Lazarus | Paula Wiseman

Where have you laid him? John 11:34

Jesus asked Mary to show Him the tomb where her brother, Lazarus had been buried. He could have spoken the words and brought Lazarus back to life, from a distance, or even before He and the disciples arrived in Bethany. Instead, He gives us a quick lesson on how to deal with grief.

Show Him your grief.
Mary and her sister called for Jesus. That simple, perhaps obvious, step often goes undone. We assume Jesus already knows (and He does) so we miss the deep intimacy that comes from laying our hearts open and bare before Him.

See His heart.
By asking Mary to take Him to the tomb, Jesus showed that He is a Savior who doesn't minimize our pain, but is willing to enter into it with us. At Lazarus' tomb, Jesus is deeply touched by the loss His friends are experiencing, but His grief goes much deeper. He mourns for a people who don't yet understand who He is or why He came. He also sees with human eyes, the curse, the pain that sin brings.

What about you? What do you have locked away? Pain. Failure. Loss. A dead spot in our hearts. Jesus asks – Where is it?

Take Me there.

Show it to Me.

Let Me bring that deadness into the light and heal it.

Oh, Laz-ar-us! (lynnmosher.blogspot.com)

Do you believe this? John 11:26
Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? John 11:40

Jesus asked this question to Martha, whose brother Lazarus had died. She was devastated that Jesus hadn't arrived in time to heal her brother. Jesus told her Lazarus would rise again. She replied, "Yeah, I know at the last day…" Jesus tells her, "I AM the resurrection. Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She answers, "Lord, I believe You are the Christ."

Later they stand at the tomb and Jesus commands it to be opened. Martha protests because her brother has been dead four days now. Jesus responds, "Did I not say to you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

In Monday's post, we looked at unbelief, a willful choice to discount the evidence. With Martha, something different was going on. She was wrestling with doubt. Doubt says, "I want to believe, but…"

God isn't going to do this for me – Martha had seen Jesus heal others, knew He had raised the dead, but maybe she wasn't special enough to rate a miracle like that. Jesus was going to show her how special she really was.

This is too much – Martha admitted the stopping point of her faith: I believe You are the Christ. Or, Lord, I believe up to this point but I can't handle anymore. Jesus intended to show her what "Christ" meant.

This has never been done before – Jesus had raised hours-dead folks, but never a days-dead corpse. It was beyond what she could imagine. Jesus was going to expand her horizons.

God honors that desire to strengthen faith, and doubt marks the areas that need work. Doubt is intensely personal, as is its resolution. It is part of our growth. We can seize the opportunity to grow if we do several things:

Identify it – In what areas do you doubt God?
Admit it – Tell God specifically what you trust and where you waver.
Watch for God's hand – He will address your concerns, and then challenge you to take faith steps further than you've ever gone before.

When you do, "you will see the glory of God."

Oh, Laz-ar-us! (lynnmosher.blogspot.com)

Q: Where Do You Keep It?

Q:What is the Limit of Your Faith?

Q: Where Do You Keep It?

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