Pause for Thought: His greatest miracle has to be raising Lazarus from the dead
The gospel of John is one of my favourites of the bible. It is thought that John the disciple was one of the youngest of the 12 and possibly a cousin of Jesus, and therefore greatly loved by him.
His gospel shows Jesus, the person, God incarnate, and the significance of his miracles.
His greatest miracle has to be raising Lazarus from the dead.
Jesus receives news that his dear friend is gravely ill, over 15 miles away, yet Jesus stays put with his disciples for two days before deciding to go and see him.
He tells his friends that Lazarus has fallen asleep and it’s time to go and wake him up.
The disciples think he’s lost his marbles – they aren’t keen to go back to Jerusalem because they aren’t welcome there.
In fact there is a price on Jesus’ head for his blood, so they say, maybe a good sleep will do the lad good.
Jesus spells it out that Lazarus is not sleeping, he is dead, and they need to go and see him, because what he is about to do will blow their minds!
Reluctantly they make their way back towards Jerusalem.
Lazarus’s sisters are beside themselves and angry with Jesus for not coming sooner.
Lazarus has already been wrapped in grave clothes and buried in the family tomb, sealed by the stone entrance.
Jesus, seeing their distress weeps with them, then prays aloud to God for the benefit of the crowd “Lord, thank you for hearing my prayer for Lazarus” and then asks for the stone to be moved from the entrance.
There is a gasp at this audacious request – the young man has been dead four days and will be stinking by now.
Nevertheless Jesus presses on and shouts “Lazarus come out”.
Lazarus walks out of the tomb still wrapped in his grave clothes. Jesus says “take off his grave clothes and let him go”.
Is this a foretelling of Jesus’ pending crucifixion and resurrection?
Did Jesus know this?
Lazarus died, and was brought back to life after four days to new beginnings – it’s naturally impossible – only supernaturally possible.
And yet Jesus’ death pays the price for all our hurts and misdemeanors, and with his resurrection gifts us the chance of new life, bought by the precious blood of Christ.