DAILY DEVOTIONAL – June 28, 2019
“Can’t Lose”
Prayer: God and Father of our Lord Jesus, You are the Lord not of the dead but of the living. As you told Mary and Martha so too we believe that You alone “are the resurrection and the life.” We thank you for the eternal comfort and assurance of knowing our salvation is secure in Your powerful hands. Amen.
Scripture: John 11:1-15
A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. 2 This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. 3 So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” 5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the next two days. 7 Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” 11 Then he said, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” 12 The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!”13 They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. 14 So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And for your sakes, I’m glad I wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.”
Devotion – “Can’t Lose”
In his book Why Me, Why This, Why Now: A Guide to Answering Life’s Toughest Questions, Author Robin Norwood shares the following story.
A very wise old friend of mine who has just celebrated his 100th BIRTHDAY said to me recently about a news broadcast he’d just heard, “They say 73 people lost their lives today in a plane crash. Don’t they know we can’t lose our lives? We can only lose our bodies! They should say, ‘Seventy-three people lost their bodies today.'”
Indeed that was a very wise friend, and very wise words. God’s Word is clear many times over in teaching that though we were created as embodied souls, though God created us perfectly as both body and soul together, because of our sin our bodies will die and each of our lives in this physical world will come to an end. However, we are not just physical creatures. We are more than our biology. The essence of who we are, our soul and spirit, is also the Creation of God. Our life in both body and soul is a life made by God, for the glory of God and is a life that God holds in His hands. Robin Norwood’s wise old friend said, “Don’t they know we can’t lose our lives?” He is right. We cannot lose something we do not have. Our lives are not our own, and that should bring us wonderful relief and hope!
In the well-known story of Lazarus being raised from the dead by Jesus that we read in John 11, I think what Jesus is wanting to teach to His disciples here, both in what He says and what He does, could be summed up by saying, “Don’t you know you cannot lose your lives? You cannot lose something you do not have!” Or, to quote Jesus more precisely from just the chapter before in John 10, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
As you read the account of the resurrection of Lazarus and try to imagine yourself in the shoes of Mary, Martha and disciples, you can’t help but be a little thrown off by Jesus’ reaction to the news of His sick friend Lazarus. The text makes clear that Jesus loved Lazarus. In the verses following our reading for today we see Jesus weeping over the tomb where Lazarus had been buried. When the crowds saw Jesus weeping, even they said, “Look how much he loved him!” Yet, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, Jesus decided not to rush over and heal him right away. Jesus had healed many sick people, why would Jesus delay in coming to see and heal a friend He cared so much about?
Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus and also dear friends of Jesus wondered the same thing. When Jesus finally arrived, in the midst of their grieving they cried out to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, our brother would not have died.” I think all of us can relate to those words. We have all had those times, or maybe you are living some of them right now. Those times when we feel we really, really need the Lord to come to our rescue, when we need healing inside or outside, when we need God to provide for our needs, or when we are desperate for answers that seem to elude us. As we find ourselves in those times of desperation, it’s important we remember the words of Jesus when He first received the news of Lazarus’ illness. Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” Being fully God, Jesus knew full well that by delaying a few days Lazarus would certainly die. Jesus also knew that He had been given full authority by God to rule over sickness and death. Lazarus’ life, in every way, was in the powerful and gracious hands of Christ. And so is yours my friends.
We shouldn’t overlook the fact that there was no second messenger sent to inform Jesus that Lazarus had died, and yet Jesus knew it. Jesus said to His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” Both Lazarus’ bodily illness and his death were under the careful watch and under the all-encompassing hand of God. And why did Christ allow for Lazarus to remain sick and die? Jesus said, “For the glory of God.” The Lord permitted Lazarus to become sick and die for the sake of glorifying God and the Son of God.
“Why God? Why?” How many times have you asked that question? Why is this happening? Why does it seem you are doing nothing to help or stop it? Sometimes it feels as though when we send word to Jesus in prayer that we need help, as Mary and Martha did, that the Lord is taking his time and waiting a few days to respond and show up. However, let me assure you my friends, that for the same reasons God permitted Lazarus to get sick and die God permits and allows the consequences of sin to affect us in times of hardship and suffering only because He is in complete control, and God is ever faithful in His care and provision for our good even when He permits such hardships so that He would be glorified and Jesus be praised.
Even in the most difficult times we can trust Jesus with all of our life and all that we have. We know we can trust Him because as God in the flesh Jesus used all of His authority and power and might in order to save our lives by laying down His own on the cross. He suffered horribly and perfectly died the sinner’s death we deserve not to remove all pain from this temporary life, but instead to redeem us to God, to secure our name in the Book of Eternal Life so that we would be able to find joy and peace both now and for eternity even as we surrender all to Christ and allow Him to glorify God through our suffering and even through our death.
Everyone who believes and puts their trust in Jesus as the Messiah already has eternal life. Jesus said just that in John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.” Yes, our bodies will die, but death is not the end. Our last breathe on earth is the first breathe we take in heaven in the presence of God. On the final day of the Lord when Christ returns, our bodies too will be redeemed and transformed into glorified and eternal bodies as we receive the inheritance of our faith in Christ, which is the new heavens and new earth with Jesus forever.
As we await that glorious day and final resurrection, it is that same hope and faith in Christ that resurrects our pain and suffering in this life, transforming them into times of worship and praise knowing that our life is not our own, but instead as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 & 5, “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” (2 Corinthians 4:16 & 2 Corinthians 5:1).
Thanks for spending time with me today in God’s Word. Hope to see you all in service on Sunday, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
