Reflective Bible Study

During one of the emotional high points the disciples had with Jesus, He pulls them aside to tell them a very sobering message. Oftentimes, the events of the short passage predicting His upcoming crucifixion are disconnected from the larger event that has just taken place.

To set the stage for what Jesus shares in this passage, Jesus, Peter, James, and John had just come down from the mountain where they had seen the event known as the transfiguration, a point in Jesus’ ministry where these disciples were able to experience a brief glimpse of Jesus’ glory. While this was happening on the mountain, the remaining disciples were unsuccessfully trying to cast a demon out of a boy.

Luke tells us that the following day, when Jesus came down from the mountain, He meets the disciples and the father of this boy and successfully casts out the demon. It is at this moment where Luke tells us: “But while everyone was marveling at all that He was doing, He said to His disciples, ‘Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.’” (v. 43b-44)

The gospels of Matthew and Mark have Jesus conclude this sentence by saying: “and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” (Mark 9:31; Matthew 17:23)

This is powerful when we think about it. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, the thought of Jesus being killed was the last possible thing on their minds. To these disciples, especially Peter, James, and John who saw Jesus glorified less than 24 hours earlier, they may have perceived Jesus to be invincible. Regardless of the predicted resurrection that is also included in this statement, Jesus’ words seem to fall on deaf ears.

Luke tells us that the disciples were afraid to ask and that the meaning of Jesus’ words was hidden from them. It is possible that God hid the meaning of Jesus’ words from the disciples. Also, it is possible that the fear of asking stopped the disciples from learning the truth about Jesus’ message here. However, I wonder if the emotional high that is shared at the beginning of this passage is a clue about what blinded the disciples to the meaning of Jesus’ words.

Luke tells us that the events leading up to Jesus’ message prompted everyone present to marvel at what Jesus was doing. This was a high moment for Jesus and the disciples, and part of me wonders if Jesus reserved this direct message for this emotional high point to help ground the disciples onto the reality of the true mission of the Messiah.

If this is the case, we can learn a powerful truth from this short passage: During our emotional highs, it may be more difficult for God to share His message and His truth into our lives. While there is nothing evil about emotional and spiritual high points, we must not focus our lives towards always seeking after these types of events, because God may have something to teach us that can only be learned while we are facing the challenges of life.

Most times I read about Jesus raising Lazarus back to life, I am fascinated at many of the details that are included. However more than just simply looking at the details, I enjoy looking behind these details to themes that tell me more about what God and Jesus are like.

The big idea that challenges me as I read this event directly relates to who Jesus is: Jesus is a Life-Giver. All throughout the gospels, Jesus heals people, restoring them into a new life; He teaches people, helping them begin a new life and relationship with God; and He was trying really hard to train some difficult people (known as the disciples) how to live dependant on God – which was a new life compared with the life they left behind after accepting His call.

Jesus is a life-giver, and because of this, He is not afraid of death. Jesus first describes Lazarus as sleeping, which may give us a clue into what He wanted us to think of death. Verse 11 shares this initial description: “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.” However, like what usually seemed to happen, the disciples don’t get what Jesus is trying to say, leading Jesus to talk directly to them a few verses later with the fact that “Lazarus is dead!” (Verse 14)

One thing that challenges me is in this event has to do with how Jesus responds to the news that Lazarus is sick. In verse 4, Jesus responds to the news by saying “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.” Verse 4 and verse 14 contradict one another, because Jesus said the sickness wouldn’t end in death, but then Lazarus died.

But when we look at what Jesus says, from the perspective He is trying to teach the disciples to grasp, we see something interesting.

For much of His ministry, Jesus was trying to help the disciples understand life from God’s viewpoint. God’s perspective on life looks at it through the lens of eternity, and knowing the whole story, or at least the portion of the story that John shares, Lazarus’ sickness included death as a pit-stop or detour on the path to a new God-given life. Lazarus’ sickness did not “end” in death, because death was not the end of His story.

Instead, Jesus gives us another insight into God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, death is like a sleep. A few verses later, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.” (Verses 25-26)

There are two directions we could understand Jesus’ words in these verses. We could understand this to mean that those who believe in Jesus will never “fall asleep” like Lazarus did; or we may understand Jesus’ words to mean that those who believe in Him will not have their stories end in death, even if death happens to be a temporary resting place on the path.

Looking at the broad story and how in each conversation Jesus is trying to teach people truths from God’s perspective, and that Jesus begins by pointing us to the big picture by saying that Lazarus’ sickness won’t end in death, I am inclined to believe that Jesus describes what we call death as a sleep. This sleep-death is not the end, but merely a pause on life that will later be resumed when the resurrection happens. Death in Jesus’ eyes is when someone’s future contains no more life in it while sleep in Jesus’ eyes holds the promise of resurrection.

During one of Jesus’ famous parables near the end of His earthly ministry, He shares about a banquet feast that a king prepared and invited His friends to. However, all those who He thought were His friends ended up either rejecting the invitation because either they claimed to have more “important” things to do, or they were outright hostile towards the king’s messengers.

When the servants returned and told the king what had happened, the king responded to his servants by saying “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.” (v. 8-10)

As I read this portion of the passage, I am amazed by the broad, unrestricted invitation that was shared. While the original invitation was given to a select group of people, this second round of inviting has no limits. Matthew tells us in verse 10 that Jesus’ illustration has the king gathering “all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good,” in order to fill His wedding hall.

In this parable, I believe the king represents God, and if this is the case, God’s invitation has no restrictions; God’s invitation is unconditional. The only criteria we can see present in this second round of invitation is simply the willingness to accept the invitation. Past performance is irrelevant when the invitation comes our way; our current habits, projects, and lifestyle are also irrelevant, provided that these things don’t interfere with us choosing to accept God’s invitation.

The only thing that matters in the framework of eternity is whether we will be willing to accept God’s invitation when He returns to invite us home!

At the close of Jesus’ prayer on the night of His arrest, He makes a powerful but odd request. This request might not seem possible when looking at His words on the surface, but when we look a little deeper, we see an incredibly powerful truth that we can take and apply into our own lives and perspectives.

John recorded Jesus’ prayer, and he tells us that Jesus finished by praying, “Father, I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am. Then they will see the glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the world was created. Good Father, the people of this world don’t know you. But I know you, and my followers know that you sent me. I told them what you are like, and I will tell them even more. Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.” (v. 24-26)

In the closing words of this prayer, Jesus touches on the single characteristic that makes us one with Him. Jesus prayed that “the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them.” (v. 26)

Love becomes the key characteristic that unites us with Jesus, and when we are united with Jesus in love, we are also united with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Through this love, we are able to show Jesus to others and only with His love can we be an effective witness while sharing Him with others.

But Jesus starts this concluding section off in a challenging way. He asks the Father, “I want everyone you have given me to be with me, wherever I am.” (v. 24a)

Since Jesus was nearing the time when He would return to heaven, this request doesn’t make sense when placed alongside His earlier statement about not removing His followers from the world. Unless we are capable of being in more than one place at a time, we cannot be here in the world but also in heaven with Jesus – at least in the most literal way of understanding this concept.

Part of me wonders if Jesus is talking about something differently from being physically present with Him in heaven while also being physically present here on earth. I wonder if prayer and perspective hold the key to staying connected with Jesus while He is in heaven while we are living here on earth. Through prayer, the Holy Spirit, and a focus on growing within God’s love, we are able to be one with Jesus while also being present on this earth. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is able to be with us wherever we are, and through prayer, we are able to connect with Him wherever He is.

While here on earth, we are called to be Jesus’ representatives, and we do this by being connected through God’s love that He has given to us through Jesus and through the Holy Spirit. While we live lives that represent God, we help those in the world know God better – and while not everyone who we interact with will respond favorably to God’s love through us, we are not called to change, convert, or convince people into choosing God for themselves. Jesus has called us to love as He loved and the greatest example of this is that He came into a world that was hostile towards Him and He loved it even though it ultimately cost Him His life.