“A Journey with John” Day 19: Bad news (John:11:1-19)

Last time, our guide took us to see the rest of the fiery exchange Jesus had with the religious leaders after He healed the blind man on the Sabbath. Jesus continued His debate with them by indicating that He is the good Shepherd. In fact, He is the Door of the sheep. He made clear to them that they are not among His sheep. However, concerning those who are His sheep, He will give them eternal life. He said no one can prevent this from happening because He and the Father are one. As has become predictable, they again tried to stone Jesus, yet again, Jesus fled the scene and had a successful revival just beyond the Jordan.

Before embarking on today’s itinerary, let’s see the new people to whom we were introduced last time:

>People beyond the Jordan who received Jesus with gladness

Now let’s join our guide and see what this good news/bad news scenario, is about:

Our guide takes us to see Jesus receive some troubling news about His friend, Lazarus. Indeed, Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that he is very ill. (Our guide tells us that this Mary is the one who anointed Jesus’ feet but we haven’t seen that yet.) Amazingly, when Jesus hears the news about Lazarus, He decides to tarry two more days before traveling to Bethany. Jesus tells the disciples that this illness won’t bring death, but an opportunity for Jesus to be glorified. We then hear that Lazarus is asleep and Jesus wants to go wake him up. The disciples think He means natural sleep until He tells them that Lazarus is dead and He’s glad He wasn’t there when He died! The disciples worry that going back to Judea will end with Jesus being killed. We hear Thomas say that they should go with Jesus and die with Him. When Jesus and the disciples reach Bethany, they find that Lazarus has been in the tomb four days!

Our highlighted verses for today:

“Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?” These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.” So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.”

‭‭John‬ ‭11‬:‭1‬-‭4‬, ‭7‬-‭8‬, ‭11‬, ‭14‬-‭15‬, ‭17‬, ‭19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Question for reflection:

Why did Jesus say that He was glad He wasn’t there when Lazarus died?

Next time, we get to see the good news part of this story.

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!