The Death of Lazarus
11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (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.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 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.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” 9 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. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” 11 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.” 12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymusa] said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Death is the saddest and the most terrible thing we experience in life, especially in case it happens to the one we love the most. I asked a question of sisters in the English bible study a while ago. When was the saddest moment in the past? Their answers were different, but my answer was when my mother-in-law passed away 20 years ago. As a newly-married woman, I couldn't accept the death of her as she stayed in my house before she had died of cancer. My husband and I prayed and believed that she could do live long after restoration(getting better), though the period of cancer was 3rd and couldn't have a surgery, either.
It was not the first experience I did, but the reason that I felt like the saddest and painful moment in my life is that I loved her very much and had a compassion on her more than any other men. Here was Nazarus and his sisters, whom Jesus loved more than other men. He must have felt sad and painful to hear the news of his death, but his reaction is totally different from my response. He looked very confident of showing something by the death of a youth, saying " it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it." At the same time, He had to face the danger of being stoned by mobs(the men who sent by the priests and the Pharisees), but He went there.
On seeing this scene, I think of myself, who did not have the faith of her eternal life in heaven. I just did not want her to die, but live with me. I thought that this earthly life is the end, and I couldn't see her any longer. My thought and feeling was limited in my short and physical perspecive(view), not the long and spiritual one. Nowadays, I have got a totally different view point of death, which is not the end, but it is the beginning of a new life in heaven. I hope that I may live today with the Holy Spirit for the sake of God, regardless of death or life tomorrow. I think that my belief got a littel bigger than 20 years ago.
