John 9-11; Proverbs 23
*Click here to read these passages:
Two different stories today in these chapters of John where the
big “Why” question pops up. The
“why” is a tough one, and many times we don’t ever fully understand why certain
things happen or why things are the way they are. But as always in Jesus, there is hope. There is hope for God to do the
impossible. And even if that
doesn’t happen in the way or in the time you would like it to, God can use you
and your experiences to do amazing things and reach many people.
In chapter 9 is the story of Jesus opening the eyes of the man who
was born blind. People of that
time believed that if a person was born blind it was because of his or his
parents’ sin. “Neither this man
nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the work of God
might be displayed in his life.” (John 9:3) I imagine this man would have asked the
big “why” a few times in his life – why was he blind and why did everyone look
down on him and his family? We
don’t know exactly how old he was but we know he was grown up, so he had gone
years before he was healed by Jesus.
Then he became a testimony for Jesus that lives on to this day – “I was
blind but now I see!”
Then in chapter 11 is the story of Mary and Martha and their
brother Lazarus. Lazarus had been
sick and his sisters sent word to Jesus so He would come and heal him. Jesus said, “It is for God’s glory so
that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” It says that when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where
he was two more days before he left.
By the time He got there Lazarus had died and had been in the tomb for
four days. (*Discovery Bible commentary
says, “When a person died, the Jews checked for three days to make sure he or
she was dead rather than in a coma.
Jesus waited to go to Bethany to restore Lazarus to life until there
could be no disputing the fact that Lazarus had died.)
Mary and Martha both said to Jesus, “If you would have been here
Lazarus would not have died.”
Jesus didn’t give them an answer to why He didn’t come sooner, but He
did give them the greatest miracle of seeing death brought to life. I love how even though Jesus knew He
was going to bring back Lazarus from the dead, He still was deeply moved when
He saw their sorrow and He wept with them.
He understands the waiting is hard and not knowing the why is
hard. He cares and He comforts,
and He brings hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment