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Weekly Devotional

April 13, 2009

God’s Peace be with you all.

John 11:14-27  ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.  ¹⁵ For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."  ¹⁶ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."  ¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.  ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away,  ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.  ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.  ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him."  ²³ Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."  ²⁴ Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."  ²⁵ Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,  ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"  ²⁷ She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead is an interesting one, as it is only found in John’s Gospel.  Yesterday in Sunday School we talked about how there had been a few “examples” of resurrection before Jesus’ resurrection (not only Lazarus, but also the story of the girl who is sleeping (Matthew 9)).  Despite these examples, the disciples still could not understand (or didn’t) the teachings that Jesus did about his own resurrection.  We read in Luke how even after the women told the disciples about Jesus’ resurrection, Peter still ran down to the tomb to see for himself.  Why could they not (or did not) believe?

For those of us that know the post-Easter story, perhaps it is easier for us to believe in the resurrection.  We don’t have to just trust what someone is telling us, we can read it ourselves.  We have all the texts that we can study and learn from.  Out of this comes our faith.  We are enabled to believe easier because we have the accounts of those who witnessed the things that happened.

Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,  ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”  In terms of our faith, we find ourselves aligned more with Martha, who simply replied “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."  But when the times come that we find ourselves aligned with Peter’s faith (meaning we have to run and see with our own eyes!), we can still rejoice that the resurrection is for us.  We can still believe, even when we have skeptical thoughts.  So on this day after Easter, I hope that each of you can say that today is the least you have ever believed in the resurrection, and the least amount of faith that you will ever have.

In our prayers this week: 

Ann, Tara (having surgery this week), Joseph, Jane, Irene Scheiry (Jane’s mom), St. John’s Lutheran church 

God’s Peace

Pastor Judson