I Raised My Friend Lazarus from Death

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

October 31, 2019

I Raised My Friend Lazarus from Death

Page 175-177

John 11:1-54

The request for Jesus to go to Bethany created a conflict for Jesus. Bethany is on the Mount of Olives, just a few miles from Jerusalem. When Jesus left Jerusalem, the religious leaders were seeking to arrest him and to stone him to death. For Jesus to return to the area of Jerusalem would have put him in harm’s way. While Jesus’ disciples feared for his safety, Jesus was calculating the time. Was it God’s time for him to return? Jesus resolved the conflict through prayer.

Jesus knew that no matter what happened to Lazarus, God would be glorified. Therefore, he did not let the circumstance determine his response. Jesus waited until the Spirit prompted him to return to Bethany. Jesus did not react; he responded. Jesus responded to every circumstance in his life out of his understanding of God’s will for his life.

Martha and Mary’s ‘if only’ statements to Jesus reveal an underlying trust in his supernatural powers, but do not reveal an intimate knowledge of the person of Jesus. When he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus was able to help them understand that the resurrection was not some future event that will happen some day; the resurrection is a person. Jesus, as God’s Messiah, was making the future hope of God’s restored Kingdom a present reality.

In the midst of this hugely difficult theological and doctrinal point to grasp, Jesus reveals the very heart of God. Jesus wept. Jesus fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah, “Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down” (Isaiah 53:4).

The Palmist tells us that God cares deeply for us: “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.” (Psalm 56:8)

God keeps our tears in a bottle and Jesus weeps with us.

My Takeaway:

What wondrous love is this,

O my soul, O my soul,

what wondrous love is this,

O my soul!

What Wondrous Love Is This?

Dr. Alexander Means, 1835

(My ancestor and name sake)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.