The Didymus Contingency

by Jeremy Robinson

  Tom smiled. “He would, wouldn’t he? I miss him.”

  “Me too,” David said.

  “Let’s get this over with. I just want to say goodbye to Peter and Matthew and go home,” Tom said, as he headed for the door. He had proven Jesus to be a fake, but had also realized that the teachings and life of Jesus had an impact on the world that was greater than any other man in history. Jesus wasn’t God, but he had earned Tom’s respect.

  * * * * *

  It took Tom, David and Sally three days to walk the distance between the home of Lazarus and the home where the disciples had been staying since the death of Jesus. Normally the trek might have taken only a day, but between Tom’s still healing injuries and Sally’s soft feet, the trip lingered on.

  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.

  —REBIRTH—

  —TWENTY FOUR—

  Believe

  30 A.D.

  4:02 P.M.

  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 c
lear 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.

  David glanced at Sally, whose eyes were wet with tears. “Why are you crying?” he asked. “Can you understand what’s happening?”

  “I can’t understand what’s being said, but I think I understand what’s happening...” Sally nodded at Jesus, “That man, he’s Jesus?”

  David nodded.

  “And you and Tom saw him die?”

  David nodded again.

  “And he’s alive again...and Tom believes in him now…”

  David nodded a third time followed by a laugh.

  “But how... It doesn’t make sense. It’s not possible.”

  Jesus diverted his attention to Sally. He walked to her, face to face, took both of her shoulders and smiled. “Sally, before there was time, I was; in me all things are possible.”

  “Come Didymus, we have much to talk about,” Jesus said, as he turned and walked back to Tom.

  Jesus practically had to carry Tom out of the home, but they managed to exit through the front door.

  Sally watched them leave and then looked at David. Her jaw was slack. “David... He spoke to me in perfect English...”

  “I know,” David said, as his lips spread into a crafty grin.

  * * * * *

  Tom took a deep breath, partly because the air was cool and sweet, but also because he was anxious. Here was a man who he had ridiculed for years. A man who he now believed was God, who he had plotted against, who he had schemed to prove fraudulent. Tom leaned back and felt the cool earth in his palms. He looked at Jesus, who sat next to him on the grass-covered hill overlooking the grape grove. “I’ve done so many things against you in the past years...and I know you know about them...” Tom shook his head, not wanting to continue, but forged on. “This isn’t... This is hard for me. I’m not used to being wrong... I just... Can you forgive me for the things I’ve done to you?”

  Jesus looked at Tom, clearly amused by the trouble Tom was having. “You know, if you’d have really listened to half of what I taught over the past three years, you’d know I already have.”

  Tom’s shoulders relaxed. Not only was Jesus living, he was his old self. “Thanks.”

  “I believe I have a question of yours to answer,” Jesus said.

  “You do?”

  “I do...and you deserve to know the answer.”

  Tom waited uncomfortably. What was Jesus referring to?

  “She didn’t die for nothing.”

  “What?”

  “She didn’t die for nothing, Tom. She died for me.”

  Tom’s eyes were wide. “You knew?”

  Jesus smiled, “I know everything.”

  “But...”

  “Do you remember Timothy, the blind man whose eyes I covered with mud and instructed to wash in the pool of Siloam?”

  Tom nodded.

  “Do you remember my answer then? Can you use that mind I gave you to put together the pieces of a puzzle that stretches through time?”

  Tom smiled. He enjoyed a challenge, and the fact that it was coming from the mouth of God, made it that much more intriguing. “You said then...that bad things, like the blind man, happen so that your glory might be revealed. So Timothy...he was born blind so that you could heal him, in my presence...so that I would believe and this conversation could take place?”

  Jesus nodded. “Now expand that theory to Megan.”

  “She died so that I would come back in time?”

  Jesus grinned.

  “So that I would become a disciple... So that this story would be told in the Bible and people like me would relate...and believe?”

  Jesus’s smile grew.

  “And that’s why you let Legion live!” Tom’s mind was wrapping itself around the paradox. “You knew Legion would kill Megan in the future. You knew I’d come back. You knew...”

  “Yes.”

  “Unbelievable...”

  “Isn’t it though?”

  Tom smiled. “What about Legion... He’s a demon, right? He’s still around in the future. Do you have more plans for him?”

  “Legion is a them, neither he nor she, but many demons, linked together, lending strength to one another. My plans for Legion are through, though not entirely over.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Boom! A noise like an explosion rang out from the other side of the hill.

  Tom looked at Jesus. “That was... It’s here?”

  Jesus nodded and looked at the bottom of the hill. David and Sally were running toward him. He looked back at Tom, “There is one last thing I require of Legion.”

  Tom looked worried. What does that mean?

  David rushed up the hill to Tom and Jesus. Sally was right behind him. “Did you hear that? Someone used a watch,” David said.

  “I think we know who.” Tom said.

  “Who?”

  Shick Chic. Jake prepped his assault rifle, standing at the top of the hill.

  Tom swallowed; he knew Legion had been used to kill in the past. Would he serve a similar purpose here?

  “It’s Jake!” David said, as he took a step back.

  Tom took David by the arm and looked him in the eyes. “Not Jake,” Tom urged, “Legion.”

  Jake jumped ten feet through the air and landed closer to the group. “Yes, we are Legion! Yes! Yes! And we will—Aiieee!”

  Legion saw Jesus and recoiled. “The Son of God! Here! No! This can’t be! Whose idea was this? Not mine! Mine either! Quiet! Wait! We have an idea...YES! YES!”

  Jake raised the assault rifle at Tom.

  “No...” David said.

  Jake quickly turned the weapon at Jesus and fingered the trigger. “We killed you once, Jesus, we can do it again!”

  “No!” Tom yelled, as he pushed Jesus down and took his place.

  Bang! A bullet ripped through the air and pierced Tom’s chest, dead center. Tom’s body went limp and he fell to the grass.

  “Tom!” David fell to his knees next to Tom.

  Sally screamed and ran for cover, which only attracted Jake’s attention. Bang! Bang! Jake fired two more shots, laughing joyfully with the voices of fifty men. Sally hit the ground hard, lying motionless.

  “Stop damnit! Stop!” David screamed. “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to stop!”

  Jake raised the gun at David. “Quiet, human! We will not!”

  David looked desperately at Jesus. “Do not worry, David. All is well.”

  Jesus looked at Jake, “Stop.”

  Jake became rigid as though he had been paused, unable to move. Jesus stood to his feet and walked toward Jake.

  “No! No!” Jake screamed, “Mercy! Have mercy on us as you once did! Yes! Mercy! It is your way! It is!”

  “Quiet, demons!” Jesus yelled.

  Jake clamped his mouth shut.

  “You have served your purpose on this earth. You have been a plague for long enough, foul creature. You gave up your place in the Heavenly realms and your time in the world of my children has come to an end.”

  Jake’s eyes were wide with horror.

  “Be gone! To the burning abyss for all eternity with
you!”

  Jake fell to the ground in a fit of convulsions. His body shook violently for ten seconds and then abruptly stopped. Jake’s eyes popped open and he glanced around. He saw Jesus. He saw Tom and Sally lying dead, and David staring at him. He looked to his side and saw the assault rifle...and the watch on his wrist. “What did I do?”

  Jesus grabbed Jake’s wrist and pulled the watch from it. He worked the buttons with his fingers while saying, “It was not you who committed these crimes but the beast to which you gave access to your body by rejecting my word. Return to your own time and sin no more.”

  After he pushed the final button on the watch, Jesus placed the watch on Jake’s lap and stood back. Whum, Whum, Whum, Boom! Before Jake had a chance to register what had happened or where and when he was, he was gone, returned to the future.

  As glowing blue particles settled to the ground, Jesus bent down and picked up the loose watch, which was not attached to Jake’s body and did not return to the future with him. He placed the watch in David’s hand and closed his fingers around the device. “It’s over.”

  “But what about Tom and Sally? They’ve been shot! They’re dead!” David said, as he leaned over Sally’s body. “Why did you let this happen?”

  “Shot? With what?”

  David grew angry. “With bullets!”

  “These bullets?” Jesus asked, as he held out a hand.

  David looked at Jesus’s hand. Next to the scar were three bullets. David turned back to Sally and she began to stir. A rustle in the grass caught his attention; Tom was already sitting up. He looked back at Jesus. “Thank you.”

  “It was nothing.”

  David smiled, “For you, maybe.”

  Jesus laughed.

  “What happened?” Tom asked, as he stood up. “Where’s Jake?”

  “Gone,” David replied, as he helped a stunned Sally to her feet. “Jesus returned him to the future.”

  “And Legion?” Tom asked.

  “Legion will never again torment the people of this world. He has been destroyed,” Jesus said.

  “We’re not dead?” Sally asked. “But, Jake shot us.”

  David smiled, “He missed.”