Lent Day 27: Unwrap your dead past and let it go

I read through the gospel of John earlier this year, substituting "God" each time the name "Jesus" showed up. It was startling to see how my reading and understanding shifted. (Try it yourself?)

Those who follow Jesus acknowledge he is God and he is fully human. In the story of Lazarus, we see both of his natures powerfully demonstrated. Let's read John 11:38-57:

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ‘Take away the stone,’ he said.

‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 

>  Instead of celebrating what God is doing, the authorities are furious. Jesus is upsetting their seat of power by miraculous signs. A man has been raised from the dead four days after his funeral! How can the religious leaders stop this nonsense?

Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’

>  There's a point at which you have to risk everything. When you are certain that God has spoken to you OR you have clear direction from scripture, are you willing to lay your life and reputation on the line? Martha is extraordinarily in her response to Jesus. Despite her reservations, she says "Yes, Lord" to Jesus.

\When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth round his face.

Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’

>  When you're raised from the dead,  the old grave-clothes must be unwrapped. Jesus not only brings us to life, but he offers freedom as we are let go of the past.

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. ‘What are we accomplishing?’ they asked. ‘Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.’

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, ‘You know nothing at all! You do not realise that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’

> They will have to kill God for doing unsanctioned miracles, of course. 

Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, ‘What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?’ But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

>  Has God ever intervened in your life in ways that upset your plans? Have you ever been so angry with what God has done that you wished you could stop it?

> Be very careful how you respond to an act of God. Be very cautious when you are on holy ground and don't like what's happening. Take time to reflect and let God do his work in you, around you, and in the world. 

> Who knows - with a heart attuned to Him, you may become the catalyst for a miracle as well.