"17On his
arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had
already been in the tomb for four days.
18Bethany was less than two miles[a]
from Jerusalem, 19and many Jews had come
to Martha and Mary to comfort them in
the loss of their brother. 20When Martha
heard that Jesus was coming, she went
out to meet him, but Mary stayed at
home. 21"Lord," Martha said to Jesus,
"if you had been here, my brother would
not have died. 22But I know that even
now God will give you whatever you ask."
23Jesus said to her, "Your
brother will rise again."
24Martha answered, "I know he will rise
again in the resurrection at the last
day."
25Jesus said to her, "I am
the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in me will live, even though he
dies; 26and whoever lives and believes
in me will never die. Do you believe
this?"
27"Yes, Lord," she told
him, "I believe that you are the
Christ,[b] the Son of God, who was to
come into the world."
28And
after she had said this, she went back
and called her sister Mary aside. "The
Teacher is here," she said, "and is
asking for you." 29When Mary heard this,
she got up quickly and went to him.
30Now Jesus had not yet entered the
village, but was still at the place
where Martha had met him. 31When the
Jews who had been with Mary in the
house, comforting her, noticed how
quickly she got up and went out, they
followed her, supposing she was going to
the tomb to mourn there.
32When
Mary reached the place where Jesus was
and saw him, she fell at his feet and
said, "Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died."
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the
Jews who had come along with her also
weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit
and troubled. 34"Where have you laid
him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord,"
they replied.
35Jesus wept.
36Then the Jews said, "See how he
loved him!" 37But some of them said,
"Could not he who opened the eyes of the
blind man have kept this man from
dying?"Jesus Raises Lazarus From the
Dead. 38Jesus, once more deeply moved,
came to the tomb. It was a cave with a
stone laid across the entrance. 39"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." 40Then
Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if
you believed, you would see the glory of
God?"
41So they took away the
stone. Then Jesus looked up and said,
"Father, I thank you that you have heard
me. 42I knew that you always hear me,
but I said this for the benefit of the
people standing here, that they may
believe that you sent me."
43When he had said this, Jesus called in
a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44The
dead man came out, his hands and feet
wrapped with strips of linen, and a
cloth around his face. Jesus said to
them, "Take off the grave clothes and
let him go."
KEY VERSE: "But,
Lord, . . . by this time there is a bad
odor, for he has been there four days."
. . . Jesus called in a loud voice,
"Lazarus, come out!" --John 11:39,43
Thought:
I think I'd like Professor Jim
Kakalios' freshman physics
course--Science in Comic Books. The
popular elective at the University of
Minnesota explores questions such as:
"Is Spider-Man's web really strong
enough to support him as he swings from
one skyscraper to another?" Or, "Why did
Superman's home planet of Krypton
explode?"
By working backwards
from the force needed to leap a building
on Earth, Kakalios calculated Krypton's
gravity. He concluded that Superman's
home planet would have had a core of
very dense and highly unstable
material--thus the explosion.
But what about Spidey? If his web has
the tensile strength of steel as the
comic book says, then it could easily
support far more than the superhero's
weight.
To a lot of people,
physics can seem technical, boring, and
remote. And the Bible strikes some
people as being the same. Many of the
stories conjure images of people in
beards and bathrobes who lived long ago
and far away, and have little in common
with today. But a little sanctified
imagination can make the Scriptures come
alive.
Read the story of Lazarus
in John 11:17-44 and try to imagine the
feelings of the people involved. Have
you ever lost a friend or family member
because help didn't arrive in time? How
might Mary and Martha have felt toward
Jesus? Four days after the funeral and
burial, did anyone expect a dead man to
come back to life? How would you have
reacted if you had seen what is
described in verses 38-44? What would
your best friend have said after hearing
your story?
The goal is not to
read things into the Bible that aren't
there, but to understand and experience
everything in the text. Far from being
technical and remote, the Scriptures are
filled with truth that can transform our
lives today.
Each time you read
or study the Bible, begin with a prayer
that the Holy Spirit will bring it alive
in ways you've never seen before. Then
prepare to be amazed and changed by God.
Questions to consider:
***How could using a detailed map of
the Bible lands help increase my
interest and understanding as I read?
***If I had been standing at the
grave of Lazarus (John 11:38-44), what
would I have seen, heard, touched,
smelled?
***For the next week I
will read my Bible aloud, and ask, "How
does this change my experience of the
Word?"
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