This Man Raised Another Man from the Dead!

Little did we know, as we reached the region surrounding Jerusalem, what was about to happen.
The place was overrun with Passover Pilgrims. Jerusalem itself, a City of 50,000 has grown to 5 times its size. There are perhaps 250,000 folks milling around. The crowd we’d travelled with was huge. But masses of people had preceded us and countless more are pouring into the City behind us.

Thinking back, now, on all that went on in the mayhem, one event stands out. John, who, with his Brother James, bore the stigma of their Mother’s meddling, tells of that event in his story of Jesus.

It was a Dinner, “held,” John writes, “in Jesus’ honor.” It was held in Bethany where Lazarus lived. Yes that Lazarus, John assures us, the one “whom Jesus raised from the dead.” He, Lazarus, “was among those reclining at the table with Jesus.”

Only a few days before we joined the Journey from Galilee to Golgotha Jesus had ordered this man out of his grave after he’d been lying in it for 4 days. He “came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.”

“Many of the Jews,” John remembered, “who’d come to visit Mary – Lazarus Sister,” and mourn with her, saw this happen and put their faith in Him. “But,” he writes, “some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.”

So now, Lazarus is with Jesus, and a house full of people, honoring the Master. “Meanwhile,” John continues, “a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of Him but also to see Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead.”

In retrospect, once again a Lenten traveler and spectator, the people intrigue me.

A man unquestionably raised another man from the dead. John was an eyewitness. He said that when Jesus commanded some men to remove the stone securing the tomb, Lazarus Sister, Martha, protested. “He’s been dead 4 days! That tomb will stink!” Everyone there knew he was dead! And they all saw him “come out” of that tomb, virtually mummified, but alive!

But what about those of us who weren’t there and didn’t see what happened? Well, less than 20 years after it happened, St. Paul wrote that there were over 500 people still living who would gladly tell any skeptic that they’d seen Jesus alive after His crucifixion. Surely they’d want to tell about Lazarus’s resurrection as well. We, thousands of years later, have this written record of what John saw. Copies and fragments of what he wrote are far more extensive and plentiful than most records of ancient events.

Some people will hear or read what John has written, believe, and follow the Lord of Life.

Other people will believe and immediately look for ways to turn the miracle to their advantage. Some, who witnessed it up-close-and-personal, went to the powerful bent on rallying a movement to harness His power and make Him their King. They, and many down the Centuries of history since His Resurrection, hoped He’d come to establish them as rulers of the world who could throw off oppression and make it the kind of world they wanted.

Still others simply cannot believe. “If you can’t see it, hear it, smell it, hold it, or taste what you’re being told, then it just “didn’t happen.”

In one of His stories, Jesus told of a man who died and went to Hell. Tormented and desperate the man begged to have someone raised from the dead and sent to warn his family that they DID NOT! want to be where he was. Jesus said the condemned man was refused his request. The reason? His Family had the record of storied Great Men. These men repeatedly warned of what had happened to him. If his people wouldn’t believe these men, like “Moses,” and the “prophets,” they would not be convinced if someone were “raised from the dead,” and sent to warn them.

And so it is with us this Lent, 2012. The Lord of Life, who raised a man from the dead, 9 days later, himself crucified, dead, and buried, walked out of His own grave. His claim is clear. “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me, even though they die, will live. And anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

Those who believe will follow Him to the cross, through the empty tomb, into the Forever Kingdom and on to their timeless never-ending Mission as His Followers and Children of His Father.