On our pilgrimage with Jesus to Jerusalem and the Cross we did not accompany Him to Lazarus tomb and see Him raise this Friend from the dead. But we did meet Lazarus at Dinner. People who witnessed his resurrection couldn’t talk about anything else. John was with us. He would write about it later. But that evening he talked about it too.
Today, this Ninth day of Lent, I’m drawn to what John wrote about this dramatic occasion. It’s filled with insights into Christ’s life; who He is; why He came; how He feels about us; how He and the Father interact; what His ultimate purpose for us is.
His record of it takes up most of the 11th Chapter of his Story of Jesus. Jesus was teaching on the East side of the Jordan, where John the Baptist had preached and baptized, when word came that Lazarus was ill. Oddly, Jesus did not go to him and his Sisters right away. His disciples were relieved. The rulers in Jerusalem had intensified their efforts to silence Him. They’d even tried to stone Him to death. To go back to Bethany – less than 2 miles from Jerusalem – was too great a risk for them.
Two days later, however, He announced His intention to “go back to Judea.” His followers protested. But He told them – in veiled language – that He knew what He was doing. Lazarus, He explained, has died. And “I am glad, for your sakes that I wasn’t there.”
He seemed to be inferring that if He’d been there He’d have healed His Friend.
What was there in this man’s being deliberately allowed to die, when he could have been healed, that was beneficial to the Followers of Jesus? He explained. “You are about to be given new ground for believing.”
As Jesus approached Bethany Martha heard He was coming and left the gravesite to go and meet Him. She told Him she was disappointed that He hadn’t come sooner and healed her Brother. With that the laying of “new ground to believe,” began. Jesus promised her that her Brother would “be raised up.” His words gave her little comfort. Resurrection, to her, was something general and a long way off. Jesus pressed His point and boldly declared to her, “You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all.” Talk about “new reason to believe” in Jesus.
He is boldly saying that life comes from Him. Whether it’s life that comes from something that dies and is resurrected like the seed “that falls into the ground and dies in order that it can produce many seeds,” – resurrection life – or life in any other form, it is His doing. He pressed His point even more forcefully. The person “who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live.” Could He have been more bold? Well, yes! “And everyone who lives, believing in me does not ultimately die at all.”
This is far beyond “new ground for believing.” It’s a new claim, difficult, if not impossible to believe.
“Do you believe this?” He asked Martha.
Do you believe this?
Does this preposterous claim change the way you understand life in general, or your life in particular?
How does it alter your way of living now?
I’m asking myself this.
Lord help me believe that you are the “Lord of Life.”
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