Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
Comment: We are leading up to the celebration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. According to John’s gospel this story is the event that crystallises the Pharisees’ determination to do away with Jesus. You may have difficulty believing the story but those present didn’t as they saw Lazarus walk out of the tomb, released and get on with living! It led many to believe that Jesus was the Messiah; to the hierarchy it brought a hard choice. To claim Jesus as the Messiah meant the Roman wrath would fall on their heads. We are often faced with similar choices – the unseen and eternal or the present and easily envisioned.
Prayer: Help me not to be blinded from reality by what I can easily see!
As I read it! 