Before I get into my primary message for today, I just want to say that I get a kick out of the first part of John 11, specifically 11-14. The disciples are oblivious to what Jesus is meaning when he says “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep”. Assuming Jesus is going to wake up a sick man getting his much-needed rest, they (naturally) try to put a stop to this. To be fair, I would have had the same reaction in that scenario, and most of us would have. But verse 14 in the NIV says “So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead”. I’m pretty sure Jesus probably sighed at them when he said this.
Look at verse 15 with me.There’s a common theme in John 11 and it is believing that Jesus is who he says he is and can perform miracles. (Yes, I know it’s a common theme throughout the Bible and Christianity, but whatever. It sticks out to me here) Jesus says “for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” He knows what is going to happen and how it’s going to happen. He also knows that had Lazarus been alive when they got there, there would’ve been potential for people to believe he got well on his own and it wasn’t a working of Jesus.
Mary and Martha are the key to this passage. They have no doubt in Jesus’ ability to heal Lazarus. It doesn’t occur to them at that moment that he could bring their brother back from the dead, however that doesn’t impede on the fact that they were 100% Team Jesus. The Jews that were at their home followed Mary to meet Jesus, and when he raised Lazarus from the dead, it says in 45 that many who had seen what Jesus did believed in him.
It’s important to note that a lot of these people believed in him only after seeing what he had done. I don’t doubt that Mary and Martha believed in Jesus’ ability to perform miracles. The Jews, on the other hand, are a different story. Remember that these are the same people that tried to stone him previously. It took an act such as this for them to actually SEE before they believed.
It can be difficult to believe in Jesus in today’s world. We don’t have the luxury of him walking through our streets in a physical presence. He’s not here raising people from the dead and healing the sick. He’s not feeding 5,000 men in front of our eyes with only two fish and five loaves of bread. Believing is not seeing in this day and age. We have to rely on God’s word. We have to rely on prayer. We need to be in our Bible’s and praying to God daily to ensure we’re maintaining that faith. The constant pressures of society will eat away at us on a regular basis and believing in Him will be the only way to combat those pressures and securing a spot in His kingdom forever.
Today's Contributing Author: Joshua Litscher
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