John 11 -- What Do I Prefer?

Two miles east of Jerusalem, Lazarus had become sick and died.  Jesus had intentionally waited until he’d died before heading to his home, because the people would see a greater miracle than just a healing.  They would see the resurrection of a man who’d been in the grave for four days!

Many Jews had come from Jerusalem to mourn and comfort his sisters, so quite a crowd was on hand when Jesus called out in a loud voice for Lazarus to come out of his grave.  What was the reaction?  “Many of the Jews, who had come to visit Mary and saw what Jesus did, believed in Him.”  Many???  Why not all???  They’d just witnessed Jesus’ greatest miracle up to that time!  My commentary said, “The effect of a miracle on a person’s life depends on his moral condition.  If one’s heart is evil, rebellious, and unbelieving, he will not believe even though he were to see one raised from the dead.”

So what did they do?  They headed straight back to Jerusalem to tattle to the Pharisees.  For a group of men that had developed hundreds of rules in order that they could scrupulously claim to have followed the law of Moses to the letter, this had to be unsettling.  After all, they had no protocols for times when the dead were raised!  In their obsessive-compulsive world, this would create a paperwork mess.  How does one unrecord a death certificate when a death had in fact occurred?  They couldn’t issue a new birth certificate.  What about the cemetery plot?  Etc., etc.  This was just too messy!

They asked each other, “What should we do?  This man is doing many miracles! [Note that they just provided court-ready evidence from expert witnesses that the miracles were in fact real and occurring.]  If we LET Him CONTINUE doing these things everyone will believe in Him. [That’s a bad thing?]  Then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our nation.  [It happened anyway in 70 A.D. – not because they accepted Him but because they rejected Him.]  …. That day they started planning to kill Jesus.”

Again, my commentary hit the nail on the head:  “They did not want to believe because they preferred their sins to the Savior.”

Father, I don’t want to ever do that.  I feel the same misery at times that Paul felt – betrayed by a fleshly body infected with sin.  “Why do I do the things I don’t want to do?” He had asked.  I don’t want to prefer anything over You.  Help me to recognize times when I’m beginning to do that, so that with Your strength I can nip it in the bud, Father.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford