Seventh Sunday after Epiphany: Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Remember JoAnn Nicholson as she goes for surgery this morning.

Gospel Lesson

John 11:30-44

Many of us know verse 35 which says only Jesus wept. I always tried to use this a memory verse when I was in UMYF (United Methodist Youth Foundation for the non Methodists), but our leader did not buy it. This verse is important, though, because it shows how God does hurt over our loss. The Word says that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), and here we see Jesus weeping over the loss of a friend. When we hurt, we know that our God understands our hurt, our fear, all these things, for through Jesus Christ, God Himself experienced it.

Jesus' tears were not the end, through. Jesus plan was to raise Lazarus from the dead. CS Lewis calls Lazarus the first martyr in Christian history, because he was already in heaven (to be absent from the body is to be with the Lord -- 2 Corinthians 5:8), had to come back to life, only to have to die again one day in the future. This shows the power that Jesus has over death. The grave cannot hold Him back. He is life and all that believe in Him will have that victory over death. Through Jesus, we can have life, right now, and in the age to come. He has come that we might life.

The question then is, are we truly alive, or are we just going through the motions. Life is too precious today to merely pretend to be alive, God has more for you today than to just go through motions of life. Today, may you know His grace, and may you know His life.