11:25-27
Now Jesus draws attention to Himself. We have a tendency to focus on the “what”, Jesus wants us to focus on the “who”, namely Himself. Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, He was pointing to the final resurrection. Why would all these things happen? Because of Jesus Himself. Our focus needs to be on the One we believe in. Conversely, if we do this we will actually see more miracles, more answers to prayer, more results. But if we focus on believing for miracles, focusing on results, then we will be disappointed.
If we believe in Jesus then we will have eternal life. Most of us will die, but if we believe in Jesus then we will be raised to new life. The whole point of the Lazarus miracle was to demonstrate the absolute reality of this.
Notice that Jesus “whoever lives by believing in me”. Belief is not an intellectual assent, it is a way of life, it is how we live. Paul said that the life he now lives he lives by faith in Christ (Gal 2:20).
Then comes the vital question, “do you believe this?”. The central question for Martha was her own belief. Mary answers that she does believe. She knows that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah.
11:28,29
Mary then calls her sister. Because of all the mourning that was going on she did this privately, so that Mary could slip away without being noticed. Jesus wanted to see Mary as well. We can get so involved in what is going on in the world. In this case the mourning at the funeral, all convinced that this was the end of the line for Lazarus. It can be situations at work, situations in society. Jesus calls us to Himself so that we can learn what is really going on. We know from Luke that Mary was devoted to Jesus, so she went at once to Him.
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