Tag Archive | Lazarus

“Charlie” & Lazarus, a parable

Oct7

lazarus-01Jesus told this story to men who were lovers of money, who ridiculed Him on His teaching about using money for the Kingdom of God, about being faithful to use what what they had, and about not being able to serve BOTH God AND money.

 

“You either hate one and love the other, or are devoted to one and despise the other. God knows your hearts. What men value highly is detestable in God’s sight.”

“There were two men……

A rich man (we will call him Charlie) and a very poor man named Lazarus.

Charlie lived in a fine house in a gated community.

Lazarus lived on the cold sidewalk outside the gate.

Charlie was clothed in purple and fine linen.

Lazarus was “clothed” in sores.

Charlie feasted sumptuously, every day.

Lazarus begged for just a few… crumbs.

While Charlie was probably pampered by a dozen slaves, Lazarus had his sores licked by dogs.

Then….both men died.

Charlie was buried (a grand funeral, no doubt, laid out in silken robes with flowery wreathes).  He went straight to Hades, and was in torment, in anguish, in flames.

Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham’s side where he was comforted and had access to refreshing cool water.

Charlie: “Oh, please, Father Abraham, send Lazarus with a cool drop of water for the tip of my tongue, for it is burning beyond what I can bear!”

Abraham: “Lazarus can neither hear you nor see you.  He is being comforted and healed from all the abuse and misuse he suffered on earth.  Sorry, Charlie… it’s not going to happen!  Your days of ordering slaves and servants to meet your every need are over.  Besides… there is this huge chasm between where YOU are, and where WE are.”

Charlie: “Then…. I beg you, Abraham, send Lazarus to my five brothers to warn them about this place!”

Abraham: “No, Charlie. Your five brothers have Moses & the Prophets (the Bible).  Let them listen to them!”

Charlie: “No, they do not read the Bible. They don’t know any of that. But… if you would send someone from the dead (Lazarus), they would believe him, I know!”

Abraham, with a sigh: “If they do not believe Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced if Someone (Jesus) was raised from the dead.”

~~~ from Luke 16.

 

Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

After Jesus’ resurrection, He joined two disciples walking to Emmaus, and “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”

Later, to his own close disciples, Jesus said, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them,“This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

***

Oh, be prepared for your last day! Read, listen to, meditate on, believe, and obey all God says in His Word about Jesus and the gift of faith and salvation. His Word is truth. Search the scriptures, for they testify of Jesus Christ, and in them you will find  eternal life. Be a “doer” of that Word and not only a superficial “hearer.”

God’s Perfect Timing

Feb4

My Bible reading today was John 11:1-55, on Martha, Mary and their baby brother Lazarus.  It’s a picture of God’s Perfect Timing, among a lot of other things. If you are like me, you are impatient when God doesn’t move when and how you expect or desire Him too. Always it is for our own good when things don’t work out to our liking. God’s ways are so much higher and better than ours! If we will just trust him quietly we would see. But, no… that’s not in our nature. Well, not in mine.

~~~~~

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” (11:1-3)

mary-martha-lazarus-1104310-galleryThe sisters sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was REALLY sick. (It was just a statement, but it went with the unspoken assumption that Jesus would come quickly and heal him “before it was too late.”)

Jesus did not come.

In fact He waited two more days after receiving their message before announcing to His disciples that Lazarus was dead. It took a few more days to head back and finally arrive. By that time, the brother had been the grave four days and had begun to rot. (stink)

MARTHA (going out to meet Him): “If you had been here our brother would not have died.”

MARY (falling at His feet, weeping): “If you had been here our brother would not have died.”

RELATIVES & NEIGHBORS (whispering): “Could not He who opened the eyes of the man born blind also have kept this man from dying?”

If only! Oh, if only He would have come! Things would have been so different! Why did He delay till it was too late?

(Do YOU ever feel that way? I do. That if Jesus was HERE RIGHT NOW, my illness would be cured? If He was here, He could just say the word, lay hands on me, or let power flow from his robe when I reached to touch its hem…. But He didn’t come when I prayed. He was silent. My situation got worse. I wasn’t healed.)

Jesus was deeply moved and troubled in His spirit.  Seeing the grief and pain and unbelief and death that the wiles of the devil had caused to His creation through deception and sin, Jesus wept angrily.

“Where is he buried?” He demanded.

“Roll back the stone!” He commanded

“Father, I ask this so that the people around may believe that YOU sent me (to bring life and resurrection power over sin and death).” He prayed as He looked to heaven.

“LAZARUS, COME OUT!”  He shouted.

It was a shout of victory over sin and death, much like his own cry from the cross, “IT IS FINISHED!”

And… “The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (11:44)

Three days after His crucifixion and burial, Jesus also would rise from the dead, though the grave clothes would not cling to Him.

“Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (Acts 2:22-24)

“I am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus said to Martha and now to us. “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?” (11:25-26)

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

~~~~~

And so….. because of the delay of a few days (so misunderstood and maligned by the sisters) a greater miracle brought glory to Christ and to the Father, and many believed. It was a crescendo of God’s power displayed, to remind them, and all of us, and perhaps even Jesus, of that ultimate miracle which would take place on Resurrection morning.

If you are desperately praying for God’s intervention right now. If you can see no way out. If it is almost too late. Remember this story.  God sees and knows exactly your circumstances. His plan for you is good. Trust Him. He is totally trustworthy.

Lazarus, Come out!

May30

Today, my Bible reading was John 11:1-44

My first amazing insight came from verse 5, about Martha and not Lazarus. It gladdened my heart because I am so much like Martha.

“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”

Martha – concerned with many “things,” irritated, jealous, self-pitying Martha; Jesus loved her. Bossy, critical, no-time-for-sitting-and-listening-to-Jesus-because-of-all-the-things-that-needed-to-be-done Martha; Jesus loved her. Martha – resentful, accusing Jesus of not loving them enough to come to them in their need; Jesus loved her. Prickly, unyielding, yet willing to believe and obey Martha; Jesus LOVED her. He loved Martha!

(But Martha will have her day in John 12.)

 

So a certain man, Lazarus of Bethany, was ill and his sisters sent to Jesus to come help (heal) him.  Jesus told his disciples that Lazarus’ illness did not lead to death, but that it was for the glory of God, so that the Son of God would be glorified through it.  And He lingered by the Jordan River for TWO MORE DAYS.

Then he told his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again. Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep and I go to awaken him.”

Hey, he’s sleeping, he must be getting better, thought his disciples.

Nope. Jesus said plainly, “Lazarus has died, and for YOUR sakes I’m glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”

Martha met Jesus as they were coming. “Lord, IF YOU HAD BEEN HERE my brother would have not died!”

“But… even now,” she conceded, “I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give you.”

Jesus: “Your brother will rise again.”

“Yes, I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

Jesus: I AM the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die”

How would Martha, in mourning for her little brother, respond to this?

In faith. “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Then, seeing their sorrow & weeping, and the compassion & question of their fellow mourners, Jesus came to the tomb.  “Take away the stone.”

Practical, realist Martha said, “Lord by this time he stinks for he has been dead four days!”

lazarus3b“Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the Glory of God?”

So… Martha told them to take away the stone.

After looking to heaven and thanking His Father… Jesus shouted, “LAZARUS, COME OUT!”

And the dead man heard and came out, his hands and feet bound with linen burial strips.

“Unbind him, and let him go,” said the Creator and Sustainer of life.

Oh, Lord, command that I be unbound too, from worldliness, from love of things, from selfishness, self-righteousness, vainglory and pride! Jesus, command that I be let go, freed from these things that weigh me down and keep me from abundant life in You!

(Hmm…were Lazarus’ hands and feet bound individually? Were they bound tight together like a mummy? Did Lazarus rise as a single form and… float out???)

Regardless of how, Lazarus HAD to obey Christ’s command. And if Jesus had not specifically named Lazarus, ALL the dead would have come forth from the tombs!

And one day they will.

I Thessalonians 4:16 says of Jesus’ second coming, “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command… And the dead in Christ will rise!”

O glorious day!

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Colossians 2:13-14: “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling out the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting LIFE.”

For victory over death and the grave, and for eternal life, thank You, Jesus!