John 11:33-36

When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him: “Lord, come and see.” Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” Very soon after this, Lazarus was brought back to life, but we shouldn’t rush past this moment of intense emotion. Jesus was up against the great enemy of death, and he was clearly overwhelmed by the sense of tragedy. He had the power to overcome death but, in this moment, he fully entered into the sheer sadness of the situation. His dear friends Mary and Martha were clearly grief stricken, and as he went to see the body of Lazarus, nothing could hold him back from weeping. Those who looked on immediately saw this as a clear sign of his love for Lazarus. Even though Jesus was the resurrection and the life, he entered fully into the emotional turmoil of the circumstances. The writer to the Hebrews described Jesus as being the great high priest who was supremely able to give us access into the holy presence of God. Jesus’ sacrifice of himself was once for all. No further sacrifices would ever be necessary. However, he was only able to be the great high priest because he shared our humanity completely. He wrote: “It was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God” (Hebrews 2:17). Jesus knew what it was to laugh and to cry, to know great joy and terrible sadness. We worship Jesus as the Son of God but also as the Son of Man, the one who totally understands the emotional roller coaster of human life. He understands our times of laughter, and also the times when we are in distress and the tears flow. Isn’t that wonderful?

Question In what way have you been encouraged by Jesus’ understanding of your emotions?

Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that you are able to enter fully into the joys and sorrows of my life. Amen

John 11:25-26

Jesus told [Martha], “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.” Jesus had known for some days that Martha’s brother Lazarus was seriously ill, but he had not gone to them straight away. When he finally arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Martha clearly regretted Jesus had taken so long. She immediately blurted out: “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21). Nevertheless, Martha was confident of Jesus, and shortly afterwards, this was fully justified – Jesus raised Lazarus from death. We can’t be sure why Jesus decided to delay his visit to see his friends in Bethany but, arriving four days after his death, no one could possibly question whether he was indeed dead. So, when he was resurrected, there was no doubt that it was completely miraculous. Jesus had already spoken of the way in which his ministry brought life to people, but now he was going much further. He was claiming that he, personally, was that life. He was both the resurrection and the life. No one can deny the fact of death, but in Jesus, it takes on a completely new significance. When Jesus gives his life, it is eternal, so nothing can bring it to an end. Even death can’t get in the way. The apostle Paul mocked death when he wrote to the church in Corinth. To use his words: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). The thought of death being the end has completely disappeared as we acknowledge that Jesus is both the resurrection and the life.

Question How do you understand death and what lies beyond?

Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, I worship you because you are both the resurrection and the life. Thank you that the future is something I can look forward to with confidence and joy. Amen

John 10:19-21

The people were again divided in their opinions about him. Some said, “He’s demon possessed and out of his mind. Why listen to a man like that?” Others said: “This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” I am so grateful for the complete honesty of the Gospel writers. They were clearly deeply committed followers of Jesus, and it must have been tempting to have chosen to ignore the opposition that he faced, but they didn’t! They were astonishingly honest about how Jesus brought division between people throughout his ministry, and it wasn’t simply a case of people liking or not liking his teaching – some people believed that he was mad and demon possessed. Jesus has always divided opinion and still does. Richard Dawkins, the well-known atheist, has recently conceded that Jesus did exist, although he once said: “Somebody as intelligent as Jesus would have been an atheist.” John Lennon stated: “I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.” Former US President Barack Obama said: “Accepting Jesus Christ in my life has been a powerful guide for my conduct and my values and my ideals.” It is vital that we all make up our mind about Jesus. CS Lewis powerfully expressed the decision we all need to make. He wrote: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Question How would you respond if someone suggested to you that Jesus was merely a great teacher?

Prayer Lord God, thank you for sending Jesus into the world to be our saviour and friend. Amen

John 10:14-15

“I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.” Years ago, I read a book about Eleanor Philby, who was married to the spy Kim Philby. I was stunned to discover that Eleanor never had any idea her husband was a spy. That seemed incredible to me at the time, but the truth is that our knowledge of even our nearest and dearest is always very limited. We know much about them, but there are always aspects of their lives of which we know nothing. That is not the case when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows us completely. There are no dark corners of our lives that he does not know. This could sound thoroughly intimidating were it not for his love for us. His willingness to die for us shows the full extent of his love, so we can feel not only safe but affirmed and encouraged by his knowledge of us. In the Old Testament, God is often compared to a shepherd, most famously in Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honour to his name.” The psalm describes God’s shepherd-like care of us even when we pass through the most threatening times, and assures us that his love will go on forever. No wonder that many of the psalms encourage us to worship God because of his care for us. Psalm 100:3 commands: “Acknowledge that the LORD is God! He made us, and we are his. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” In Jesus, we see all the good shepherding qualities of God his Father. The word ‘good’ in Greek is richer than our word and has the sense of beautiful, attractive and noble. He is in every way worthy of our worship and praise. Given that we have such a wonderful and all-knowing shepherd to guide us through life, the challenge for us is to get to know him better. Nothing in life could be more important than this.

Question In what way are you seeking to get to know Jesus better?

Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, thank you that you were willing to lay down your life for me. Help me to get to know you better each day. Amen

John 9:24-25

For the second time [the Pharisees] called in the man who had been blind and told him, “God should get the glory for this, because we know this man Jesus is a sinner.” “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” The Pharisees were fuming. Jesus had just healed a blind man, and they were determined to prove that he hadn’t. First of all, they interviewed the man, and he confirmed that Jesus had given him back his sight. They were still unconvinced, so they interviewed the man’s parents. They duly confirmed that he had been born blind, but had no idea how he had received his sight. John adds that the parents were fearful of the Jewish leaders, who had announced that anyone who said Jesus was the Messiah would be expelled from the synagogue. The parents tried to brush off the Pharisees by encouraging them to have a word with their son. “He is old enough. Ask him,” they said (John 9:23). The Pharisees were clearly starting to realise that the healing had indeed taken place. Because it had occurred on the Sabbath, according to their strict rules, it proved that Jesus was a sinner. No faithful Jew, and certainly no rabbi, would think of doing such work on the Sabbath. They asked the man for a second time about the healing. Wisely, he wasn’t willing to engage with them on exactly who Jesus was, but what he knew for sure was that he used to be blind and now he could see. Nothing in the world could persuade him to say otherwise. I love this man’s simple, clear testimony. He didn’t want to get mixed up in the Pharisees’ religious battles. All he knew was that Jesus had transformed his life. He was a new man. If you have given your life to Jesus, you will have your account of what God has done in your life. You may be able to speak of the way that God has walked with you through difficult times, and given you his peace and security. You may not know how to answer tough theological questions, but you know what God has done for you and, like this man, you need to share it.

Question What would be your quick summary of what Jesus has done for you?

Prayer Lord Jesus, thank you for the way in which you have blessed my life. Help me to be ready to share my story, however questioning and dubious others might be. Amen

John 6:66-69

At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied: “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” Until now, Jesus seemed to have been attracting more and more followers. In chapter four, we hear that he was attracting more disciples than John the Baptist and people were believing in him even in the hostile territory of Samaria. In the Galilean region in the north, he had miraculously fed thousands of people, but the next day, the mood was very different. He spoke seriously to his followers about the nature of the bread that he was offering them, calling it his flesh. They concluded: “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” (John 6:60). As a result, many of his followers turned away and deserted him. Jesus’ question to his remaining disciples is heart-rending. “Are you also going to leave?” he asked. As he often did, Simon Peter spoke up for the others. He bluntly summarised the situation by saying that they had no desire to leave Jesus because there was nowhere else to go. Only Jesus had the words of eternal life. No other philosophies or religions were offering that. In our society, there are so many people and organisations wanting to attract our attention and get us to sign up. They make bold claims and offer glossy publicity for their philosophies, but only Jesus makes the offer of eternal life. If we want to receive this amazing gift, there is nowhere else to turn. When Peter made his response, he wasn’t saying he understood everything. He likely had as many questions as those who had turned away, but he was declaring that he was committed to Jesus himself and that he trusted him for the future. When we make a commitment to follow Jesus, we are not claiming that we have a full understanding of who God is and his plans for our lives. We are simply saying that we trust Jesus and know that he can be entirely relied upon.

Question Why are you committed to Jesus?

Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, I worship you because you have the words of eternal life. Amen