The problem with Easter, I would assume, for most people, is the idea of someone coming back from the dead. It's a very difficult concept for those of us who have seen death as the final threshold for so many others.
But I believe God knew that we would struggle to believe. I believe Jesus knew that even his disciples would struggle to believe a resurrection, a self-resurrection at that! And as God so often does, He did not ask the disciples to belief the unbelievable.
In the Old Testament both Elijah and Elisha raised an individual from the dead, but the disciples wee not eyewitnesses. There are three occasions in the New Testament, to which the disciples were witnesses of Jesus resurrecting the dead.
Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain from the dead (
Luke 7:11-15) and Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead (
Luke 8:41, 42, 49-55).
And then comes the Lazarus Incident. This was unlike the other resurrections. This was hugely public, it came after Jesus had done many other miracles and had quite the following. This was a resurrection after decomposition had begun.
This resurrection was the spark that ignited the fuse leading to the crucifixion of Christ!
“Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of
Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay
sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet
with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you
love is sick.”
When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness
will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may
be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he
was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to
Judea.” “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried
to stone you, and yet you are going back?” Jesus answered, “Are there
not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not
stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks
at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
After he
had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen
asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied,
“Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his
death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he
told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was
not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas
(also known as Didymus ) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also
go, that we may die with him.”
(Later to be known as "Doubting Thomas", here we see such strong faith from Thomas, that he is prepared to go to the death with Jesus.)
On his arrival, Jesus found that
Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was
less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and
Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard
that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at
home.
"Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you
whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the
last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the
life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and
whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son
of God, who is to come into the world.”
After she had said this,
she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,”
she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up
quickly and went to him.
Now Jesus had not yet entered the
village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the
Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how
quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was
going to the tomb to mourn there.
When Mary reached the place
where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if
you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 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 wept. 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. 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.” 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.”
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.”
Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen
what Jesus did, believed in him. 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.”
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.
So from that day on they plotted to take his life.”
John 11:1-53 NIV
After witnessing such a dramatic resurrection, and one of a friend of Jesus and the disciples, how could any of them doubt the power of Jesus, over death.
And perhaps this demonstration of God's power and glory was not just for the disciples. Perhaps this is a call from God for you to believe that as Jesus raised others from the dead, that He also overcame death himself.
And if Jesus could resurrect himself from the dead, He has the power to overcome death for each one of us. Death is not the end of us, it is junction. We are all headed on a highway to hell, due to our disobedience to God, but there are numerous opportunities for us to take an exit, get off the highway and take the narrow road, that leads to life, through the gift of salvation through Christ.
I know I've seen many things in my life and the world around me that make it possible for me to believe that there is a God, creator of the Universe, and that He has the compassion and power to send His Son to die for us. It is hard to accept, knowing how little I deserve that mercy, but as a parent I am learning to see that so often love overcomes.
Salvation is not complicated.
If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
It's a choice, a decision.
