John 11:1-44
The raising of Lazarus from the dead illustrates some
precious truths about Jesus that should greatly impact all our lives. However, it also demonstrates that He acts in
ways that we don’t expect for reasons that we may not understand. As we compare what we know to be true about
God with what we also believe to be true about the condition of the world in
which we live, things do not always seem to make sense to us. When this happens, it is very important for
us to prioritize what we know about God over what we think we know about the
world. What we know about God; we know
from His infallible Word. What we know
about the world; we know from our own flawed observations.
JESUS IS ALL KNOWING: When Jesus receives the word the
Lazarus was sick, He waits. The text
makes it clear that He loved the family very much and He immediately says that
the illness was not for the purpose of death but for the glory of God. The disciples, who had seen Jesus heal in
many ways, must have assumed that Jesus had healed Lazarus from a distance or
that he would simply recover. They
interpreted the delay as a means of avoiding the physical dangers of Judea
since they had been threatened with stoning in that area. Just when they think they have it all figured
out, Jesus informs then that they will be going to see Lazarus because he is
sleeping. Once again, the disciples think
the wrong thing and consider the danger of Judea to be too much since they
thought Jesus was speaking of literal sleep and not death. All these situations demonstrate that Jesus
is all knowing but the disciples are not. Jesus knows that Lazarus will die, He knows
when he will die, He knows that he has died and He knows all about the dangers
of Judea. The disciples are constantly
questioning the decisions Jesus is making because they don’t understand what is
happening. There are many times in all
our lives when we will be unclear as to what is really going on. It may appear that God is absent, uninformed
or uncaring. None of those appearances
are ever true, they are only evidence of our misunderstanding. Even though God knows everything; God takes
great delight when we take our problems to Him.
Mary and Martha were not informing Jesus of anything, but when they send
messengers to tell Jesus of the sickness; Jesus is pleased. God wants us to pray and take our cares to
Him, not in order to inform Him, but to demonstrate our dependence upon
Him. No matter what we might face and
how confusing our circumstances might feel; we can rest in the truth that God
knows everything. When we are in need or
perplexed by life; take those concerns to the Lord in prayer.
JESUS IS ALL LOVING: There are some who claim that if God is
all loving than He cannot be all powerful because of all the suffering in the
world. However, these two truths must
also be considered in light of the fact that He is all knowing. We must always remember that God’s purpose in
all creation is His own glory. God could
have created us with an inability to sin, but that would not have been as
glorifying to Him as being worshiped by people who are free to worship or reject
Him. The true demonstration of His love
is seen when He gives of Himself in order to rescue us from our rebelliousness against
Him, forgive our sin and give us eternal life in His presence through His
death. This passage is full of the Love
of Jesus for Lazarus and His family. But
again, from our perspective, we tend to question this love because He didn’t
heal Lazarus. Mary and Martha went through
the trauma of burying their brother and Lazarus went through the pain of dying. Jesus allows this to happen even though He could
have avoided it because it would bring more glory to God and it would bring
more men to Himself. Suffering has been
brought on by the sin mankind has chosen.
The sufferings of Jesus are far greater than any suffering we can
face. We must never doubt His love which
propels Him to do what is best for all of mankind in light of eternity but
cannot cause Him to violate His other attributes. Jesus comes to Mary and Martha at risk of His
own life. He weeps at the tomb and He raises
Lazarus from the dead because He loves them and the Father and us. No matter how circumstances may seem to us,
we must never doubt the love of Jesus.
JESUS IS ALL POWERFUL: There is no problem that is above His
ability to solve. Lazarus had been dead
for a couple of days, but at the word of Jesus he lived again and walked out of
his own tomb. God holds power over
death. There are many fears we face in
life. Perhaps, the greatest fear we know
is that of death. God wants us to know
that there is no need to fear death because He reigns over death. Many people struggle with the fear of man. The disciples were afraid that they would be
killed along with Jesus by returning to Judea.
Jesus wanted to show them and us that we have no reason to fear the most
powerful or hideous of men because He has power far superior to theirs. There may be circumstances in our lives that
we wish He would change. If we had the power;
we would definitely change these things.
When God does not change them, we tend to question either His love or His
power. Once again, we must always remember
that He is also all knowing so when He does not do what we wish He would do; it
is because it would not be best in light of eternity. We would all do well to trust our past, present
and future to the hands of the all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful God.
APPLICATION: Even though God knows everything; we must never
stop taking our cares to Him in prayer.
Rejoice in God’s love and the fact that nothing we, ore anyone else, can
do will ever cause Him to love us any less.
Trust in the power of God to overcome any problem in the way that will
be best for our eternal good and His eternal glory.
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