Readings for today: 1 Samuel 26-28, John 11:1-54, Psalms 117, Proverbs 15:22-23
Death is something all human beings fear. Death is something we all work hard to avoid. We resist aging because it reminds of death. We hate funerals because they remind us of our own mortality. Governments use the death penalty as a tool to deter crime. Nations threaten one another with death in order to achieve their own ambitions. Death is the ultimate weapon of the principalities and powers of this world.
But what happens when death is defeated? What do you do when a man can stand at the mouth of a tomb and call a dead man back to life? Surely this cannot be tolerated! Surely this kind of thing must be eliminated lest people start to believe there is a world beyond this world. A life beyond this life. If people started to believe such things then death would lost its power. Hell would lose its sting. The principalities and powers would have no way to keep people in line. So what do they do when they hear the news that Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead? Rejoice? Celebrate? Praise God? No. They hatch a plot to kill Jesus.
Why would they do such a thing? Because they are afraid of death. Scared of what the Romans might do if word got out that dead people were coming back to life. The delicate political compromise they had struck with Rome would come crashing down like a house of cards. “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." (John 11:48) This was a very real fear. They had seen firsthand the brutality of the Roman legions. They knew the fate that awaited those provinces that rebelled. Their nation would drown in violence, blood, fire, and death.
So one of them, Caiaphas the high priest, came up with a solution. "You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish." (John 11:49-50) If we can just kill Jesus, we can put an end to this movement before it starts. If we can just get to Jesus, then the rest of the people will fall in line. If we can just eliminate Jesus, then the nation will be safe. Little did he know he was prophesying the manner in which Jesus would die. Jesus would indeed become the atoning sacrifice...just not in the way Caiaphas had planned.
Throughout this story, Jesus reminds us all things are happening for the glory of God. All these events are taking place so that we might believe. They are signs given by God Himself to His people to lead us to faith. In fact, the entire gospel of John is one sign after another culminating in the ultimate sign of Jesus’ death and resurrection. These things are written, John says, so that we might believe. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31) So do you have life in Jesus’ name? Have you accepted Christ as the Son of God? The One who made full atonement for your sins? This is the offer Jesus makes to Mary and Martha when He says He alone is the resurrection and the life. He is offering a life that transcends death. A life that is eternal and indestructible. A life that never ends.
Readings for tomorrow: 1 Samuel 29-31, John 11:55-12:19, Psalms 118:1-18, Proverbs 15:24-26