We Owe It To Them

"We owe it to Them to speak truth and not invent error, for Their love for us is oceans wide and fathoms deep."

JESUS, age 12, stayed behind in Jerusalem, amazing the scholars and religious leaders with His knowledge. His parents searched for Him for three days, desperately seeking their son, the prophesied Messiah. Mary and Joseph had not forgotten who He was. Nor, I imagine, were His brothers and sisters clueless. Jesus asked His parents when they found Him, “How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? (Luke 2:49)” He already knew God was His Father. He already knew the temple was the place of His Father.

Fast forward to His ministry, the three and a third years before His death, and there was an incident where His mother and brothers came to see Him while He was teaching (Matthew 12:46). They obviously knew where to find Him and so saw the crowd surrounding Him. He’d also spoken in the synagogue in Nazareth, where those listening were amazed by Him until they remember He was Joseph’s son (Luke 4:22). No way, after the scene that happened that day, that His family didn’t hear about it. Looking wider, there were those who knew He was a Son of David, as well. A blind man called Him by that name (Mark 10:47). My point being, His family knew He was the Son of God.

We can also add Zacharias and Elizabeth, His mother’s cousin, and their son, John the Baptizer. Elizabeth rejoiced to see Mary, the mother of her Lord. It says John leapt in her womb (Luke 1:41). Plus, it was John who recognized Jesus as the Christ and saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Him as a dove, at His baptism (John 1:32). Who Jesus was as Christ was no secret to many close to Him.

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29 KJV)

Jesus had friends. No doubt many friends, but three are specifically mentioned, the siblings, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. We can speculate about them, but nothing is said about who was eldest, simply that Mary poured expensive ointment on Jesus’ feet. This means that she had the money to purchase it (John 11:2). Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts of that story call it “very precious,” meaning “highly valued.” So we know it was expensive. Too, when Lazarus died, he was buried in a tomb, not the place the poor were laid to rest. This is significant to the resurrection of Lazarus.

His is not the only resurrection in the Bible other than Jesus’. There are some in the Old Testament and more in the New Testament. There is no physical tie between them stated. They are all the work of God’s Spirit. Here is where we lay speculation to rest about who knew what in Lazarus’ death and resurrection because nothing is stated, not why he died, nor why Jesus waited to go to Bethany, except that it was for His glory.

“When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” (John 11:4 KJV)

There is a powerful picture there, which I will show you. But I want to say a few words about the dramatization of the life of Jesus Christ. He obviously knows that it has happened many times. He is God. And because He died to give mankind salvation, because He loves people, and we know “the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10),” we know He is okay with it. Even when, at times, it isn’t one hundred percent accurate. Where we must draw the line, however, is at careless depictions. We don’t know what Lazarus was like to describe his personality. To make a joke of it is one thing, when the hearers know it is a joke. However, to state it as truth makes it a lie.

The Chosen is not the aim of this blog. We cannot tear down what has preached the gospel to millions around the world. There are things it has done that are inaccurate, but the producer and the cast are open about why they did things as they did. So I’m not speaking of that at all nor of any other theatric picture of the life of Jesus Christ.

But we must recognize that the stories given to us in God’s Word are given by the Spirit. There are four gospels because we needed the pictures painted in each one. They are not just different men’s points-of-view but are also God’s deliberate revelation of the mystery of salvation the apostle Paul mentions in Ephesians 1 and in other places. They happened to real people who, one day, we will meet in heaven. That seems odd to say and strange to think about, but then, God Himself, our Messiah, speaks to us, and He was dead but is alive. We teach this. We must come face-to-face with it. I have made the statement that when the devil got loud in my ear, God got louder, and what He said sounded so much better than the image painted by the church. I’ve only heard one person say what I realized – the Father is so gentle, so very kind. Far more than anyone can ask or think. We owe it to them to speak truth and not invent error. for their love for us is oceans wide and fathoms deep.

The truth is, Lazarus died, and by the time Jesus came to Bethany, he’d been dead four days. We are told that Jesus “groaned in the spirit, and was troubled (John 11:33).” Verse 35 says, “Jesus wept.” Those watching Him remarked, “Behold how he loved him!” So Jesus’ close relationship to Lazarus, Mary, and Martha must have been known. That said, they did not understand why Jesus had delayed coming. Of this, we know Jesus spoke the WORDS of the Father and did the WORKS of the Father (John 14:10). This means everything that happened that day was the Father’s will. Jesus was entirely submissive to Him. He was and is God, but He walked on earth in the power of Spirit upon His human flesh. He had Him without measure (John 3:34). We have Him by measure. But … and this is a big one … nothing is impossible with God. There are simply too many evidences of it.

Lazarus’ resurrection is one. He was so dead his sister said, “He stinks.” Then he came out of the tomb wrapped in gravecloths. Several days later, he was eating with his family when some Pharisees actually speculated about ending his life, just to get back at Jesus (John 12:10-11). These are stated in the Word.

What is also told us is that when Jesus was resurrected, He left His gravecloths behind (Luke 24:12). He wouldn’t need them again. Lazarus did. This is the powerful truth given to us. Death has no more sting (1 Corinthians 15:55). We do not need to fear it. Nothing isbe further from God’s nature. When death had played out all it had and there was nothing left it could do to Jesus, then God’s life came.

John 11:37-44
(37) And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?
(38) Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
(39) Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
(40) Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
(41) Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
(42) And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
(43) And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
(44) And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Image by Kenya Aguirre from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com