Jesus spent much of His Time before His being seized with Lazarus, Martha and Mary. John records the raising of Lazarus in powerful terms. The vision of Martha and Mary of Jesus had to be widened.
They learned from the priests that the only resurrection available was at the end of the world, and not even Jesus could do anything being Lazarus 4 days dead. Jesus told them to believe.
Noone there was prepared for Lazarus being raised. Everyone had accepted that death was a barrier that no-one could come back from. Yet Jesus showed them that He was the Messiah by raising Lazarus from the dead.
So this gathering of Jesus and His Disciples at their home was very significant. And curiously Mary broke a perfume bottle and wiped Jesus’ feet. Jesus makes attention of this fact, believing that Mary was prophetically preparing Him for His Death, when He had called Lazarus from the Grave, now He is speaking of His own Grave. Seems no-one was listening. Their attention was on the value of the perfume and how the money could be used for the poor. They missed the core message. Jesus’ mission was coming to a culmination. He was returning to His Father.
In this episode , I believe that the message is really hearing conversation with those we are connected to. The Disciples were not prepared for what was coming. It was to shake, as we shall see, their whole perception of Jesus, His Person and His Message. We cover conversations with Assumptions and preconceived ideas and plans and ambitions. For the Disciples or rather for Simon the Zealot, Jesus was a King and He had come to take control from Rome and set up a Kingdom. A political vision. Yet what Jesus really did was fulfil the Father’s Mission to save mankind and reconcile the human race with its Creator.
Far away from the political assumption of the time. Far away from human ideas of God’s Kingdom. Far away from human motivation. And if we are to compare it to today, this Easter, we have similar issues, misconceptions about Christ, what He came to do, what He called us to do! This misconception accounts for how many Churches there are, how many personality cults there are, how much abuses there are.
How much is fake, staged, manipulated because the human idea is more important than understanding and praying over God’s Word. The misconception in Bethany was started by the “academic” belief in a vague future resurrection. Yet Jesus blew away that belief by calling for the stone to be rolled away and as He called out “Lazarus, come forth!” So this vague belief was powerfully blown away by this miracle. God desires to do miracles again in the midst of His People.
How much is theoretical because we do not see the signs and the wonders. Our faith has become a routine. Jesus will step in and roll away the stones of our limits. Jesus broke the barriers and a made a Covenant beyond them.
Bethany is all about this. Its about a confrontation between the Divine and the limits of our humanity.
Maranatha!
Leave a Reply