John 11 – Three Minute Bible

March 12, 2019March 11, 2019

The Picture – John 11: 53-57

So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, ”What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

Jesus knows the hearts of all men and he knows that the hearts of the Jewish leaders are intent on his death. Knowing what he does he leaves town. As the time for the Passover nears, the people are looking to see if Jesus will show up.

March 11, 2019March 10, 2019

Rare Flower – John 11: 49-52

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, ”You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one.

It is interesting to me how our reasoning works when survival is at stake. The Pharisees were afraid. They were afraid that Jesus would trigger some event that would cause the Romans to “take away their temple and their nation.” They believed that their survival was on the line.

It is important to note here that their fears were only fears. They could not know what would happen. The future is always a blank page. We do not know what will happen until after the day has passed. Yet even though their fear is one possibility out of millions of things that could happen, it seems real to them. So real that it must be avoided at all cost. Even the cost of a man’s life.

March 10, 2019March 9, 2019

Projection – John 11: 46-48

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
”What are we accomplishing?” they asked. ”Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees got together, they were very concerned. They already had several confrontations with Jesus in the temple. And they were hearing reports of things Jesus had done. The result of these miracles was always the same: more people talking about how Jesus must be the Messiah.

In most of his gospel, John lets us speculate what the motives of the Pharisees are. Here he tells us. The leaders of the Jews fear that the Romans would take away their temple and the nation of Israel. Notice that they were not concerned about what God thought. They did not refer to it as “God’s temple,” but rather “our temple.”

March 9, 2019March 8, 2019

Seeing is Believing – John 11: 45

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

There is an old expression that goes, “Seeing is believing.” It means that people will believe what they see, even if they don’t believe what they are told. It is an interesting standard because sometimes we see things that we shouldn’t believe, like a magician’s tricks or a movie that presents something as real that is actually a deception.

However, in this case, Jesus left no room for doubt. Lazarus was dead; buried, and like the old joke about what Mozart and Beethoven are doing these days, he was decomposing. Jesus called him back to life and people saw it happen. Not just a few people, either. John tells us that “many” of the Jews believed in Jesus after seeing this demonstration of God’s power.

March 8, 2019March 7, 2019

Mega-Metaphor – John 11: 43-44

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘’Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, ‘’Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Please forgive me if I am reading too much into this passage, but I think that there might be a living metaphor here for us. Lazarus has gone where no man wants to go. He is dead and buried, decaying in the flesh. He has become a perfect symbol for the effects of sin on the human condition.

Into the darkness where his body lies, decaying, comes Jesus’ voice: “Lazarus, come out!” At the command of Jesus, the corrupted flesh of the dead becomes new again. The heart starts beating again, the brain functions again, and the body moves. In coming back to life, Lazarus becomes the symbol or metaphor of what Jesus wants for all people: to come back to life in Him.

March 7, 2019March 5, 2019

Jesus wants you! – John 11: 40-42

Then Jesus said, ”Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ”Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

During WWII there was an Army recruitment poster that had a picture of Uncle Sam with his finger pointed at you, the reader. The caption read, “Uncle Sam Wants You!” The idea was that you, too, had a place waiting for you in the service of the country.

Jesus wants you, too. But not because he needs you or that there is anything you can do for him. Jesus wants you because he is your Maker, and he loves you. He wants you to know him and believe in him, and he is willing to go to the ends of the earth to earn your trust.

March 6, 2019March 4, 2019

Bad Smell – John 11: 38-39

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ‘’Take away the stone,” he said.
‘’But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘’by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

One thing that sets the Bible apart as historically valid is its honesty in presenting unpleasant details. The Gospel writers do not gloss over the aspects of life or, in this case, of death, that might offend the sensitive reader. Death stinks. Literally. Decomposing bodies smell bad, and in the warm climate of Judea, decomposition would start to take place quickly.

March 5, 2019March 4, 2019

Master Plan – John 11: 36-38a

Then the Jews said, ”See how he loved him!”
But some of them said, ”Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.

Sometimes a guy just can’t do anything right. Jesus demonstrates compassion towards Mary and the loss of her brother and while some people see, “…how he loved him!” Other people seem to complain; couldn’t he have kept this man from dying? Yet even the complaints move Jesus because they speak of faith in what he could have done.

March 4, 2019March 3, 2019

Encyclopedic – John 11: 35

Jesus wept.

Why do we cry? In my experience, it is something that we generally don’t have control over. (Yes, I know that some folks are very good actors and can control such things.) Powerful emotions that well up within us evoke unusual responses. Sometimes that response is such that we cannot speak at all. At other times tears well up and overflow our eyes. This is what happened to Jesus.

March 3, 2019March 1, 2019

Compassion – John 11: 33-34

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ”Where have you laid him?” he asked.
”Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus is man and also is God. As God, he is able to “know” what is in the hearts of men. He doesn’t have to ask what people are thinking. He knows. Time and again we see this aspect of Jesus’ nature in the Gospel stories.

Jesus is also a man. In particular, he is a man who has suffered. As if normal suffering wasn’t enough for our Creator, he was required to suffer forty days in the wilderness without food. At the end of that time, hungry and weak, he was tested by Satan. Jesus knows what it means to go through hard times.