READING:
One-year plan: 2 Kings 15-17, John 11:17-44
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 3, Mark 15:21-32
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Lazarus was dead. He had been dead for four days. His family and friends wept. Consider also the descriptions of Jesus’ emotions on that day:
John 11:33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He was angry in His spirit and deeply moved. (HCSB)
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
John 11:38 Then Jesus, angry in Himself again, came to the tomb.
While commentators differ on the reason for Jesus’ emotions, I cannot help but see both His love and His righteous anger at sin and unbelief. He apparently burst into quiet tears not because a friend had died (He had already said that Lazarus would rise again in John 11:23), but because the fallen world He loved suffered under the weight of sin. His other reactions — reactions of anger and agitation — fall on the heels of people who remained in their grief even though the Son of God stood in their midst. The One who is the resurrection and the life (John 11:24) was there, but the people failed to recognize Him for who He was.
Sometimes, I suspect we, too, fail to remember who He is when we face our own difficulties and tragedies.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: How much do you lean on Jesus and trust Him in difficult times?
PRAYER: “Jesus, help me to trust that You are the resurrection and the life.”
TOMORROW’S READINGS:
One-year plan: 2 Kings 18-20, John 11:45-12:19
Two-year plan: Deuteronomy 4, Mark 15:33-47
*portions first published in 2015