Theological Commentary: Click Here
It is the
best of tales, it is the worst of tales.
In John 11, Lazarus dies. Jesus
raises Him. Mary and Martha hear bold
teaching of the resurrection. Yet the
religious leaders plan to kill Jesus.
This chapter has such promise, and it serves an incredible role in the
plan of God. It is still a sad chapter,
though, when we consider the position of the religious leaders.
Look where
this chapter starts. Jesus hears of
Lazarus’ impending illness and makes a bold prediction. This story will not end in Lazarus’
death. Naturally, this prediction appears
false at first because Lazarus does die.
Jesus knows better, though.
In fact,
look what Jesus has to say about the situation to His disciples. Lazarus’ illness hasn’t come so that Lazarus will
die, it has come so that the faith of the disciples could increase. Yesterday I spoke about challenging
teachings, here is another one! How many
times do we hear about a person getting a life-threatening issue and the world
of the people around the sick person falls apart. We see this with Martha and Mary in this
story. Jesus is convinced of something
else, though. Jesus is convinced that
His disciples will grow through this story.
Catch the
truth that Jesus is trying to teach us.
Hardship causes us to growth. Difficulty
makes us mature. What is the famous
saying? Pain is just weakness leaving
the body. If we have the right
perspective, we can look death in the face and know that we will be better in
the end. That’s a challenging teaching
indeed!
In the end,
Jesus is right. Lazarus doesn’t
die. The disciples and those around
Lazarus see a resurrection miracle.
Faith grows. People are
inspired. It has all the trappings of a
great story!
Instead,
though, what we get is the hatred of the religious leaders. They make even more plans to kill Jesus. They reaffirm their desire to have Him die.
In the end,
it goes back to what Jesus taught us yesterday.
Jesus’ sheep hear His voice and they grow when He teaches. The religious leaders do not want to believe,
so even in the midst of a great miracle the religious leaders look to Jesus’
death with even more zeal. The religious
leaders aren’t even interested in allowing Jesus’ works to witness to His
truth. They’ve made up their mind. Nothing Jesus can do – not even dying for
their sake – can convince them of their error.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment