Let Us Also Go, That We May Die With Him

John 11:16 Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.

The disciples had been with Jesus in Bethany and had faced tremendous opposition. Now word had come to Jesus that Lazarus was dead. The disciple’s fears caused their ears to dull and fail to hear what Jesus was really communicating in saying, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” It was not that Jesus was saying something difficult to understand, but that they did not want to hear what Jesus was saying about going back to Bethany.

And that is us; we will embrace the death of our friends, so that we save our own life. We are afraid to embrace Jesus’ view of things; because, it will challenge our cheapened ideas of our true responsibility, to even those we call friend. We are afraid to hear Christ; because, He might be saying something that we really don’t want to hear.

Amid their apparent confusion, their subliminal rationale is clear; the question of their hearts is “Why should we die for going to see a dead man?” Yet Thomas, often characterized as a “doubter”, and maybe so, speaks up, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Even here, he certainly seems to be a bit more pessimistic than optimistic. He is pessimistic about the outcome, but faithful to the journey.

On one hand, we certainly want to be careful to extol the virtues of looking at a difficult journey with a sense of confidence and expectation of the master to do something extraordinary. This is blessed, for it allows one to experience peace, joy, hope, faith, patience, etc. on the journey. Then too, on another occasion, Jesus admonishes Thomas about this unfruitful tendency toward skepticism.

On the other hand, I want to point out in this situation that Thomas’ pessimism does not erect a blockade to his commitment and his encouragement of his fellow disciples to go as well. Maybe it would be helpful to increase the adjectives we employ concerning Thomas. Perhaps we could say “honest” Thomas; because, he did not disguise his fear in dishonest religious rhetoric. Maybe we could call him, “encouraging” Thomas; because he leads by beckoning a like response from his fellow disciples. Most assuredly we may call him “committed” Thomas, for he is willing to follow Jesus even unto death.

Whatever, the case, Thomas was faithful, as faith is not the absence of fear, but courage to overcome fear with unwavering commitment to face deadly opposition with Christ for the salvation of a friend.