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.
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?
