I’m reading John 11:38-44 today. This is when Jesus raises Lazarus. What a miracle! But I seem to have gotten stuck around verse 42 or just before. Jesus says, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me…”
This got me at first, I was almost angry reading this. God hears… and then what? God picks and chooses what and who they help?
Why does God cure some but not all?
If you say because some are more deserving, or prayed harder, or some believers and some not, or some other BS just leave my page and forget it exists.
I want no part in that kind of faith. The kind that is exclusive. Not interested.
I’ve sat with many ill people who have asked why God is punishing them or with people who have experienced or are experiencing heartache after heartache and feel the same and I always say the same thing… “God doesn’t work like that.” But when some read a verse like this… (she shakes her head…)
Let’s stop and take a deep breath…. Pause for a moment…
How does this verse pertain to my life, right here, right now? What does it mean to me?
Let’s go back and read it again. “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me… but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
That second part tells me that it’s NOT for me. It’s for the people who were there, right then at that moment.
Is there something I can take away from this reading as meant for my life right here in the present?
Honestly, I’m not sure it has any meaning for me right now. As I read it, I think about how Jesus was trying to get the people’s attention and so he did this miraculous thing in raising Lazarus from the dead. He wanted them to know who he was, the son of God.
The problem was, he wasn’t what they were hoping God would send. They wanted to a warrior, some one who was going to bring them freedom from the Romans not some one who was going to teach them to love and live in community with one another. They wanted to hold on to their hate and superiority, they wanted to believe that they had something “others” didn’t have that made them more important and better.
I feel that God as Jesus wanted to teach us that we are all the same, worthy of love, worthy of care. He wanted/wants us to live in unity with one another, in community, in harmony, in love.
I don’t think God ever thought we wouldn’t have conflict, but I do think God thought we would love each other enough to lovingly work things out and not battle them out. Maybe God created us a little TOO human. Lol
So, though these verses didn’t really say this at all, Jesus, once again, trying to help the people to see, made me think of all of this. I feel like Jesus might be trying to get my attention to remind me to be in community and not hide away at home.
This is seeming to be a bit of a theme for me right now. Community. I need to grow mine, I think.
Until next time… ♥️
Simply Sherri 
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