As you'll remember from yesterday, the story of Lazarus is called a "death-rebirth story." This is the last of the 7 great signs. Today, we will listen in on Jesus' discourse with Martha about who He is, and we will watch as Jesus shares in Mary's grief. We hear Jesus declare to Martha some of the most powerful and comforting words - I AM the Resurrection and the Life. I love the end of verse 26 when Jesus asks, "do you believe this?" Verse 27 is one of the boldest testimonies from a witness we have read in the book about Jesus. Martha declares that Jesus is the Christ ... the Son of God ... who is coming into the world. It's as if the entire book of John is rising on a long crescendo as the melody rings out: THIS IS JESUS - THE SON OF GOD! Wow! What a great moment!But then... we remember, Lazarus is still dead. Mary comes to meet Jesus and says the exact same phrase to Him that Martha did: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." We read of something incredibly moving after this. Jesus cried. And as wonderful and faith filled as we felt a few verses before from Martha's statement, we feel equally empty and faithless when we read first 37 - "Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?" I always feel so sad and helpless. This always seems to be my question to God. "But God, couldn't you have done "xyz" because I've seen you do ______? This is where I know if I really believe Jesus is who He says He is. Do I trust Him when I don't think things are going the "right way"? Do I really believe that God's way is perfect? This is a hard place to end, isn't it? This reminds me so much of how all of Jesus' disciples must have felt after He died on the cross and was put in the tomb. Is this the end? Is this really it? But God, couldn't you have...???
We know the end of this story, but Mary, Martha, and all the others around them didn't.
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