25th Mar 2011

John 11:1-17-37 – Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus

• ”Understanding beyond doubt”
• Jesus waits for four days.
• This is significant.
• The Pharisees taught and many Jews believed that the spirit hovered over a dead body for three days. It was believed that a person could be ‘resuscitated’ within that time.
• The Jews had a custom that for Shiv’ah [seven] the mourners would mourn very heavily for the first three days, then heavily for the next four and then lightly for the rest of the month. So these first three days were intense.
• Jesus had raised people from the dead before and so had other biblical heroes, but there is no historical evidence that anyone has been raised from the dead after four days.
• Even today there are often medical reports of people ‘dying’ for minutes on a surgeons table but then coming back to life.
• Jesus delayed in order to heal after the forth day – why? To create understanding of who He is.
• Sometime Jesus delays His answer to our prayers because what is more important than an answer is understanding the answer.
• Yes, He could have returned have returned immediately and raised Lazarus from the dead but waiting four days meant it hurt Him to see the family in pain but it was better for them in the long run.
• This connects with a question and answer vI got on Facebook yesterday..
• Question: Hey Paul, just thought I'd give you a question I've always been wondering about. Here we go:How come, God waited so long to send Jesus to die for our sins? Why was it 2000 years ago and not earlier? If he had planned all the time to save us through him, then why wait?
• My Answer: that is a great question that has been asked many times in history. To be honest I cannot give you a definite answer apart from the obvious which is it will have something to do with timing... specifically... preparation. Remember Jesus is very interested is passing on understanding not just knowledge or actions. Something significant happened in the period between the OT and the NT - I don;t have time to write about that know but I unpack it in my next book. The significance effected HOW people received His teaching... one of the problems we have as well is that we think Jesus just came to die on a cross but He came for much more than that. If that is all He came to do He could have done it on day one after the fall. So my one word answer would be... 'understanding'.
• As I said – I’m not completely sure of all the answer but what I am understanding is that Jesus is aiming that we would understand Him beyond doubt. And delaying His response can allow this to happen.
• Praying for patience.