Quite a Stench

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“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 Adrian Clark

““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 Adrian Clark

“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 Adrian Clark

“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 Adrian Clark

“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 Adrian Clark

“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 Adrian Clark

“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.

Jesus Had a Plan

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha …. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days. Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.””
John 11:1, 3-7 NLT

John’s account in his Gospel doesn’t provide any details about the nature of Lazarus’ illness, but events could have developed in the following way. One day Lazarus was a healthy young man, carefree and enjoying life. Then he started to feel unwell. A fever developed and he became too ill to get out of his bed. The fever started to get worse, and he drifted in and out of delirium. His poor sisters became very worried, and spent their time in shifts, dealing with his personal needs, wiping the sweat from his brow. Trying to get him to drink. After a few days, he became comatose and still. Barely breathing. The fever raging on. In the middle of all this the two sisters sent a message to their friend Jesus, an anguished call for help. He didn’t come to heal their brother, but perhaps He instead sent a comforting message to Martha and Mary, that Lazarus was going to be alright.

Jesus received the message but He decided to stay where He was for another couple of days. If He was still at the place where He went to after His previous hassles with the Pharisees, He was still near Jericho and not too far from Bethany where Lazarus and his two sisters lived. Jesus, however, had a plan. Lazarus’ sickness was an opportunity for giving glory to God and His Son, Jesus, and His plan was that “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death”. So rather than rush to his friend’s bedside, Jesus stayed away for another couple of days. And then there came the moment when He decided to travel to Bethany, in Judea. 

As the story unfolded, the backdrop to one of Jesus’ most momentous miracles was starting to build. This was a miracle that indeed brought glory to God, but it also sealed Jesus’ death warrant. So the story of Lazarus has remained in Scripture as an important milestone on Jesus’ journey to the cross, and our journey to salvation. It was an event that was faith building for His disciples, and is the same for us, His modern disciples, today. There are no doubts in our minds. John’s account lacked details, but that in a way makes it even more authentic. The events in Bethany changed John’s life, and he wrote much later “We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). John was convinced about Jesus’ divinity and never wavered in His faith in Jesus. He went on to write, “We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). John did his utmost to leave a legacy underpinned by the reality of Jesus, and his writings have endured the passing of time to bring that message to everyone who dares to pick up a Bible and read it. With John today, and countless disciples since, we give Jesus all the glory, all the praise, and all our thanks and worship. Forever.

Dear God. We give You all the glory for the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Thanks You. Amen.

A Brother With Two Sisters

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.””
John 11:1-3 NLT

Chapter Eleven in John’s Gospel introduces Jesus’ friends, Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha. They lived in a place called Bethany, a village located about two miles from Jerusalem on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. So it was quite close to Jerusalem and someone walking from there would take about forty minutes. We know little about the three siblings, but a story was about to unfold that had earth-shattering consequences. The account in John doesn’t appear in the other Gospels, although references to Mary and Martha do. But we do know that Jesus was friends with this small family unit, and probably stayed with them as often as He could. 

We know a little about Mary, because she “poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair”. John 12:3, “Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance.” And we know a little more about the two sisters from the account in Luke 10, where Martha bustled around preparing a meal for all the hungry guests – Jesus and His disciples – while her sister, Mary, chose to sit at Jesus’ feet, listening to His teaching. This is a well know story often referred to today, with some women identifying either with Martha or Mary in the course of their Christian journeys.

Lazarus became sick. With what we don’t know, but it was important enough for his sisters to send a worried message to Jesus. But the picture emerges in our minds of this ordinary Israeli family, living in a house large enough to accommodate guests. Lazarus and his sisters were probably at the younger end of the age spectrum, but there is no mention of parents or other relatives. Circumstances conspired to leave them, apparently reasonably well off, as three siblings living together on their own. John provided just the bare minimum of facts about this family unit, leaving us to try and fill in the gaps. 

But we pilgrims can relate to the concerns of being ill, and especially if a person close to us is unwell. A parent with a sick child. A wife with a sick husband. A Mary and Martha with a sick brother. Part of life as a human being living on Planet Earth is having to deal with sickness. This wasn’t God’s plan when He created the human race. Instead, we live in a world corrupted by sin, and under the power of the “god of this age”, and because of that we will experience illnesses, all the way from a common cold through to the ravages of cancer. When Jesus came He offered eternal life to all who believed in Him. This wasn’t an infinite natural life extension but eternal spiritual life. Yes, there were well documented occasions, such as in the account we are reading today, when Jesus healed the sick and even raised the dead. Today, there are still miraculous healings that take place through God’s servants and these are all down to God and His compassion.

There was a bond between Lazarus, Martha and Mary that was strong and able to withstand what would be coming to them in the days and weeks ahead in John’s account. But we pilgrims need to be on our guard because the devil excels in breaking up families, and especially Christian families. The devil will want to destroy anything that God has created and ordained. We know from Genesis 2 that God ordained marriage between a man and a woman – “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one” (Genesis 2:24). From the man/woman union comes a family, and family life, and two of the Ten Commandments confirm the importance of the family. The sibling family residing in Bethany were perhaps unusual, but they demonstrated a familial bond that was important.

In a spiritual sense, we are part of a much larger family, made up of the children of God. The devil will want to divide and conquer the church of which we are a part, so we need to be on our guards. And that is the message today as we explore the account of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, and what was about to happen in Bethany.

Dear Father God. You designed the family unit and put within us Your family dna. You too are a part of a family unit, together with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We pray for our families and know that even if we aren’t in a family unit, You are there with us. We are so grateful. Amen.

Escape to the Jordan

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Once again they tried to arrest him, but he got away and left them. He went beyond the Jordan River near the place where John was first baptising and stayed there awhile. And many followed him. “John didn’t perform miraculous signs,” they remarked to one another, “but everything he said about this man has come true.” And many who were there believed in Jesus.”
John 10:39-42 NLT

The tone of John’s account is remarkably downbeat, factual but unemotional and, at times, a bit short on detail. There was Jesus, apparently in the middle of an antagonistic and aggressive crowd, who were wanting to stone Him because they considered His claims about Himself to be blasphemous – “Once again the people picked up stones to kill him” (John 10:31) – yet He was able to escape arrest, walking away and leaving His aggressors behind. And Jesus didn’t have far to go. The exact place where John the Baptist was baptising in the Jordan is debated amongst archaeologists, but the consensus seems to place it about five miles North of the Dead Sea, no more than twenty or so miles from Jerusalem. So Jesus didn’t have far to go before He found a place of safety. John’s account records that “many” followed Jesus there and “many” believed in Him.  Away from the legalistic and aggressive crowd in Jerusalem it seems people were more able to listen to Jesus, see His miraculous signs, and come to a belief in Him as the Son of God.

We pilgrims know how difficult it can be, to share the Good News about Jesus with several unbelievers all at the same time. They tend to hold each other back and even resort to ridicule or more aggressive responses. But on their own, without peer pressure, people can be more receptive. The devil has indeed blinded the eyes and stopped the ears of those who otherwise would be open to hearing our testimonies of hope in Jesus, for a future with Him in eternity. Much of our evangelism is focussed on helping people move a little closer to a belief in Jesus, without finally hearing the big “Yes” to become a follower and believer in Him. But the people in Jesus’ day were pre-armed by John the Baptist, who pointed the attention to Jesus, and they remembered what he had to say. John 1:29-30, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me’”. John the Baptist was well respected by the people and they listened to him.

We pilgrims must always take advantage of the occasions where we find a chink in someone’s anti-God life and provide an opportunity to communicate the love of God. There are many lonely or depressed people around us, who have no solution to their misery. The pressures of life have worn them down, and they desperately need to hear Good News, but they turn on their televisions and find even more depressing news and images of distress that contribute to their own problems. Such people would, however, rather turn to hedonistic activities to try and dull the pain, or they try and find a “god” in activities such as alternative religions or practices such as Yoga. They end up seeking medical solutions with pills that treat their symptoms rather than the cause behind them. They may even engage in public demonstrations for lost causes instead of focusing their human efforts towards God, because we know that there is only one Person who has the remedy for their suffering and that is Jesus. The people in our families and communities need to see and feel the love of Jesus and we may be the only people who can help. 

In Jesus’ day, the people were drawn by His miracles. In our days, miracles are not quite so obvious but we can tell about the miracle we experienced on that day when we came to believe in Jesus. But there came a time when Jesus had communicated all that He could and it was time for Him to find a place of safety where He could find rest and recharge His spiritual batteries. If Jesus needed to do that then how much more must we, His followers, who are not immune from the pressures of life just because we are believers. We too need to find a place perhaps right back at the beginning when we were baptised. That place when we felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. That place when we heard the voice of Jesus saying “come”. And when we arrive there His Spirit will once again flush away the stains of this world, resourcing us for our journey towards the promised land. 

Dear Father God. On our knees today we offer to You all the praise, all the worship and all the glory. Amen.