It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. "Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. Jesus chose Lazarus to demonstrate His power as he foreshadowed what would happen to Himself on Easter. Then after Jesus grieved, He went to the tomb and called to his dead friend, “Lazarus, come out.” Immediately Lazarus appeared out of the tomb. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" ( John 11:33-37, emphasis added) And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept. When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. Can you imagine a friendship so true that the Son of God would stand at your grave with tears running down His face? Lazarus must have been a great man. Jesus, even knowing the good outcome, wept for his friend. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world." ( John 11:23-27) Lazarus was who “Jesus Wept” For Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." ( John 11:17-22) Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. "Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Was He waiting so that those around Lazarus would have no doubt that their friend was gone? Very possibly. Jesus took his time before leaving for Bethany, knowing that the Jewish culture deemed a person dead after three days. To our human minds this delay might have been seen as uncaring, but remember Jesus was God incarnate and knew Lazarus’s life span. Martha, Mary’s sister was the one who complained to Jesus that her sister needed to help her in the kitchen ( Luke 10:38-42). His sister, Mary, would sit at the Master’s feet and listen to his words. Jesus had previously visited the three siblings and had enjoyed the family’s hospitality. Lazarus lived in a nearby town, Bethany, two miles southeast of Jerusalem, and was the brother of Martha and Mary. Lazarus’s story appears in John 11 when a messenger shows up where Jesus was ministering and requests Jesus come immediately to the home of a sick man. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." ( John 11:1-4) So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness does not lead to death. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. " Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Lazarus was a friend to Jesus and a brother to Mary and Martha. The name Lazarus in Greek is Lazaros, which comes from the Hebrew, Eleazar, meaning “He, (God) has helped." Let’s revisit the Bible story of Lazarus to see how God helped him. The name brings up images of overcoming death and stems from a passage in the Bible. The name Lazarus has been used for all kinds of titles- from a Davie Bowie rock and roll album to a video game.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |