June 1, 2021
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Reading along with us in John? Here’s today’s reading:
John 11 (NIV)
The Death of Lazarus
1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2(This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”.........Continue Reading
John 11
“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;”
John 11:25 NIV
https://www.bible.com/111/jhn.11.25.niv
We know there is no death for us when we believe Jesus to be our Savior that He came to die to provide us with eternal life but to watch as He raise someone to life here on earth after 4 days in his grave! ALL things are possible through Christ!
Watching the frustration of the Pharisees through each chapter is such a picture of this world…they want to believe in something bigger and something that will save them and yet they don’t want their world to change. They don’t want to have to accept their own sin and part from it and believing in Jesus as your savior requires you do just that!
John 11 even after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead the Pharisees still wanted to kill Jesus, their were eyewitnesses who rejected Jesus also.
If we want to see the Glory of God we must believe, put our faith in the one true God. Never let pride do what it did to the Pharisees!
What an amazing account! Knowing full well what would happen, Jesus lingers where He is to make sure Lazarus is good and dead. Healing him would have been something Jesus could do, but here He wanted to do a greater miracle. It is also neat to see these special relationships that Jesus had with the sisters and Lazarus. He also makes another I AM statement, declaring here that He is the resurrection and the life. And like before, He not only makes the statement but does a miracle to back it up. And even though He knows He will raise Lazarus, He is still moved with compassion as He sees Mary and the others crying. It is also interesting even in the presence of Martha’s faith, there is a question about removing the stone. He’s been dead 4 days. He probably stinketh….
And yet that is not an issue for Jesus…4 days just assures all that he is really dead. And Jesus does the impossible. And many believe. And yet how irrational the Jewish leaders are…if He keeps doing these miracles, everyone is going to believe and the Romans will come and take away our positions. How about instead you just believe Him too because of the miracles because they prove who He is. Then let Jesus, the Messiah, worry about the Romans…..
47Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
49Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
I was struck by several things in this chapter:
Martha’s faith, she knows her doctrine.
“Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
She states clearly who Jesus is and that she believes in Him.
She may not believe that He will raise a person that has been dead for 4 days….right now! but she knows He can do whatever He asks of the Father.
How many times have we prayed, “I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” We know that Jesus can do anything we ask if it is in His will…that is the part we aren’t sure about! And it is such a faith booster when our prayers are answered and we can see God’s will in it. It seems like Martha’s faith had not waned, even though her brother had died.
Another thing I love about this chapter is the emotion. Christ acknowledges and empathizes with the emotional pain of Martha and Mary. This is the greatest emotional pain of man, death, the loss of a loved one forever. Thank you, Jesus for granting us eternal life in you.