21 April, 2019 – Through the story of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11:1-44, that happened just outside of Jerusalem where Jesus would soon be arrested and nailed on the cross, apostle John wants us to see the glory of Christ crucified. Jesus, knowing that Lazarus was sick, waited and let the family walk through suffering because he loved them and he intended to show them the full extent of the power of God’s love (vs 4). The love of God is to show himself to us, to make himself known, to reveal his glory to the mankind so that by seeing its fullness, all who believe may receive his grace and have eternal life in him (John 1:14,16, John 3:16). The eternal life is to know the Father and to know the Son (John 17:3), and the coming of Christ into the world, his death and crucifixion is an act of showing himself to us so that we may know him and his love for us (John 14:21b). To show us his great love, he doesn’t just come to make our lives better, he doesn’t first come to remove the suffering, the pain, rather, most of all he loves us by giving us himself. When Jesus comes to Bethany to reveal the great truth to all people that he is the resurrection and the life, his love is being questioned (vs 20-21, 32, 36-37). They say the Lord is too late, he could have come earlier when Lazarus could still be helped, he knew, and yet he came late. How could this be love to leave us in our suffering, to let us walk through the valley of the shadow of death? But Jesus wants more for us than just sparing us from suffering and making our lives easier; in verse 40 he says he wants us to see the glory of God, he wants us to see his love for us in its fulness. The great love of God displayed on the cross is Christ giving us everything, giving us himself. Do you believe this?