A Miracle For The Senses

My wife and I have been reading through the entire Bible in a year's time. We've been through it four times and have started our fifth consecutive year. Every year it seems like we read a whole new Bible with whole new revelations. And this year's no different. We are reading through the book of John for the moment and I noticed something that I never realized before.

For starters, I'm referring to John chapter 11. Jesus' beloved friend, Lazarus, was deathly ill. I'm sure mostly everyone who's been to Sunday school as a child will remember this story. So that's why I wanted God to give me a fresh view on this passage. The thing that really spoke to me was what He has spoke to His disciples. He said for their sake, He was glad He wasn't there when Lazarus was sick. Why? I think it's because they've seen Jesus heal the sick. It would have been old news for them. I read this passage in "The Message" to see a different view of reading and in vs. 15, Jesus said," You're about to given new grounds for believing."

Just when the men thought they had seen Jesus do it all, He had something else planned. And by the sounds of it, something big. So fast forward to when they arrived to Bethany. Lazarus had been dead for 4 days. What's amazing is how Martha confronted Jesus. When my little sister had passed away at a very young age, I was so quick to blame God for what happened and even turned my back to Him. For any of you who have lost a loved one, you may know what I'm talking about. But Martha said the opposite. She said she knew Jesus could do whatever He wanted and it would be ok. She believed that whatever the circumstance, God and Jesus, the Messiah had it all under control.

Now the miracle. If you remember, Jesus was going to be "giving them new grounds for believing". I can just picture God smiling as He was planning all this. Sure, He could have just blinked His eye and "Poof!" out comes Lazarus. But God really wanted to make sure the people there remembered this. This was going to be a miracle that told just about all of our senses that there was a living and very active God. First, Jesus told the people to remove the tombstone. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that after 4 days of being dead, your nose will DEFINATELY know that Lazarus isn't going to be waking up any time soon. The next sense Jesus used was sound. He first spoke to God and thanked God for what was about to happen. He then shouted, "Lazarus, come out!" So the people there heard this Son of God speak to a dead man. Another sense he used to show His doing was sight. Lazarus came out of the tomb still wrapped in the grave clothes! And finally, touch. Jesus told the people to go and take the grave clothes off.

Now that's a miracle that everyone there was able to witness-even if they were blind or deaf. And just as amazed as Lazarus' family was and how grateful they were, I really think the lesson was for His disciples' sake. I think their faith was brought to "new grounds" after that day. So what about you? Do you need God to give you "new grounds for believing"? Let that be your prayer today as you read the whole chaper 11 of John with (hopefully) new sight.