seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 11: 1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
a. John 11:16 Thomas (Aramaic) and Didymus (Greek) both mean twin.What an odd thing for Thomas to say..... right???
OK... There is a little time and space issue in verse 2. Mary hadn't put the perfume on Jesus yet.... that hadn't happened in the story line. John wrote this Gospel some time after the crucifixion. This nod to Mary is actually something that still has to happen.... but it does put Mary with the perfume in perspective. I hadn't noticed that verse before..... so that makes a real difference in the story later on.
When Lazarus got sick, they sent for Jesus. They believed that He would heal their brother. They also believed that He didn't have to come to them to heal him. They knew all He had to do was "just do it".
Everyone seems to think that the reason Jesus didn't go right to Lazarus.... was to prove a lesson about life. I think Jesus suffered from that human red flag "fear". Jesus was human. He had to deal with human emotions. The only way for Jesus to be able to really "judge" humans was to "be" human in every way. Those Pharisees and Sadducees were still hot on His heels. They tried to have the Temple Guard arrest Him. They tried to stone Him to death. The human in Him had to be petrified of what they could do to the human body.
On top of that.... Jesus had healed people who had been very sick.... blind... even paralyzed... but He hadn't brought anyone back from "dead" yet. If this mission was to work... He, Himself, had to come back from "dead". Wouldn't it make sense that this should be tested on another human body before God uses it.
Now I know, in my heart, that God created time and God controls time. I know, in my heart, that God can look into the future to evaluate how our decisions would go.... how we will turn out. I say that because "if" what I believe is true... then Jesus, being God Himself, should already know how the "coming back to life" will work. Well... maybe the hard part about stepping up and completing the Mission.... was being a human.... and being afraid and having to do a Godly task. What if that "human" body didn't perform..... that's human.... fear is human. Jesus was a Human.... He had those thoughts. He got hungry and thirsty and tired.... that's why He plopped on the side of the well in Samaria.... where He met the Samaritan woman.
I'm a smart woman.... but when I was having my first baby... I got it in my human mind that there was a zipper that doctor could pull and stop al the pain. I know there is no zipper in my body... I had lived in that body for 25 years by the time I had my first live birth. Pain is a horribly humanizing thing. Fear is just as bad. The human brain can play tricks to help us deal with fear and pain.... Jesus knew that... He also knew bringing a human body back from death was still a "theory".
It's easy to do and see in the daylight. Back then... there were no light bulbs back in the days of Jesus. A human couldn't just flip a switch and see every corner of a dark room back in the days of Jesus. I don't think they had street lights back then..... so traveling around the city would even present a problem back then. Some counted the days from sun up to sun down rather than a 24 hour clock. So... I figure that whole "Lazarus is dead" statement in Verse 14 might have also been a human response.... "well, dummy, you put it off long enough... the man is dead... now what are you going to do.... scardycat.... scardycat".
Verse 16 points out Thomas [doubting Thomas... yep]. It says the name means "twin". Thomas didn't believe things easily. He wanted to count everything for himself. He would not rely on the word of someone else. He was there when the Pharisees and the Sadducees tried to have Jesus arrested. He was there when they picked up stones to kill Jesus. He had also been there when Jesus healed the paraplegic and the man who had been blind since birth. He heard about the healing of the soldiers child... from miles and miles away.
BUT.... I can see Thomas' point. Jesus knew He was walking right into a trap. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were already looking for Jesus. If Jesus made a dead man walk.... they would go nuts.... and if Jesus couldn't bring the man back from the dead.... well then they would go nuts too. In the mind of Thomas... Jesus was walking into a trap by going to help Lazarus... and Thomas was probably being sarcastic.
"Sure" Thomas said "let's all go to Judea where we can all wind up dead just like Lazarus!"
I bet when Thomas said that... he was remembering the look on a Pharisees face and the stone he was holding in his hand... Maybe being a twin made him an ironic kind of guy..... Thomas reminds me of Eeyore....
