John 11: 1-6
We may be living in an age of great medical advancements, however, most of us have heard the words, "I'm sorry, there is nothing else we can do for them", spoken by a doctor regarding someone we love. These words can fill us with despair; if the doctor is helpless against the disease, we are even more so.
This is where we find Mary and Martha, the two sisters of Lazarus. Concern fills their hearts, Lazarus is very ill. It doesn't mention a doctor's visit, hospital stay, or aggressive testing. Most of what we know about healing the sick didn't exist at the time of Jesus. So it isn't hard to understand why people followed Jesus to ask for a healing touch - for themselves and their loved ones.
Mary, Martha and Lazarus knew that Jesus had the power to heal. When Lazarus is ill, it is natural that the sisters would send a message to Jesus, "Lord the one you love is sick."
I've always found what happens next somewhat troubling. If you love someone who is sick, and you have the power to heal them - wouldn't you drop everything and rush to their side? Jesus doesn't do that, instead He stays where He is for two more days. Troubling, until I remember Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
The higher purpose in this case is God being glorified through Lazarus' sickness.
Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus; they know He loves them. Because He loves them He stays where He is for two more days.
Which makes me wonder - when we are praying desperately for Jesus to heal someone we love, and it looks like He doesn't hear us, isn't answering - is staying away, could it be because He has a higher purpose for that illness to serve?
What comfort to know that our great God, "...has gracious intentions even in seeming delays." (Matthew Henry)
Friday, April 20, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Are You the Deliverer?
John 10:22-42
"How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ tell us plainly." The Jews had gathered around Jesus and want to know, "Are you the Messiah, the One foretold by our prophets, the Deliverer promised to us?" Was Jesus the One who would finally release them from thier captivity?
These men knew God had delivered their people in the past. When their ancestors were living as slaves in Egypt, God sent Moses to lead them out of slavery to the Promised Land; "...The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God...The Lord said,'I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering...So now I am sending you (Moses) to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt." (Exodus 2:23, 3:7,10)
In Jesus' time they were living in thier land, but under the brutal rule and occupation of the Roman government. The story of God's deliverance from Egypt was repeated each year at Passover. God could deliver them from the Roman occupation, He just needed to send a deliverer! So they are gathered around Jesus asking, wondering...
Jesus reminds them that He has performed miracles in the Father's name, and yet they don't believe. It's interesting that when Moses first went to the Israelites to tell them that God was going to deliver them from thier slavery, they don't believe either, "...but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage."
Then Jesus tells them "I and the Father are One." They pick up stones to kill Him - the Man who might be their Deliverer has claimed to be God! Moses delivered God's people without ever claiming to be God, this is blasphemy!
Or perhaps they were having a conversation, but not talking about the same thing...
They wanted delivery from the Romans, to have thier present situation fixed. Jesus wanted to give them so much more, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand."
Jesus was their Messiah, Deliverer, the One God sent to release them, not from Rome, but from the sin that held them captive. Jesus was concerned about that kind of slavery, " I tell you the truth," He said in John 8:34-36, "everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
Jesus left these men and went back to where John had been baptizing in the early days. "And in that place many believed in Jesus."
Delivered forever from the bondage of sin...delivered into eternal life!
"How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ tell us plainly." The Jews had gathered around Jesus and want to know, "Are you the Messiah, the One foretold by our prophets, the Deliverer promised to us?" Was Jesus the One who would finally release them from thier captivity?
These men knew God had delivered their people in the past. When their ancestors were living as slaves in Egypt, God sent Moses to lead them out of slavery to the Promised Land; "...The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God...The Lord said,'I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering...So now I am sending you (Moses) to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt." (Exodus 2:23, 3:7,10)
In Jesus' time they were living in thier land, but under the brutal rule and occupation of the Roman government. The story of God's deliverance from Egypt was repeated each year at Passover. God could deliver them from the Roman occupation, He just needed to send a deliverer! So they are gathered around Jesus asking, wondering...
Jesus reminds them that He has performed miracles in the Father's name, and yet they don't believe. It's interesting that when Moses first went to the Israelites to tell them that God was going to deliver them from thier slavery, they don't believe either, "...but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage."
Then Jesus tells them "I and the Father are One." They pick up stones to kill Him - the Man who might be their Deliverer has claimed to be God! Moses delivered God's people without ever claiming to be God, this is blasphemy!
Or perhaps they were having a conversation, but not talking about the same thing...
They wanted delivery from the Romans, to have thier present situation fixed. Jesus wanted to give them so much more, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand."
Jesus was their Messiah, Deliverer, the One God sent to release them, not from Rome, but from the sin that held them captive. Jesus was concerned about that kind of slavery, " I tell you the truth," He said in John 8:34-36, "everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
Jesus left these men and went back to where John had been baptizing in the early days. "And in that place many believed in Jesus."
Delivered forever from the bondage of sin...delivered into eternal life!
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