Life After Death

January 2014

LIFE AFTER DEATH

The good friend of Jesus, Lazarus, was very ill and his sisters sent a message to Jesus to come to him, so that he could get healed. Jesus stayed where he was for another couple of days before going down to Bethany. The disciples tried to dissuade Jesus from going because the Jews had tried to kill Jesus the last time he was there. (Perhaps this is why they did not question why he didn’t go immediately.)
When Jesus got there the sisters were very upset because Lazarus had already died and had been buried already for four days. They were convinced that if Jesus had arrived earlier he would have been able to heal him. Jesus told them that Lazarus would rise again, they thought of the Last Day but Jesus was not talking about the future he was talking about the present.
Jesus then went to the tomb of his friend, had the people there open the tomb and then proceeded to call Lazarus to come out of the tomb. This is exactly what Lazarus did! As one can imagine, EVERYONE, was impressed and happy to have Lazarus back again. (The Jewish leaders were not quite as happy, they wanted Jesus dead.)
There are some questions though.
Jesus had waited for Lazarus to be dead and buried before he got to Bethany, why?
Jesus wanted the people then, and also us today, to learn some very valuable lessons.
Jesus power does not stop with death; his power is greater than the passing of life. Jesus waited until there was NO question of whether Lazarus was alive and just ‘sleeping’ or if he was dead. (The people actually told Jesus that he would be stinking already when Jesus asked them to open the tomb where he was buried.) Jesus raised a man back to life who was already in a state of decay.
There is a strong parallel to us today, we, when we are still in our sins are ‘dead’ we stink with the decay of sin, we are lifeless. Jesus can raise us back to life again if we accept him into our lives, if we are willing to acknowledge that he is the Christ, if we are willing to obey the instructions he has left for us to follow. If we are immersed in baptism, we to can be brought back to life.