“So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, for on account of him many of the Jewish people from Jerusalem were going away and believing in Jesus.” (John 12:10-11NET)
Why did the chief priests of the Jews plan to kill Lazarus? The reason was that many of their people were going away from them to put their trust in the Lord Jesus on account of him. And why were they going away from them to believe in Jesus on account of Lazarus? It was because he was a living witness to the greatness of the goodness, power and mercy of God.
As the account goes, Lazarus had been dead four days before Jesus came to his tomb and called him back to life. And He did not do this in secrecy; rather, He did it openly, in the full view of many people. So, it was not only those who believed in the Lord Jesus that witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the dead; some who did not believe in Him also witnessed it. In fact, they were the ones that took the news to their religious leaders. (Cf. John 11)
Therefore, the raising of Lazarus, who had been dead four days, from the dead was not a miracle that could be denied or ridiculed. It was real. It was shocking. And it was inspiring too. It inspired a lot of people, whose cases were not as hopeless as Lazarus’, to trust God again.
Unfortunately, instead of this miracle to inspire the religious leaders of the Jews to go back to the Scriptures to check again if what they were seeing in Jesus was not consistent with what God has said about their Messiah, it only made them more furious at Him. So, all they could think of doing was to get rid of Him. And to make matters worse, they were thinking of sending Lazarus too back to his grave. What a shame!
This, of course, is showing us that however great a miracle that God has done may be, it may still offend some people. And are we going to say that God should not do astonishing miracles for people again, so that some may not be offended? No! On the contrary, we must continue to ask Him to perform for us miracles that will make us living witnesses of His goodness, power and mercy.
As we see in Lazarus’ case, many who heard of what the Lord did for him came from various places to look at him. The miracle made him popular for good. And similar things can happen to us too. God can do for us miracles that will make us popular for good, miracles that will cause many to come to the Lord Jesus Christ because of us. (Cf. John 12:9)
But then, what did Lazarus do to merit that kind of miracle? Nothing! It was all a function of God’s mercy. Evidently, he was not the only one that died the day he died and was buried. And he certainly wasn’t the only person in a tomb on the day he was raised to life. But he was shown mercy and made to live again, even though he was not in a position to ask for mercy. And if one who was dead and no longer in a position to ask for mercy could be shown mercy by God, those of us who are alive and can ask for mercy can expect to be answered even more speedily and readily.
Mind you, God Himself has called upon us to come to His throne of grace for mercy anytime we may need it (Heb 4:16). So, let us call upon Him to show us mercy and perform for us miracles that will make us living witnesses of His goodness and power. And He will not fail to answer us because He is a faithful God.
Let us pray:
- Thanksgiving to God because He is always willing to reveal Himself to us as a good, powerful and merciful God.
- Prayers that God will daily use the miracles He is performing for others around us to inspire us to trust Him to handle any case of our lives that seems hopeless to us, so that we too may experience His goodness, power and mercy to change our seemingly hopeless situations.
- Prayers that God, in His loving-kindness and mercy, will begin to move in every area of our lives to perform for us miracles that will make us living witnesses of His goodness and power, so that many may turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation on account of us.
- Prayers that as God is performing all kinds of miracles for us that will shock people, He will also be spreading His banner of protection over us, so that we will live long to fully enjoy the fruit of the miracles He is performing for us.
- Thanksgiving to God because He always answers our prayers.
By Johnson O. Lawal
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