Jesus for Life by Richard S. Briggs

Author:Richard S. Briggs [Briggs, Richard S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Casacde Books
Published: 2019-09-09T07:00:00+00:00

chapter 7

Not Dead Yet—John 11

Read John 11:1–45 (and Ezekiel 37)

I am going to cheat—or at least, I will take a roundabout approach to John 11. As we have said more than once, we need the Old Testament to help us read the New Testament well. So, in turning to John 11 and focusing on the death of Lazarus, we are going to go by way of Ezekiel 37. In fact, the death and resurrection of Lazarus is almost certainly incorporated by John in order to draw us into thinking about the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is our real focus: the death of Jesus, never to be considered in isolation from the resurrection of Jesus. They are two sides of the same coin—no death without resurrection, no resurrection without death. To those lost in gloominess and overwhelmed by failure, I want to say that there is a resurrection! To those unwilling to face the realities of life and be realistic about difficulties, I want to say, first there is the death. It is a kind of balancing act in our faith, between defeat and victory, but there is one really important sense—we shall realize—in which it is not an equal balancing act or a fair match between death and resurrection.

First comes Ezekiel. Now, I have some sympathy with those who find it hard going to ever encounter the words “First—Ezekiel.” Who knows anything about this bizarre prophet? What does this have to do with us? Although this is not the occasion to go into great detail about this unusual figure and his unusual book, I do want to spend just long enough with him to get the right ideas in view for our reading of John. In the process, I hope too that we might catch some glimpse of the wonderful world of the Old Testament, even if only briefly.

Here is what you need to know to hear this prophet well. First, he is prophesying in Judah (that’s the old southern kingdom) around the beginning of the sixth century BCE. One of the first things he sees, more or less, is a vision of the glory of the Lord departing from the temple. It rather sounds like he is watching it fly away on the ancient version of a helicopter, but that is for another day. Why is the glory of the Lord departing from the temple, and what does that mean? It means that God has run out of patience with the people of Israel and is about to abandon them to being exiled.

In 586 BCE (give or take) the Babylonians arrive and take Israel away into captivity. For thirty-three chapters, Ezekiel has been trying to warn them that this is going to happen, and has been patiently pointing out to them that it is all very well being self-justifying and saying “God is good” so all will be well, but if you do not recognize that you have rejected God’s will, then you are going to be in trouble.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.