Calling His Name

Posted on by korgrocker

“So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!””
John 11:41-44 NLT

After the people removed the stone that sealed the entrance to Lazarus’ tomb, there was a pause while Jesus spoke publicly with His Father in Heaven. Jesus looked up to heaven as He did this, removing all doubts about who He was conversing with, and from the content of the prayer enabling the people who were standing around the tomb to have an opportunity to finally understand that Jesus had been sent by God. Then perhaps there was another pause before Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out”. How could a body dead and buried for four days hear the call of Jesus? But there came a shuffling noise and at last a body wrapped in grave clothes appeared at the entrance of the tomb. Even the cloth wrapped around his head was still there. What did the people think? Shock? Fear? Wonder? Elation? They froze, not knowing what was going on and what they should do, so Jesus had to tell them to release Lazarus from the strips of cloth. What about the signs of decomposition? What about the smell that Martha was so afraid would be there? Someone would have had to find a robe to cover Lazarus’ nakedness. Did his sisters explode in floods of emotion, their grief replaced by wonder and elation? All the professional mourners suddenly found themselves out of a job. There would have been absolute chaos there for a time, but John’s account in his Gospel dispassionately just gave the facts of what happened.

We can’t even start to imagine the impact that event would have had on the people. We pilgrims read the account factually, though of course still realising that an amazing miracle had taken place. But how would we have felt about the situation had we stood there in the sandals of one of the people standing at the tomb? Often a Biblical message or account is notable not so much by what it said but what it doesn’t say. In a sense, Lazarus and his sisters, dear friends of Jesus, were caught up in an amazing miracle that has touched countless people, then and ever since. Jesus used the opportunity of Lazarus’ illness and subsequent death as a once and for all time demonstration of the power and glory of God. His sisters had the opportunity to turn their faith and belief in Jesus into something even stronger. 

God doesn’t have favourites amongst His children. We are all treated the same by our loving Heavenly Father. Lazarus had died and was buried, and his spirit was in Heaven. He had left his human life, and his earthly body, behind and he was now in a place of no more sickness, tears and death, in the presence of God. But the next thing he heard was Jesus calling his name, and his spirit was returned to his body, a body released from death, a body miraculously just as it was before his illness, warts and all. Extrapolating this to all believers who have died, is the next thing they hear when they find themselves in Heaven, the voice of Jesus calling their name? In a timeless eternity, will this be followed by the believer’s spirit being reunited with their resurrected body? A body just like the one Jesus had?  

The down side for Lazarus was that he had to die again. But any feelings of resentment that he might have felt would have been replaced by the comfort that through his whole experience, many, perhaps countless, souls had come to know Jesus and believe in Him.

Dear God. You constantly amaze us and we thank You for the faithful men who wrote down what Your Spirit told them to. On our knees today we worship You. Amen.

God Hears Us

Posted on by korgrocker

“So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!””
John 11:41-44 NLT

What happened next in the account of Lazarus was amazingly unequivocal. Jesus prayed out loud about His Father in Heaven hearing Him, not because it was necessary for what was about to happen, but so that the people around Him would make the connection between an amazing miracle, Jesus, and God Himself. After this there would be no doubts about where Jesus had come from and why He was there in Israel. With such a demonstration of His God-given power, how could anyone not believe in Jesus?

Jesus of course didn’t have to remind everyone through a verbal prayer. He was always in constant communication with His Father, Spirit to Spirit, mind to mind, thought to thought, Son to Father. Jesus as we know was and is part of the Godhead, the Trinity, and for a brief time, was willing to become human for the sake of mankind. There was never going to be another opportunity for people everywhere to believe in Him. Greater miracles were not ever going to happen. 

Ever since the devil assumed control of the world, introducing wickedness and evil, mankind has been in self-destruct mode. The last thing the devil wanted was to see people come to a faith in Jesus, because by doing so they would be released from his clutches. Through faith in God, people ever since have had the ability to live in a different way, able to communicate with their loving Heavenly Father, because He always hears us. The Holy Spirit now resides within us, those of us who are believing pilgrims on their way to the fruition of their faith, eternal life. 

Psalm 139:1-4, “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord”. The Psalmist David, who wrote these words many years ago, knew from his relationship with God that He heard everything he thought, not just prayed. He went on to say, “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!” (Psalm 139:7). And he finished the Psalm with, “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! …  Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:7, 23-24).

God hears us, even when we perhaps think otherwise. Apart from the obvious outcome regarding our thought life and behaviour, we have the assurance that the relationship we have with God is alive and real, and it enables us to check in with Him at every opportunity. Because of our humanity we are prone to sinful thoughts but through Jesus we have a remedy that allows us to maintain our relationship with God. So what are we thinking today? God is listening in as well, don’t forget.

Dear Father God. As Your children we are grateful for Your presence in our lives. Please help us to live in a way that is worthy of You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Glory of God

Posted on by korgrocker

“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.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me.”
John 11:38-41 NIVUK

We human beings are natural beings living in a natural world. We see with our eyes and hear with our ears. We taste, feel and smell. But there are many things in this world that we cannot experience with our senses. Take the air around us, for example. We know it is there, but we cannot appreciate it with any of our senses. We cannot appreciate another person’s thoughts or see their inner turmoil with our natural senses. Concepts and theories are real but beyond our physical abilities to experience. Of course, the scientists and technologists invent devices to enhance our natural abilities but there remain huge gaps in our knowledge. In John 3:8 Jesus said to Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit”. How can a natural body invade the spiritual realm and sense what is there?

God’s glory is not something we can measure because it is the fullness of who He is. In Exodus 33:18, we read about a question from Moses,  “Then Moses said, ‘Now show me your glory.’” God’s reply was, “And the Lord said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no-one may see me and live’” (Exodus 33:19-20). 

Jesus reminded Martha that earlier He had told her that she would see the glory of God. We remember that He said to her, “ … I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? ” (John 11:25-26). God’s glory is His ultimate and perfect goodness and an experience of it will change our lives. There was a time of natural instability and Isaiah did what many do at such times – he went to church. There he experienced God in a way that changed his life. He received a vision that we can read in Isaiah 6. “It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke” (Isaiah 6:1-4). The glory of the Lord filled that place and Isaiah was never the same again.

Martha’s life was never the same again. She was about to experience the glory of the Lord in a very personal way. We don’t know anything about the rest of her life, but we can be sure that it was never the same again. Perhaps we pilgrims long for such a time when we too will experience at first hand the glory of the Lord. But we look up into Heavenly places and see the Lord there, and He smiles at us. One day we will be with the Lord sharing with others the glory of the Lord. And we will say and sing with them, “You are worthy, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honour and power. For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you pleased” (Revelation 4:11).

Father God. We give You all the glory today for all You have done for us through Jesus. We worship You today. Amen.


Quite a Stench

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.””
John 11:38-39 NKJV

Imagine the scene. It was a place where caves had been hewn in the rock face to provide burial places for individuals or families. Sometimes these tombs were quite elaborate and consisted of several rooms, but each would have been sealed with a rounded stone that sat in a groove, preventing access by wild animals. The poorest in the society, who couldn’t afford such a burial place, would have been interred in a shaft dug in a designated field. Anyway, Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb accompanied by an unknown but significant number of people including Martha. What happened next was unheard of because Jesus told those who were there to “Take away the stone”. Martha, ever the practical one, protested that there would be a bad smell coming from the tomb because Lazarus had been dead for four days. There were no doubts in anyone’s mind that Lazarus was really dead and his body had started to decompose, something that happened rapidly in that warm climate.

There comes a point in everyone’s life when they die. No matter how hard people try to stop it, ageing is a natural process and our bodies will one day wear out and be of no more use to us. This was not what God intended when He created us, and the first records in Genesis indicate lives extending into hundreds of years. But there came a point when a life span was expected to be “three score years and ten”, or eighty if the person had the strength (Psalm 90:10). These days, the average life span is in the late seventies for a man and the early eighties for a woman, but some die much younger and others exceed a hundred. After death, a body buried in a grave will decompose and eventually end up with skeletal remains. The Jews were horrified by the thought of cremation, assuming that a person’s physical body, regardless of its condition or what remained, would one day be physically involved in the resurrection of the dead.

So we have the scenario with Jesus and a number of people standing outside a tomb, watching as the stone is removed. The thoughts of those around Jesus could almost be heard. Thoughts such as “What on earth is Jesus up to now”? But did anyone expect what was about to happen?

We pilgrims read the account almost dispassionately. We didn’t know Lazarus or his sisters. But we do know Jesus, and recognise and honour Him, the Son of God. Because God has the interests of His children at heart, we feel a warmth within our spirits as we observe the scene outside the tomb. Jesus was about to demonstrate a miracle so amazing that it changed the lives of those in Jerusalem at that time and it brought into perspective that our God is all-powerful and has the ability to overturn all the preconceptions of the worldly people around us. What are we expecting God to do today? There may be a stench emanating from the sin and death around us, but that will never faze our miracle working God.

Dear Lord Jesus. You are the Saviour of the world. There is no other way to Heaven and we journey on to be with You. Our journey through life will attract the stench of the wickedness around us, but through Your blood we are washed as white as snow. Amen.

Jesus the Non-Conformist

Posted on by korgrocker

““Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?””
John 11:34-37 NLT

There must have been quite a crowd of people in the area where Jesus was because His emotions were seen and commented on. The kinder ones in the crowd observed Jesus’ tears and put them down to His relationship with Lazarus, now ended after his death, or so they thought. So to them tears were a sign of a grieving Jesus. However, there were others in the crowd who were not so impressed and came to the conclusion that Jesus wasn’t all-powerful, because the Healer of the blind man obviously, to them, couldn’t have saved Lazarus. Well, as we know, they were about to receive quite a shock!

A major problem within Israel was false expectations. The people had drawn their own conclusions about the Messiah they were expecting, based on Scripture that portrayed Him as the coming King, who would restore to Israel their autonomy, and political and emotional stability. Scriptures such as Zechariah 9:9-10, “Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt. I will remove the battle chariots from Israel and the warhorses from Jerusalem. I will destroy all the weapons used in battle, and your king will bring peace to the nations. His realm will stretch from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth”. The Jewish people extrapolated the prophetic writings into an imagined situation where the Messiah would destroy the Roman occupiers and fulfil their expectations, even if He was riding a donkey.

Such was Jesus’ impression on the people of Galilee after He fed the crowd of five thousand men and their families, that we read, “When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, “Surely, he is the Prophet we have been expecting!” When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself” (John 6:14-15). They wanted Jesus to lead a rebellion to be free of the Romans, just as their ancestors had been freed from slavery to Egypt. But the same attitude to Jesus was present when faced with His miracles. Some people wanted to dictate to Him what He should and shouldn’t do. Their expectation was that the Healer of Mr Blind-no-more was also supposed to be the Healer of His friend Lazarus. So in their eyes Jesus wasn’t as powerful as He seemed to say He was. 

Jesus was never going to conform to an earthly or human agenda. He was counter-cultural and non-conformist within the Israeli society. His work was in accordance with His Father’s instructions, not the expectations of the people. Jesus said to the Pharisees,  “ … When you have lifted up the Son of Man on the cross, then you will understand that I Am he. I do nothing on my own but say only what the Father taught me. And the one who sent me is with me—he has not deserted me. For I always do what pleases him” (John 8:28-29). Jesus was not a man-pleaser and was never going to conform to human expectations.

We pilgrims are also counter-cultural and non-conformist in the sense that we are not going to always behave in a way that unbelievers expect. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God living as ambassadors in our natural world, the kingdom of darkness, and that will expose us to all sorts of criticism and expectations. We are not followers of the crowd walking long the broad way that leads to hell. We are journeying on the narrow way, a path paved with ridicule and abuse from the broad way people. But that matters little to God’s counter-cultural and non-conformist children.

Dear father God. Please help us on our journey to the Promised Land, a place where we will find the glory of the Lord. Amen.

If Only (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.””
John 11:30-32 NLT

Poignantly, Mary said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” “If only” implies a regret, that, with the benefit of hindsight, something could have been different and better. Mary only had the faith to consider Jesus as the healer, but the resurrector? The thought that Jesus could raise the dead had probably never occurred to her. 

Often, we look at the past with rose-tinted glasses, picking out the good bits but conveniently ignoring the not so good. But our lives are full of seasons and a new season awaits us. But do we allow our futures to be dictated to by our past? Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13-14, “No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us“. We pilgrims look forward towards the light, and not backwards to a life of sin. We remember what happened to Lot’s wife, who had second thoughts about leaving Sodom and looked back with regrets about what the old life had for her. Genesis 19:26, “But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.”

There are many congregations that have become stuck in a previous move of God. But instead of following God, as the Israelite slaves did in the wilderness, looking out for the signs that it was time to break camp and move onto the next campsite, they stay where they are, following a liturgy and routine that doesn’t connect with God anymore. In the wilderness, the slaves had no option other than to break camp because to refuse to move would quickly lead to their demise from lack of food and water. The provision of manna followed God, and would have disappeared into the distance behind the pillars of fire and smoke, leaving any stragglers without the means of life. The manna today comes through the blessings of the Holy Spirit and, sadly, many churches find themselves in a place where the Holy Spirit has moved on. As someone once asked, if the Holy Spirit left our church would we know any difference? Hmmm…

The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me” (Jeremiah 29:11-13). The antidote to “if-only” syndrome is to wholeheartedly look for, and follow, God. It is never too late to turn our backs on our past and resolve to look for the future. The thief on the cross had a life full of regrets. Full of “if-only’s”. But in his dying breaths he looked forward and reached out to Jesus who, in His compassion, saw right into the thief’s heart, finding repentance there, and granting him the gift of eternal life. 

Are we pilgrims looking forward or back? Are we full of regrets or are we believing what Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:20, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think“? ‭‭There are exciting opportunities ahead of us because we follow an infinite God who will never fail to surprise us – if we let Him. As the old song goes, “I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back“. 

Dear Father God. We indeed commit ourselves wholeheartedly to You. As the Apostle Peter said, “ … Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life”. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

A Statement of Belief

Posted on by korgrocker

“Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” So Mary immediately went to him.”
John 11:26-29 NLT

Jesus asked Martha if she believed in His statement that He was the Resurrection and the Life, and that “Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die”. Her reply was a resounding “yes” and she followed it with what was probably a statement impregnated with danger in those days – “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God”. This was a dangerous thing to say because of what the Pharisees might do if they heard someone say it.

We pilgrims also reached a time when we declared our belief in Jesus and affirmed who He was, and still is, of course. What we believe is important because it not only defines us to the world around us but it also determines how we think and behave. But more than that, no one can make a statement of belief as Martha did without it changing their lives. We were not born as a baby who implicitly believed in Jesus, and never had to make a decision for Christ because we were already there. As Paul wrote, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard”. Through Adam’s sin, all of mankind is in a default position of not believing in God, and instead are believers in sin and wickedness. But thanks to God there came a revelation followed by a decision, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:8-9, “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true”.

There are many people around us who have made their own statements of belief. And there are as many of them as there are people, it seems. Most of them are anti-God and many support an ideology that is yet one more devil-inspired bag of nonsense. There is a spectrum from the weird to the wonderful and God must shake His head in sadness when He observes what is going on. We must be grateful for the covenant He made with Noah, “I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth. Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you. Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth” (Genesis 9:9-11).

The early Christians produced their own statements of belief, in the form of Creeds. My earliest recollection of the Apostle’s Creed was in an Anglican Church, and it was recited regularly in services and at other times. But to us pilgrims today it is important that we have a statement of belief that will define both ourselves, and also our Creator God, to those around us. I believe ….

Dear Father God. We again affirm our belief if You the Maker of heaven and earth. We worship You today. Amen.

Rise Again

Posted on by korgrocker

“Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?””
John 11:23-26 NLT

Another “I AM” statement from Jesus. This time it was “I am the resurrection and the life”. To rewind a little, though, Jesus said this in response to Martha’s faith-filled assumption that her brother was going to be resurrected “at the last day” or at the end of time. She obviously felt that it was now too late for Lazarus to rise there and then because he was dead and buried, and had been in the grave for four days. But she had faith that there would be a day sometime in the future when he would rise again. 

Jesus followed His statement about being the resurrection and the life by assuring Martha that anyone who believes in Him will live even after death, and in fact they will never die in the first place. And there was then His poignant question of Martha, “Do you believe this ..? It is a question that is universal and timeless in its reach. God sent His Son to redeem wayward humanity once and for all, and all they have to do is answer a truthful and enduring “YES” to His question.

How could Jesus make such a statement about being the resurrection and the life? Jesus, being the Son of God, spoke out the reality and truth that He was and is the resurrection and life. Death has no power over Jesus, and neither does it have any power over anyone who believes in Him. In Jesus there is life, and life eternal. 

Jesus told Martha “Your brother will rise again”. Jesus had previously told the crowd in the Temple, “For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day” (John 6:40). It was taken as read that there would be a day when the dead were resurrected, though there was a group of Jewish leaders, the Sadducees, who thought otherwise. But with the benefit of the Holy Spirit’s revelation to the early church and the Apostles, we know a bit more. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:23, “But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.” We believers know that one day Jesus will return, and we will “rise again” to join Him. There are several interpretations of Scripture about the order of events, but through Jesus all believers in Him will be resurrected and then live forever. There is no other way, except through Jesus because he is the Resurrection and He is the Life. 

Dear Father God. Once again we pray for all those around us who have been deluded into thinking that they will meet up with their loved ones in Heaven after they die. Please help us communicate to those around us that it is only through faith and belief in Your Son Jesus that Heaven will become a reality. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Graveyard Dead

Posted on by korgrocker

“So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.” Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.” When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days.”
John 11:14-17 NLT

A pithy, out-of-the-corner-of-his-mouth, comment from Thomas to the other disciples perhaps made them chuckle, but it illustrated the underlying fear that they felt about returning to Judea. Not a sensible decision was their thought because Jesus had, not so long ago, left there under the threat of being stoned to death for what the Pharisees considered was His blasphemous teachings. The Pharisees couldn’t dispute the miracles but they violently objected to Jesus’ claim that He did them in God’s name. But Jesus was on a mission and nothing was going to stop Him returning to see His friends. While Jesus and His disciples had been away, Lazarus had become more and more ill, and had finally died. His distraught sisters made the arrangements for his burial and it was in a tomb, probably hewed out of rock, and sealed by a stone placed over the front, that Lazarus’ body was incarcerated. In those days a body was washed and wrapped in a long length of cloth complete with spices before it was buried, and Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days before Jesus turned up. 

After death bodies start to decompose, a process in which the cells, starved of oxygen, start to break up and dissolve, and the naturally-occurring bacteria in the body go on a feeding frenzy. In cold climates the process takes a while, but in a warm place like Israel, decomposition accelerates. So after four days, Lazarus’ body was well beyond any form of recovery, even through the most advanced medical techniques available today, let alone two thousand years ago. So to everyone present in Bethany, there was no doubts about Lazarus being dead. Graveyard dead. Modern claims that perhaps Lazarus wasn’t really dead but had just fainted or was comatose, denies the intelligence of the people in Bethany. They knew that dead means dead. 

It is a fact of life that everyone one day will die. It was Benjamin Franklin who apparently uttered the phrase “In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes”, a rather sardonic observation that continues to apply today. But no matter how hard people try, and how much they spend on surgical or medical remedies, everyone will die one day. We all will have to face it. To many people the thought of death is to be avoided for as long as possible. Perhaps they suddenly face the reality at a loved one’s funeral or on a hospital visit. So before it is too late, it is advisable to do things like make a will, or take out life insurance, protecting our loved ones and leaving a legacy in line with our wishes. Some people even organise their funerals, picking songs or hymns, and so on, but in the end there is an end to a person’s natural life.

It is sad that people generally give no thought to what happens after death. According to the Bible, after death our bodies die but our spirits live on. On the cross next to Jesus’ a thief was told by our Saviour that he would soon be with Him in Paradise. Obviously his body wouldn’t go there because, after the custom of that time, it would have been disposed of on the rubbish heap in the Valley of Hinnom, a place where executed criminals were thrown after death. So our spirits live on and end up either in a place of comfort – Heaven – or in a place of discomfort – Hades. Jesus told the story of the Rich Man and another man called Lazarus, who was a poor beggar who sat at the Rich Man’s gate. After they both died, the poor man, Lazarus, was comforted “in the bosom of Abraham” but the Rich Man ended up in a place of torment. We can read the story in Luke 16. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord”. He had no doubts where he was going to end up after he had died.

So when we die our bodies are discarded and our spirits end up in a holding place. Lazarus was “graveyard dead” and we can assume that his spirit was in one of them and probably the place of comfort. The issue for human beings is about where their spirits (souls) go when they die. We pilgrims have a message of hope for a future with Jesus. We mustn’t keep such good news just to ourselves.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for Your promise of eternal life with You. Please help us to share it with those around us, people with ears receptive to the truth. In Your precious name. Amen.

Lingering Doubts

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!” They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.””
John 11:11-15 NLT

Did Jesus have a sense of humour? I can just imagine Him chuckling to Himself with the thought of what He was about to do. But in the meantime He was perhaps teasing His disciples a little. They probably struggled a bit to keep up with all that their Master and Lord was doing, and they took what He said at face value. Quite correctly, they pointed out that if Lazarus was sleeping then he was on the mend and would soon be up and about. But Jesus then dropped a bombshell – Lazarus was dead and He, and His disciples, were going to go to Bethany to raise him from the dead. That was the only conclusion the disciples could draw. And Jesus added that if the disciples had any lingering doubts, then this was going to blow them away. Only God had the power to raise someone from the dead.

There were several occasions when the disciples displayed their doubts over their faith and Jesus’ power. There was that time when Peter jumped out of the boat and walked on the Sea of Galilee towards Jesus. We can read the account in Matthew 14, “Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?”” (Matthew 14:28-31). Then there was the time when Thomas received the tag “Doubting”. John 20:24-28, “One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!””.

Do we pilgrims have any doubts over our faith? If we are honest with ourselves then the answer must be “Yes”. There are dark times when we gaze up into the heavens wondering why there is no answer to a prayer or an anguished cry for help. These are the times when all we have to rely on is our faith and the memories of previous times of wonder when God brought about a miracle in our own lives. I regularly think back with a grateful heart to such times as those. But sometimes we echo the cry of the father whose son was demon possessed. We read in Mark 9:23-24, ““What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!””

Sometimes our minds find themselves wandering through corridors of human reason and logic, and can soon find themselves in a cul-de-sac of doubtful thoughts. But at such times as these, we pick up God’s Word, the Bible, and read it. “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). In God’s presence all our doubts will disappear like the mist before the morning sun.

Dear God. Your peace is precious and we can receive it every time we feel doubts start to rise. We are so grateful. Amen.