When he heard this, Jesus said, 'This sickness will not end in death. No, it os for God's glory so that God's son may be glorified through it.' (John 11:4)
What a scene it must have been. Grief was everywhere, mourner's wailing filled the air and the stench of death hovered just at the edge of the story. Lazarus was dead and buried; literally. But in calling Lazarus from the grave, Jesus lives out his self-declaration of being the resurrection and the life (v. 25).
Jesus says 'this sickness will not end in death.' I love these words because they contain a promise that can be ours as well as Lazarus. We all live with the sickness of sin. And sin is a terminal disease. In sin's grip we live under the sentence of death. But through Jesus Christ we discover the healing of our spiritual sickness. Both the symptoms and the cause of our disease are dealt with once and for all eternity through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is the promise of ours.
The resurrection of Lazarus was such a threat to the opponents of Jesus they sought to kill him (12.10). Resurrection life will always confront that and those which oppose God. We should expect it. Nonetheless we should not waver from declaring the good news of the Life which has become our life.
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