Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead

Day 149

OT Reading: 1 Chronicles 26-27

NT Reading: John 11:18-46

So please be honest with me. For those of you who are reading through the Bible with me in a year, when reading through the gatekeepers in 1 Chronicles 26 today, did anyone else keep thinking, "I am the key-master, are you the gatekeeper?" I'm fairly certain I'll hear Rick Moranis in my sleep saying that. (For those of you too young to get the reference, just Google the statement :-) ).

In the New Testament portion, we concluded reading the story of Jesus and Lazarus. If you have not, I'd again strongly recommend watching that message by Andy Stanley that I linked to in yesterday's post. But there were a couple things I wanted to point out from this event.

1. "Jesus wept."(John 11:35, NIV)

It's the shortest verse in the Bible. I'm fairly certain you can memorize it quite easily. And yet, within this simple phrase is a tremendous message. Even though Jesus fully knew what he was about to do...even though he knew how the story would end...he still wept. Whether out of sheer brokenness from the fact that he knew this is never how God intended things to be, or whether he simply took a moment in the midst of this painful circumstance to mourn with Mary and Martha. For whatever reason, Jesus showed his humanity as he wept.

2. "'Take away the stone,' he said. 'But, Lord,' said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 'by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.'" (John 11:40, NIV)

There actually was a reason that Jesus waited four days before performing this miracle. I'm not certain of the origin of this belief, but in early Judaistic tradition it was believed that once dead, a person's spirit still hovered over (or existed near, or possibly even in) the body for three days. After that time period the spirit was released to be in paradise or punishment. If Jesus had come on say, day two. Those around who held onto this belief could have tried to explain away the event as though the spirit had just awakened. However by waiting until the forth day even the skeptics were forced to recognize that Jesus, with just a word, brought Lazarus back from death.

A couple years ago I was attending a local funeral, and I witnessed some activities at the viewing that I was completely unfamiliar with. Because of my curious nature regarding faith, I began to ask questions to some of my friends who were more familiar with this particular religious tradition. After several calls I finally was alerted that this belief of "spirit still with the body" was the basis for these activities. Maybe to you that's a mundane discovery, but to me it was fascinating :-).