Daily Prayer 30th March

John 11:28-44 (Click here for text)
The third part of the story of the resurrection of Lazarus. Tomorrow will deal with the fall out in the local area.

We are given so much curious and insightful details. As in the previous parts of this testimony, Jesus in a very different place to everyone around Him and all the characters seem to move around in isolation.

Martha, following her response of faith to Jesus statement of himself as the resurrection and the life has gone to fetch Mary. Martha feeling that peace that can be present in the midst of loss as a result of knowing that the one lost is safe and will be met again.

Mary, on the other hands, is still to find any peace. She appears cross with Jesus and says the words that Mary and Martha had been rehearsing - 'if you had been here he wouldn't have died'. It has resonances of the search for someone to blame that is often the case in these situations. Today, the accusation is more likely to be channeled in the direction of the medical profession!

The mourners are in their own world too. The follow Mary around and watch Jesus. They get everything wrong. They assume Mary is going out to mourn. They interpret Jesus' intense response as mourning and join in with Mary and Martha's challenge to Him that his authority must be somehow limited one so close was allowed to die.

Jesus, on the other hand, appears to have a totally different emotional track. He is moving in the knowledge that what has happened is going to bring glory to the Father through Him. He knows the end. His response to the weeping and wailing, to the lack of awareness of just how much He is in fact in control of the situation and the continued digs at Him not being there to save Lazarus get him riled. Jesus appears frustrated and angry at the lack of faith and hope in the situation.

So it is in this agitated stated that He orders the stone to be rolled away and in answer to the objections raised brings his own understanding of the situation to light and draws the others into what is really going. He proclaims again his prophetic understanding - God is being gloried her. He provides everyone with a glimpse of the connectedness at work between Him and the Father as He offers thanksgiving for the reality of the miraculous intervention that is happening and he brings the event to fulfilment with His command of "Lazarus come out". He explains that 'he knew' all along that the Father had heard his ongoing prayer.

And the event is completed. The narrative line will move onto 'the Jews' response and the next time we see these people together again will be before Passover and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It seems that Mary has begun to understand as at that point she will be the one who anoints Jesus in preparation for His coming ordeal and death.

All in all it is an emotional roller-coaster getting to know Jesus. It means living most of the time with the realisation that the chances are that we have not got a good grasp on the situation - that our understanding and responses are flawed. It is living with the reality that we are probably frustrating Jesus with our continued spiritual blindness and lack of focus on the Father's will. But it is also living with the certainty that we are moving in the right direction - that we are following the one is the Resurrection and the Life and the life and death should hold no fear for us.