"a Miracle And A Motive"

“A Miracle and a Motive”

John 11:1-7, 17-19, 32-53

How many of you have read or heard the story of Jesus raising Lazarus before?

Where we stop reading the story has a lot to do with how we interpret it.

If I were to have stopped reading at verse 45, the story would have a happy ending, right?

The people see what Jesus did, so they follow Him and believe.

But, that’s not really the end of the story, because as we continue reading, we find out that some people saw what Jesus did, this power that He displayed, as being something terrible.

The miracle of the raising of Lazarus is the greatest of Jesus’ earthly miracles.

Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and a lot of people see it happen.

And some of the people respond by saying, “I believe in Him. I’m going to follow Him. He’s got something!

Something is really going on.”

But some other people see what Jesus has done and they say, “Something is going on here.

This guy has got something and we better end it; we better kill Him!”

The raising of Lazarus is a miracle and a motive.

It’s a good thing for some, exciting, riveting, life-changing…

…for others, it is VERY SCARY.

We are at the tomb of Lazarus this morning, and this is the moment when Jesus’ path leads straight for the Cross.

(pause)

The Pharisees and the chief priests, it’s easy to misunderstand them.

It’s easy to point out all the things they got wrong, but they did actually have something right—they knew that Jesus had something going on.

They knew that Jesus had some kind of power.

They knew Jesus was Someone to be feared because He had come to afflict the comfortable and it didn’t get much more comfortable than the chief priests and the religious leaders.

And we get comfortable sometimes, too, don’t we?

I know I do.

Think of all the “creature comforts” that avert our eyes.

We have so many temptations, so many things that seek our attention.

And we are so very weak.

On our own, we are terribly weak.

And so, it’s easy to be a Christian and forget about the Cross.

Have you ever done this?

Have you ever become a comfortable Christian?

Have you ever gotten to the point where you didn’t think about the Cross all that much?

Of course, if we are Christians who have forgotten about the Cross we should ask ourselves: “Are we really following Jesus?”

(pause)

Yes, the Pharisees and the chief priests knew about Jesus.

They knew what He had done.

And it can be easy for us to ask, “Why didn’t they get it then?”

“Didn’t they see that Jesus was offering life?”

“Didn’t they see that Jesus was offering love?”

“Didn’t they see that Jesus was offering a new world, a new kingdom—someplace where we can be brothers and sisters and put aside all the things that separate us?”

“Didn’t they understand that?”

And the answer is: “Yes, they did understand it!”

They knew full well what He was preaching, what He was trying to do, and when they heard about Lazarus coming out of the grave, they said, “Uh, oh.”

“He’s really got something, doesn’t He?”

They saw this, but they were comfortable where they were.

They were comfortable in their robes and their laws and their ivory towers.

They were comfortable with their prestige, their good jobs, their good wages, and their nice government jobs.

That’s right the chief priests were in power because they had submitted themselves to the greatest power that the world had ever known—the Roman Empire.

Jesus was making waves, and the last thing they wanted was for Him to rock the boat because when boats get rocked, people fall off.

And so, they were scared because Jesus had power.

Jesus was dangerous to the status quo.

Things were going to change if they didn’t stop Jesus.

And that is what they had right.

Many of us lose sight of this.

It’s easy to become a comfortable American Christian who only turns to Jesus when we want something to go our way.

It’s easy to start treating Jesus like a vending machine.

And when we think of Jesus this way Jesus never asks us to do anything really.

He never asks us to take a risk.

He never calls us to go anywhere.

What the chief priests understood was that if people started following Jesus, really started following Jesus things were going to change—people were going to change, and they would be in trouble.

(pause)

Jesus is our Friend, our Comforter, and all these things, but sometimes if we say, “Jesus I’m going to follow You,” Jesus might lead us to places we don’t really want to go.