Jesus
then waited 2 days before starting the Journey to
Why did
he do this, and why didn’t he leave immediately, after all it says that he
loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, this would have surly been the correct
reaction, and the accepted worldly action. But no Jesus had and has a higher
objective, and that was to present the Jews and all the generations to follow
with a miracle that they simply could not deny, and it was to give his beloved
friends the greatest gift, Life.
My friends
this is this is also the way God sometimes uses our lives, how often have we
said, “Lord why am I going through this, why am I suffering this” “Its not
because our Father is not there and doesn’t care, he is using whatever the
situation is to bring life out of death and light into the darkness. He is
creating a point of remembrance and testimony in us that we will never
forget.
This miracle was to catch the attention of the Jews more than any other
miracle because
of the stark reality of the facts, Lazarus had been in the tomb for 4 days and
his body was decaying, it could not be denied that he was dead.
But
still Jesus came:
It
was over there was nothing else to left to do:
I
Want to say if you have given up hope, come to the end of your self and cannot
carry on, there is still one that will come and lift you out of death into life
Jesus still comes to
the dead, and he still comes with the same mandate and purpose and that is to
raise the dead and breath life into our dry bones and
empty lives.
Mat 18:11 For the Son of man is
come to save that which was lost.
He doesn’t consider the
barrenness of our hearts or the distance we have run from the cross, he sees
all the lost as lost regardless of how long they have been dead in the tomb of
this world and he regards the lost as lost regardless of the depth and evil of
their sin.
After
2 days travel Jesus arrives and is greeted by Martha. Who says if only you were
here, our brother would be alive.
Jesus
then repeats the same truth to Martha
John 11:23 Jesus said to her, your brother shall rise again.
Martha
John
11:25“ I am the resurrection and the life, he who
believes in me though he may die, he shall live and whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?
Martha’s reply is the same revealed
truth as was given to Peter in Matthew 16:16
John 11:27 She said to Him, Yes, Lord, I have
believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world.
But
Mary was still in the house weeping, and when she heard the master, had arrived
she went to him and said the same thing, if only you were here.
It
says in the bible at this point that Jesus was troubled. I believe he was
troubled because of the constant opposition to the truth he spoke, and how this
opposition caused pain and despair in those he loved. Finally he say’s “Where have you laid him?
He
then sees the tomb and groans because of the compassion of the fathers heart
pouring out and a rising Holy anger at the seeing this death,
I
believe this is no different today I believe Jesus still groans with compassion
for us, and anger at the lie that smothers life and condemns a soul to wander
as a blind man through his years and fall into a hell bound eternity. He
groaned because it was a lie, death comes to our bodies but need not come our spirit. Jesus conquered hell and the grave, so no
man has to die.
With
every fibre of his being Jesus preached life…. None are excluded from
this choice.
Live or
die the choice is simple but Jesus still comes offering the sweet sacrifice of
himself, the humble saviour of God