November 8: The Return to Judea to Raise Lazarus

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012

The Return to Judea to Raise Lazarus (John 11)

 

 

“Jesus wept.”

 

Indeed, Jesus cared deeply for His friend Lazarus, and today’s passage points to how the resurrection of His friend led both to a greater revelation of God’s glory and the beginning of the course of events that would lead to Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross, bringing about resurrection for all that would trust in Him.

 

1) “... It is for God’s glory... “  Just as with the man born blind (John 9:1–38), Jesus indicates repeatedly that Lazarus’s illness and death, while worthy of mourning in their own right, would ultimately bring about God’s glory:

 

a) “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (4)

b) “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.” (14b – 15a)

c) “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (40)

d) “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” (41b – 42)

  

Jesus points to His absence as creating the opportunity for God’s greater glory.  The miraculous raising of Lazarus would not have occurred without the initial pain and sadness of mourning him.  In the Jewish understanding of the day, Lazarus’s spirit would have departed from him after three days, and Jesus’s arrival on the fourth day would apparently have been of little use.  Still, God had other designs, and Jesus’s faithfulness to the Father and His care and concern for His friends would teach key lessons both to the disciples and the world.

 

 

2)  The experience brought forth faith in Jesus’s disciples.  The 12 disciples worried that Jesus’s return to the area near Jerusalem would place Him in danger, but Jesus knew that such opposition would be necessary to bring about His death and ultimate resurrection.  (Their healthy concern, at least from a worldly perspective, resonates with my risk-averse personality.)  At the call to head to Bethany to visit Mary and Martha, Thomas, whom we know primarily as a doubter in his requirement to touch the scarred hands of the resurrected Christ, boldly declares that he will follow Jesus into the hostile region.  

 

Then, both Martha and Mary display their trust in Jesus’s power.  Despite her grieving, Martha confidently declares:  “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”  In his following question to Martha, Jesus calls Himself “the resurrection and the life,” implying that people would find these two elements in Him alone.  Martha knows that Jesus can deliver on His promise and that those who trust in Him will find life in His Name.  The promise has become reality for Martha!

 

Mary then runs to meet Jesus.  She tells Jesus:  “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Yet, her approaching Jesus shows her pursuit of Him and trust in His provision.  Jesus honors her faith with a great miracle.

 

 

3) The event reveals the Jewish leaders’ hearts.  In their response to this miracle, the religious leaders show their fear of Christ’s power to disrupt their positions of authority and the temple that guarded them.  Their question shows their true concerns:  “What are we accomplishing?  Here is this man performing many miraculous signs.  If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”  They did not wish to investigate the source of this miraculous power; instead, they wished to crush His work in order to preserve the status quo in which they reveled.  Unknowingly prophesying, Caiaphas argues that it would be better for Jesus to die for the nation.  Yet again, what man intends for his purposes, God will use for other purposes!

 

 

As a follow-on, we discover that we often experience greater intimacy with God through our struggles than through our success.  These struggles demonstrate our desperate need for His care and consistent intervention and diminish our pride and self-sufficiency.  While the world declares otherwise, true prosperity flows from experiencing God’s presence, not temporary achievements or material gains.  May we rejoice daily in God’s self-revelation through His Word and His Spirit.  Please reflect on the words from a poignant song on this very topic:  “Blessings” by Laura Story (http://bit.ly/yDlmRi).

 

’Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?

What if Your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near?

What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

 

What if my greatest disappointments,

Or the achings of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy?

What if trials of this life –

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights –

Are your mercies in disguise?

 

 

QUESTIONS

 

1.  Can you recall an incident in which you sensed God’s companionship and suffering along with you?

 

2.  How has a seemingly negative event brought you closer to Christ or otherwise revealed His glory?

 

3.  How can your faith grow in light of the present storms you are facing?

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