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and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, (Mark 3:18)
Jump up and down; it's Friday, Friend! Whatever it may mean to you, it's here! I pray it is a day of blessing and renewal, and that this devotional time would bless you into being a great blessing to someone today.
Dear One, we come to the end of this series; we have covered the Twelve and all their different names and qualities. Let us never forget that at one point in their lives, they made the most important decision they could have, and that was to say YES to Jesus Christ! I would hope all of us had we lived back then and had we had the invitation from Jesus, knowing that it might change our lives forever, would have said, "Yes, Lord." I love the hymn line that says, "Yea, the sturdy dreamers answered, 'to the death we follow Thee." (Are Ye Able, UMH 530). Even now, we can still say yes to the Lord and we should know it would change our lives forever; need I add, for the better, too?
Jerome called Thaddaeus Trinomius, which means the one with three names. He has different names in the different gospels. Mark, as we saw above, calls him Thaddaeus, which auto-correct wants to remove the second "a." Matthew calls him Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus (Mt. 10:3); Luke calls him Judas the brother of James (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13); which I believe I covered when we talked about Judas the son of James.
Again, the first three gospels say nothing about this man, other than his name. It is John's gospel where he makes one appearance under the name Judas, not Iscariot. At the Last Supper he has a question for Jesus: "Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" And Jesus answered, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:22-23). One Latin manuscript has reference to Thad being a Zionist, who was intense and violent, with a dream of world power and domination for the chosen people. That is why as the days drew to a close for Jesus, he could not understand why nothing alone the lines of what he expected had taken place; thus his question above. "Lord, show them something!" is basically what he was saying. Jesus' response was for the faithful to have an obedient heart for Him.
The name of Thaddaeus is connected with one of the most romantic and beautiful legends of the early Church. It is Eusebius and Jerome, who write, among others (Eusebius The Ecclesiastical History, 1, 13; Jerome, Homily on Matthew, 10, 4). This legend concerns correspondence between Jesus and Abgarus, King of Edessa, which was a city in Northern Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River. Eusebius claims to have seen this correspondence in the archives and public registers of Edessa and it is believed he translated it himself from the Syriac language. The correspondence began with a letter from Abgarus to Jesus. In it he calls Jesus, savior, and recalls hearing reports that Jesus was healing the blind, and making the lame to walk; cleaning lepers and casting out demons; and the conclusion that either Jesus is God and having come down from Heaven can do these things, or Jesus was the Son of God. And he also includes in his letter the desire for Jesus to come and heal him and a disease; all the while saying he was aware the Jews were plotting to kill Him. Jesus responds, "Blessed art thou who has believed in me without having seen me.." and that He could not go and see him because of all that was expected of Jesus where He was. The letter does say, "But after I have been taken up I will send to thee one of my disciples, that he may heal thy disease, and give life to thee and to thine." The story goes that after Jesus' Ascension, Thomas sent Thaddaeus -- called an apostle and one of the seventy-- to Edessa. There Thad took up residence with a man called Tobias and healed so many that the report came to Agbarus and he knew that Thad had been sent for him. And Thad healed him. Agbarus said he wished he could have sent an army to destroy "those Jews who crucified Him," but could not because of the Roman dominion. Aggie wanted to know more about Jesus and invited him to come and speak to him. Thad said, I'll speak to all the city! It was arranged that Thaddaeus would speak, and afterwards, the king offered him much gold and silver, but Thaddaeus refused saying, "If we have forsaken that which is our own, how shall we take that which is another's?"
Another legend grew out of that one; Aggie wanted to see a painting of Jesus, and Anaias tried to paint one, but the light and glory which flowed from Jesus' face did not allow that, so Jesus put a garment on His face and the image stayed on it, and that was sent to Aggie, and became the means by which many miracles were brought about.
Thaddaeus went on to preach the gospel in other places and that finally he was killed with arrows in Ararat. His life is a model for us; we should live and know Jesus, and then to share with all who will hear, the light and the healing which Jesus brought to the world.
PRAYER: Lord, keep me close to Thee. Let me learn more about Your love so that as I share with others, they will see the light You have blessed me with and may healing and wholeness come through my words about You to those in need. In Jesus' strong name we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
If you don't have plans for Sunday and find yourself in our area, I will be preaching at FUMC-Gonzales: Here's the video sent to our church:
