Matthew cupped his hands around his mouth, “Indeed it is!”

“Have you told them yet?” Peter returned.

“No!”

“Told us what?” Tom asked.

Matthew turned to Tom, looking him straight in the eyes with a large smile. “Jesus…he’s back.”

David clapped his hands together and started laughing. Sally looked at him, confused. “David, what’s going on? What did he just say?” Sally asked in English.

David took Sally by the shoulders. “Before you came, Tom and I were traveling with Jesus. Actually, Tom was one of his disciples.” David felt his mind about to go into a tangent of detail that was unnecessary. He blinked hard and focused his thoughts. “Before you came back for us, we saw Jesus die on the cross.”

Sally squinted one eye. “Jesus, as in Jesus Christ, Jesus?”

“Yes,” David said with a grin, “That Jesus. What Matthew just told Tom is that Jesus is alive again, that he has risen from the grave.”

Sally squinted the other eye, “That’s not possible.”

“I know! That’s what makes it so great!” David was giddy with excitement. The moment he believed would come, the scene that every child in Sunday school learns about was here.

“I’m not laughing, Matthew,” Tom said angrily.

“But I’m not joking,” Matthew said, as his smile faded.

Tom was losing patience. “Matthew…”

“Come inside. Ask the others!”

Tom stared into Matthew’s eyes. He knew Matthew was a jokester, but his sparkling eyes usually gave away any secrets. Tom couldn’t see that sparkle, that glimmer of humor, ready to deliver a punch line. Tom could see that Matthew was serious, and that just meant he was crazy.

Tom walked around Matthew and headed to the home. Matthew let him go and turned to David. “David!” Matthew looked David over. “You don’t have any injuries, do you?”

“No, just tired from walking.”

“Good!” Matthew said, as he picked David up and bear-hugged him.

The air was squeezed from David’s lungs as Matthew held him in the air. After David had coughed and laughed sufficiently enough, Matthew put him back on the ground. Matthew’s attention then shifted to Sally. He looked at her sneakers, and then back to David. “Who is your friend?”

“I’ll introduce you later,” David said. “Right now, I don’t want to miss what’s about to happen.”

David headed for the house with Sally. Matthew watched them walk by.

“What’s about to happen?” Matthew asked, as he began lumbering after David.

Israel

Tom entered the house and found himself surrounded by excited disciples. Peter was the most excited of all. “Tom, have you seen him?”

“You’re not a part of this too, Peter?”

“Part of what?”

“Matthew’s joke about Jesus being alive.”

“Joke? Why would Matthew joke about something like this? Why would I? Do you not believe that if Jesus were still in the grave that we would still be mourning him, just as you still are?”

“Peter, people…human beings don’t just come back to life.”

“That’s the grand part,” said Matthew, as he entered through the home’s front door with David and Sally in tow. “Jesus has proven to us by living again that he is not just flesh and blood.”

“Let me guess. He’s God, right?”

“Indeed,” Matthew said, smiling.

“If Jesus was God why did he allow himself to be killed by men? Couldn’t he have stopped it from happening? He didn’t have to die to prove he was God, he could have-”

“Healed the blind, cured the sick, the deaf, mutes and lepers,” David was on a roll. “Raise the dead?”

Tom remained silent.

David pressed on. “You’ve already seen him do these things, but you found ways to discredit him. And now he has died, and you saw him die. With your own eyes, you saw his last breath escape him on the cross.”

“Yes, David, he’s dead. And I’m not going to believe a dead man is living again.”

Peter’s shoulders dropped. “We would not lie to you, Tom.”

“What will it take for you to believe?” Matthew asked.

Tom rubbed his reddening face, collecting his thoughts. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe!”

Tom felt a hand on his shoulder and heard a familiar voice, “Peace be with you.”

Tom’s muscles locked. He knew the voice. He knew the phrase; he had heard it delivered to hundreds of people over the past few years. He looked at Peter, who was smiling wide and stepping back. He looked at Matthew, who was holding his hand to his mouth, trying not to laugh out loud. It couldn’t be…

Tom whipped around and gasped. Jesus was standing two feet away. Tom’s forehead wrinkled as he felt an array of emotions overtake him.

Jesus reached a hand out toward Tom, who flinched away. “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Tom blinked, trying to clear the rapidly forming tears from his eyes. He stared at the hand held before him. It had a deep, red scar, just below the palm. Tom looked into Jesus’s eyes… It was Jesus! Alive! Tom’s legs began to shake as the full realization of what was happening struck home. Jesus…was God!

Tom fell to his knees. “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus reached down to Tom and pulled him back to his feet.

Tom was still shaking, “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”

Jesus smiled slightly, “Because you have seen me, and touched my scars, you have believed…”

Jesus looked at David and continued, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.”

David grinned, not only because Jesus had paid him the greatest compliment, but that Tom now believed. All this time in the past wasn’t for nothing. David felt relieved. He felt justified. He felt better then he ever had before. Tom believed.