Teaching Moments

Why did Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead?

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’Jesus answered, ‘ Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’ -  John 11:1-16

I wonder what was going through Jesus' mind when he heard that his friend was dying.

Did he think he had time or was he afraid to go for fear of being stoned to death?  Or perhaps knowing Lazarus would die, he wanted to wait so he could raise him.

He tells his disciples it is for his glory that Lazarus is sick.  That must have confused them.  After all, it makes Jesus sound self-righteous, doesn't it?

But then he tells them it is for their sake that he was not there when Lazarus died so they could believe.  Surely they must have been confused, since he said this illness would not lead to death and now he says Lazarus is dead.

In John's Gospel, everything Jesus does is a sign of his divinity, events pointing to the truth about who he is.

The way John tells the story, everything is a teaching moment.  Nothing phases Jesus because he can set it right again.  

Maybe that's the message for all of us.  We shouldn't let the things we encounter trouble us, since we are all children of God and will be OK in the end.

God can make anything right again, if we have faith, and even when it seems helpless and hopeless, we should still believe.

As we see in the disciples, it is not an easy lesson to learn.  Bad stuff happens.  We just have to have faith in what comes next.

More to come...