An oldie, but a goodie. I wrote this post over five years ago and it’s still one of my favorite (and most popular) posts of all time! Enjoy!
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Every now and then I read a passage in the Bible that just clicks. One sentence will speak volumes and resonate on so many levels. Today was one of those days. This morning I was reading John 12 – the story of when Jesus went to visit the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus just after raising Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11 (see John 11:38-45). The part that struck me was this:
“But the chief priests plotted to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.” John 12:10-11
Lazarus had a great miracle happen to him. He was raised from the dead by Jesus after being dead for 4 days in the tomb. That isn’t the kind of thing that happens every day – even Jesus was alive on the earth. And now that he was alive, he was a living testimony to the power of Jesus. The chief priests were trying to tell everyone that Jesus was a bad guy or at least a normal guy at best. Their message was “don’t follow Him. He is nothing special. Keep living your life as usual and don’t pay too much attention to what He is saying.”
But when Lazarus walked into the room, their message became much less effective. Lazarus was a walking billboard – shouting out JESUS IS THE REAL DEAL! JESUS IS ALL-POWERFUL! JESUS IS GOD! You couldn’t escape it as long as Lazarus was alive.
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