Tag Archives: Bethany

TRANSFORMED – BY DEATH

Bible Study, ,

TRANSFORMED – BY DEATH

“Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with Him.” John 12:1, 2a NIV.

I find it strange that, for the first time the name of Lazarus, Martha and Mary’s brother was mentioned apart from his sickness and death in John 11. Although Jesus visited their home in Bethany many times, Lazarus did not feature until after he was raised from the dead. There is no indication that the two sisters even had a brother until now.

Is it possible that Lazarus was unsympathetic, even hostile to Jesus before he died? The sisters called him, “The one whom you love,” but that does not mean than he had any sort of relationship with Jesus. Jesus loved the rich young ruler and yet he chose not to follow Him and walked away.

Did Jesus allow Lazarus to die so that he could go to the grave an unbeliever; to awaken him to the truth that there is an afterlife and that there is only one way to the Father, after all, and that is through Jesus?

For the first time, at the dinner given in Jesus’ honour in his home, Lazarus was among those reclining at the table. John makes sure that his readers understand that it was in Jesus’ honour, not Lazarus’, that Martha arranged this function. The fact that Lazarus was one of the dinner guests meant that Jesus and he were reconciled. Did he refuse to eat with Jesus until now because he did not believe in Him?

Although this is conjecture, if it is the truth, Jesus might deliberately have allowed Lazarus to experience death and then bring him back to life again so that he would know what it was like to be separated from God and then be given another opportunity to believe in Him.

“…with Him.” Is that a loaded statement? It almost sounds as though John wanted to emphasize Lazarus’ new intimacy with Jesus. Jesus would have occupied the place of honour at the table, but where was Lazarus seated? “With Him,” right beside Him; perhaps reclining on Him as John would do at the Passover meal.

I think it was more than gratitude that brought Lazarus to faith in Jesus. He was probably one of those men who was too proud or too stubborn to acknowledge that he was wrong. He needed a wake-up call (pardon the pun) far stronger than Jesus” teaching, or even His healing miracles. Was he one like Thomas who demanded to poke his finger into Jesus’ wounds before he would believe?

Whatever Lazarus needed to shake him out of his unbelief, Jesus met him and he became a convinced and devoted follower. He had tasted death and returned. The Pharisees could argue that the man born blind was not blind or not healed or whatever else they wanted to believe but they could never argue away the truth that Lazarus was decaying in the tomb and Jesus called him back to life.

“Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” John 12:3 NIV.

This verse completes the picture and gives one a feeling of satisfaction. Each member of the Bethany family is in his or her place; Martha in the kitchen, serving; Lazarus at Jesus’ side, reclining; and Mary at Jesus’ feet, adoring; each one worshipping Jesus in the appropriate way! Finally, Lazarus has come home. He has become a member of God’s family and has taken his rightful place in his human family.

It was a long and difficult road for him. He had to endure the suffering of his mortality to gain an understanding of his immortality. In His love for Lazarus, Jesus allowed him to walk right into physical and spiritual death to feel the magnitude of God’s grace and to receive the gift of everlasting life that was wrapped up in His own death and resurrection. In the course of a few days Jesus would be where Lazarus had been so that Lazarus could be where He was.

He did that for him and for us too…!

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Miserable Money-Minded Misers!

Bible Study, , , ,

MISERABLE MONEY-MINDED MISERS!

Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill Him. ‘But not during the festival,’ they said, ‘or the people may riot.’

While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly (Mark 14: 1-5).

Funny, isn’t it, how people suddenly have sympathy for the poor when someone else spends his or her money extravagantly! Of course, however, in their own way of life they never give the poor a thought.

Jesus was invited to a meal at the home of Simon the Leper. That’s strange. Lepers were outcasts of society. They were diseased and “unclean”. They had to remain in isolation, cut off from friends and family because their condition was infectious. Since “leprosy” was a term for a variety of skin diseases, not only true leprosy as we know it, the sufferer could recover and return home once he had been declared “clean” by the priest and had offered a sacrifice for his cleansing.

So, was Simon the Leper a recovered “leper” or was he perhaps one that Jesus had healed during the course of His many visits to Simon’s hometown, Bethany? We don’t know, but whoever he was, for some reason Simon had invited Jesus to a banquet. Luke tells the story of a bad woman who poured perfume on Jesus’s feet during a banquet at the home of Simon the Pharisee. Could they ne one and the same person? John records a similar incident in the home of Lazarus and his sisters after Jesus had raised him from the dead. His sister, Mary, showed her devotion and gratitude to Jesus by anointing His feet with expensive ointment.

For whatever reason the gospel records differ according to the writer’s purpose, this incident brings home an important lesson, one that Jesus encapsulated in His statement:

No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money (Matt. 6: 24).

Jesus used a rabbinic teaching method here, called a chiasm, to drive home an important point. There is a central thought in this construction to which two supporting statements lead up to and away from. Let me set it up as it should look to help you understand.

A  No one can serve two masters.

B  Either you will hate the one

C  and love the other

C’ or you will be devoted to the one

B’  and despise the other.

A’  You cannot serve God and money.

Can you now see how A and A’ match, and B and B’ and C and C’ are similar statements with C and C’ as the centre of the teaching? The rabbis used this very effective method of teaching for emphasis. The main point of what Jesus was saying was not that you cannot serve two masters, although this is true, but why you cannot serve two masters. You will either serve God or money depending on the one you love and are devoted to.

Those who criticised the woman for “wasting” her dowry did not understand the measure of her devotion to Jesus. It was not about the value of her gift but the measure of her love that they were, in the end, questioning. Their miserable, money-minded judgment of the woman showed up the identity of the one they served.

In John’s account, it was Judas who objected to Mary’s expression of love for Jesus because he obviously loved money, not his Master. In Luke’s account, the host was Simon the Pharisee, and he proved that he had no love for Jesus by withholding the common courtesies of a host for his guest; washing the dust off His feet and anointing His head with oil. It was left to an unsavoury, but repentant woman from the street to do what Simon failed to do for Jesus, with her own tears, her own hair and her valuable perfume which was her wedding dowry.

The lesson is clear. We can only show how much we love the Master by what we do with what is most valuable to us. When we lavish our love and our resources on those in need, we do it for Him and to Him.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com