I was reading my Bible last night before getting ready for bed…and I came across a passage of Scripture that both made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.
Let me set it up…
In John 11 is the story of where Jesus brings a guy named Lazarus back to life—AFTER he had been dead for four days. It is one of my favorite Bible passages and also happens to be one of the things in Scripture I would have loved to have seen firsthand.
NOW…this miracle set the surrounding regions on its ear; after all, this type of thing NEVER happened. Seriously, Lazarus had been dead for…FOUR DAYS...and then Jesus shows up, calls him out of the grave and BOOM…there he is.
BUT…in John 12 one of the most amazing and disturbing verses in the Bible appears. Actually it is two verse—please take a second and read John 12:9-10.
WHAT IN THE HECK?
OK…let’s review—Lazarus dies, Jesus shows up four days later and brings him back to life—people begin to follow Jesus because of the amazing miracle…and the Pharisees…the religious people of the day, instead of admitting a God-sized miracle had taken place—THEY MADE PLANS TO KILL LAZARUS!
Point—there are some people in life that will never be able to admit that a move of God is taking place because, in doing so, will have to admit that their way of doing things isn’t the only way of doing things. These are the people that should always be ignored because they can’t see Jesus—BECAUSE in order to do that they would have to drop traditions that they have always viewed as something that gets them closer to God.
Folks—they missed a miracle—they wanted to kill Lazarus because he was a walking reminder that their way had fallen apart. They did it then…and they will do it today. There will always be a group of religious people who speak against what the Lord is doing…and pastors, they are not worth your time. Stick with the vision God has given you.
One more thing…how do you think Lazarus responded when he was told they wanted to kill him?
“Hey Lazarus—go hide dude.”
“Why?”
“Because the religious leaders want to kill you!”
“Really?”
“Yeah—so, RUN!!!”
“Uh, no…I think I will stay right here.”
“What—Lazarus, are you crazy—don’t you know how powerful they are? They are going to KILL YOU!!!”
“Yeah…that’s not really a big deal to me. You see, I have been dead before; in fact, I was dead for four days. And do you see that guy over there, Jesus, well he showed up and brought me back to life. I figure if He did it once He can do it again…so go and tell those self righteous bigots to BRING IT!”
I just imagine that conversation happened somewhere along the way!!! Seriously, how in the world can you threaten to kill a man who has already been dead and brought back to life by Jesus! THAT’S FUNNY! AND once again it proves the point that when God does a miracle that there will always be those from the religious ranks that rise to try to kill it…but…
They can’t!
They could not do it with Lazarus!!!
And they can not do it today!!!