FOCUS Day Twenty-Eight | JOHN 11:17-44 by Abigail
DAY TWENTY-EIGHT | JOHN 11:17-44 by Abigail
Now when they arrived at Bethany, which was only about two miles from Jerusalem, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Many friends of Mary and Martha had come from the region to console them over the loss of their brother. And when Martha heard that Jesus was approaching the village, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, “My Lord, if only you had come sooner, my brother wouldn’t have died. But I know that if you were to ask God for anything, he would do it for you.”
Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise and live.”
She replied, “Yes, I know he will rise with everyone else on resurrection day.”
“Martha,” Jesus said, “You don’t have to wait until then. I am the Resurrection, and I am Life Eternal. Anyone who clings to me in faith, even though he dies, will live forever. And the one who lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Then Martha replied, “Yes, Lord, I do! I’ve always believed that you are the Anointed One, the Son of God who has come into the world for us!” Then she left and hurried off to her sister, Mary, and called her aside from all the mourners and whispered to her, “The Master is here and he’s asking for you.”
So when Mary heard this, she quickly went off to find him, for Jesus was lingering outside the village at the same spot where Martha met him. Now when Mary’s friends who were comforting her noticed how quickly she ran out of the house, they followed her, assuming she was going to the tomb of her brother to mourn.
When Mary finally found Jesus outside the village, she fell at his feet in tears and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus looked at Mary and saw her weeping at his feet, and all her friends who were with her grieving, he shuddered with emotion and was deeply moved with tenderness and compassion. He said to them, “Where did you bury him?”
“Lord, come with us and we’ll show you,” they replied.
Then tears streamed down Jesus’ face.
Seeing Jesus weep caused many of the mourners to say, “Look how much he loved Lazarus.” Yet others said, “Isn’t this the One who opens blind eyes? Why didn’t he do something to keep Lazarus from dying?”
Then Jesus, with intense emotions, came to the tomb—a cave with a stone placed over its entrance. Jesus told them, “Roll away the stone.”
Then Martha said, “But Lord, it’s been four days since he died—by now his body is already decomposing!”
Jesus looked at her and said, “Didn’t I tell you that if you will believe in me, you will see God unveil his power?”
So they rolled away the heavy stone. Jesus gazed into heaven and said, “Father, thank you that you have heard my prayer, for you listen to every word I speak. Now, so that these who stand here with me will believe that you have sent me to the earth as your messenger, I will use the power you have given me.”
Then with a loud voice Jesus shouted with authority: “Lazarus! Come out of the tomb!” Then in front of everyone, Lazarus, who had died four days earlier, slowly hobbled out—he still had grave clothes tightly wrapped around his hands and feet and covering his face! Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him loose.”, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
Resurrection
This story has always been very close to my heart for so many different reasons. It has been one of my favorite stories in the New Testament.
First, I love that Jesus could have come when he first found out that Lazarus was sick. He waited instead. He knew that Lazarus had died before He even started to go to Lazarus’s sisters.
He took the time to go and talk to these grieving sisters, who’s lives seemed to be forever changed. They were changed, but, ultimately, not in a sad way. He even took time to cry.
Jesus wept with those who where weeping. He lived in the place of loving those around Him. He even let those present wonder at why He had not done something. He took the time to love the ones that He had a relationship with and to mourn with them.
Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying in the first place. Those mourners thought that having their friend and brother not die at all would have been the best idea.
But it wasn’t, and even though Jesus knew Lazarus would rise, He still lived the scripture, “Mourn with those who mourn.” Loving them by grieving with them during this time was His best plan.
Jesus really loved the sisters in that moment of letting their brother die then be resurrected. As I have mentioned he took the time to weep and love them in that moment.
Second, Jesus wanted to teach them how important their belief in Him was, that He wouldn’t let them down, and always does what’s best for them. They had the opportunity to see the power of resurrection and the unveiling of the power of Jesus Christ.
Jesus also gives us that same beautiful opportunity to be loved and taught by Him, that is a perfect picture of Jesus providing and loving us. He even takes the time to be with us as we cry at His feet, and is there loving us through it.
Last, the reason that I have loved this story since the first time I heard it, I can really relate with Lazarus. I was given the same amazing gift that he was, of knowing that Jesus literally saved my life, and can do it again for anyone of Gods beautiful children.
I want to share with you a big part of my story, a reason why I have the type and depth of relationship with Jesus. Originally, my mom did not want to have her own kids, but she wanted to adopt instead. My dad, on the other hand did, so when they got married, they decided they would pray till one of them had a heart change.
My mom’s heart changed, and they tried to get pregnant for almost 2 years. Finally, they got pregnant, but the doctor’s office kept calling them to come back again and again. Something was wrong.
At only six weeks pregnant, they got a call…
The doctor had found out that they had a tubal pregnancy. This means that the baby has implanted in one of the fallopian tubes instead of the uterus, at which point, the baby stops growing and dies. As you can imagine, my mom and dad were devastated.
They would have to go into the office and have a surgery, that could mean that they could possibly never have kids. One of our friends and his wife called other friends and family to pray for my mom and dad.
My mom went into the only private place in their TINY apartment, the bathroom, and prayed and cried. After a while, she went to bed. As she laid in bed trying to sleep, she prayed, “God, you are the Author of life and death. I can not have this surgery. I need You to either let me miscarry (because you can’t in a tubal pregnancy) or move my baby to my uterus and bring the baby back to life (which also can’t happen with this type of pregnancy).”
After Mom finished praying, she felt a warmth from her waist to her knees and was able to go to sleep peacefully until their 6AM wake up. They went in to the hospital, and the nurse did an ultrasound to confirm where they needed to do the surgery.
The nurse, in astonishment, asked, “Do you want to hear your baby’s heart beat?”! The doctor came in the room dressed in scrubs ready to do the surgery, and was astounded and disbelieving that the God had moved me. God had resurrected me!
The last part of the pregnancy was hard, and mom had to do bed rest for some of it. She ended up having to have an emergency C-section because mom wasn’t having any contractions and my heart beat was to fast. The doctor was concerned that it would explode, killing me if my mom went into labor.
Neither my mom or dad got to hold me for almost 6 hours because of the C-section. I was put in the nursery because my oxygen levels were to low. My dad came with me. The nurse told him that if my levels didn’t go up soon, I would have to be put in the NICU and given oxygen. Dad reached down to touch me to pray for me. When he did, I grabbed his little finger. Immediately, my oxygen levels rose right to where they needed to be.
Jesus didn’t stop mom from having the tubal pregnancy, but instead was with mom and dad, then did the impossible and resurrected me. He gave me the unfair advantage of knowing that I was saved for a reason. If it wasn’t for Jesus, I literally would not be here.
My prayer for us is that we can know that even when we are going through something that we wish Jesus would never had let happen, He is there with us. He will heal the broken places. We can trust that He knows what is best for us.
