Have you ever been guilty of not being able to see the forest because of the trees? Sometimes we get so laser focused on what is in front of us, that we miss the bigger picture. This is something that happened in many ways with the people during Jesus’ ministry. In our today today, the people wanted Jesus to keep His friend, Lazarus, from dying. Certainly, Lazarus’ sisters believed He could have healed Lazarus. The people around them even made that statement. However, there was a bigger picture issue that Jesus was concerned about. We know this from John 11:4, “When Jesus heard that, He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.'”
Mary and Martha had sent someone to tell Jesus what was going on with Lazarus. Jesus does something really strange, at least in our minds. He stays where He and the disciples are for another two days. Again, we have to remember the bigger picture. In our minds, when someone is sick we want God to heal them quickly. There is another smaller picture that we see, and it is the disciples’ viewpoint. When Jesus announces to them that He is headed to Judea to Lazarus, they immediately speak up and remind Jesus that the religious leaders have wanted to kill Him lately. That was their way of asking, do you think this is the best time to go there? The two narrow visions are of Lazarus’ sisters, who both said, “Lord, if You had been here my brother wouldn’t have died; then, there are the disciples who aren’t in a hurry to die themselves, and therefore want to stay away from potential danger. Of course, we know how the story turns out. Jesus goes, calls Lazarus to come out, and a dead man comes walking out of the tomb. But that wasn’t the big picture that Jesus was talking about in verse 4. That was another “battle”, not the “war.” The big picture came later in the text in three ways. First, Jesus said all of this was going to happen so that the disciples would believe. While the disciples had some belief in who Jesus was, it wasn’t a complete belief in Him. This event was going to further strengthen their faith in Jesus. Second, we read that some who were standing around the tomb and saw Lazarus come walking out that day “believed.” This is John’s way of saying, they believed that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah promised by God. The last way is that those who God was not drawing to Himself in faith, were hardened in their unbelief. I know this is a hot button topic in Christianity; however, if we read the Bible as it is written, we see that both God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility/will work in concert with each other. God knows who will be saved. However, this doesn’t violate man’s responsibility or his/her will in anyway. The choice to believe in Jesus or to not to was equally present in those who were at the tomb that day. Some responded to the revelation of who Jesus was, and some chose to ignore it. What was the difference? The drawing of the Holy Spirit and the responsibility to respond to that drawing.
When God reveals Himself and His power to us, we have a responsibility to respond to that revelation. I will try to illustrate it. Let’s say you are traveling on the highway, you are speeding. All of the sudden, you pass a police vehicle. Immediately, the police vehicle pulls out of its spot, turns on the blue lights, and gets in behind you. In this moment, you have a choice. You can do what you know you should do, which is slow down, and pull over. Or, you can continue to drive and act like you don’t know the policeman is behind you. Let’s say you decide to continue to drive, does that mean at that moment you became a lawbreaker? No, because you were already a lawbreaker before you decided to try and elude the police. You were a lawbreaker when you started speeding. Therefore, the police did not make you break the law, it was a choice of yours. However, the blue lights alerted you to the fact you were breaking the law. This in biblical terms is conviction, an awareness of our sin. It is what we do when we feel the conviction that shows we are either responding to God or hardening ourselves to God, just like the decision to pull over or try and elude the police. We are already sinners from the time of birth because we inherited a sin nature ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. We prove this by making volitional choices to sin.
The bigger picture at Lazarus’ tomb that day was the glory of God. He was glorified by raising Lazarus, but also giving those who responded to Him salvation. What is the bigger picture that God is trying to do in your life? Remember, it isn’t always about the immediate circumstances. Many times, it is about the bigger picture.
By His grace and for His glory,
Pastor Justin