Superman, Lazarus, and Skepticism

Suggested Reading: John 11:30-48

I remember an old episode of Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman where Lois dragged Clark to see a new magician perform. The entire way there Clark was trying to convince Lois that magic wasn't real, that it was all illusion and slight of hand. He wasn't really interested in going. But once he was there watching the show, and he couldn't figure out the magician's secret, even using his x-ray vision and super speedy eyes, suddenly Clark wanted to know what was going on. When he didn't understand it, Clark was driven to figure out how it worked.

In what must have seemed an act of magic, Jesus had raised Mary's brother, Lazarus, from the dead. One minute Lazarus had been wrapped in grave clothes, laying inside a tomb. The next minute he was stumbling out of the mouth of the grave as people began unwrapping him. When all of the people who had come to mourn with Mary saw this miracle take place, they had a variety of reactions. John 11:45-46 tells us, "Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen. But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done" (NLT). Why did some go to the Pharisees?  Because the Pharisees were supposed to be the religious authorities of the day. If anyone could make sense of Jesus' actions, if anyone could explain to them how Jesus had done the impossible, the Pharisee should be able to. Some of these people who watched Lazarus's resurrection weren't sure what to make of it. So they put their healthy dose of skepticism to work for them and they went looking for answers.

Skepticism is not a bad thing. Skepticism can keep us from getting duped by con artists. As long as our skepticism drives us deeper in our search for the truth, it can be a healthy tool in our belt to help us navigate the waters of life. We get into trouble when we use our skepticism as an excuse to just not believe.

What have you been skeptical about lately? Did you try to discover the truth or did you use your skepticism as an excuse to just dismiss it? If you dismissed it, let's hope it wasn't important.

Changing Terminal Boundaries Into Mile-Markers

Suggested Reading: John 11:1-7, 17-27 (unabridged John 11:1-27)

When I was a kid, I used to love to ride my bike up and down the block we lived on. Each year as I grew older, I was allowed to travel farther and farther away from our house in each direction. At first, I was only allowed to ride two doors down in either direction. That eventually expanded to as much of the street as was visible from our house (our street was slightly curved). But by the time I got my driver's license those former boundaries were simply mile-markers along a much longer journey.

John chapter 11 tells a story that reminds us that our boundaries are simply mile-markers for God. Lazarus is sick and his sisters, Mary and Martha, send for Jesus so that Lazarus can be healed. But Jesus delays. From the beginning, Jesus' plan is to allow Lazarus to die so that he can demonstrate God's power over death itself.  So Jesus tells his disciples in verse 4, "Lazarus's sickness will not end in death." (NLT)

Now, I'm pretty sure Jesus' disciples assumed that Jesus meant to heal him so that Lazarus never died. For the disciples, like most of us, death was a boundary that couldn't be moved. Death was the end of the line, a place from which it was impossible to return. But Jesus wanted the disciples to understand that the boundaries we set for ourselves are only mile-markers for God. Death is not final. So he allowed Lazarus to die so that he could raise Lazarus from the dead and prove, once and for all, that no boundary limits our journey when God is involved.

What final boundaries have you been facing lately? Perhaps it is the death of a career or a relationship. Perhaps the death of a dream or a marriage. Perhaps you find yourself before a barrier which it seems impossible to cross and you feel your hopes fading to nothingness. Whatever barrier you may be facing today, God wants you to know that barrier is only  a mile-marker when you factor God into the equation. No death is final. No brick wall is impassible. No chasm is  unbridgeable. If you are willing to trust God, those boundaries can become nothing more than mile-markers along the way.

When you face those boundaries, you will probably experience pain and loss. You will probably feel like you've reached the end of the road. And it is to you that Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-27, NLT)