Seriously Funny 2 by Adrian Plass Jeff Lucas

Author:Adrian Plass, Jeff Lucas [Adrian Plass, Jeff Lucas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Authentic Media
Published: 2012-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

Then he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go back to Judea.’

‘But Rabbi,’ they said, ‘a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.’

What does this mean? Perhaps it’s about heavenly logic again: riding the bike that goes left when you turn the handlebars to the right, and vice versa. The light or logic of the world is of little use when we walk in the light of the will of God. The logic that lies behind the way of the Holy Spirit is rarely accessible to us, even when, and if, we are quite clear about what we have to do next.

It made sense to go back and heal Lazarus, but he didn’t. It made no sense to go back and risk being stoned by the Jews, but he did.

What makes sense? God’s will makes sense, but not necessarily to us.

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.’

His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.’ Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’

As with Jairus’s daughter, Jesus sees death as a sleep, rather than an end, one of his ‘silly’ statements. Is this because, as Oscar Wilde suggested, he had a bold and creative imagination? Or is it a reference to the fact that, for believers, death is no more than a sleep before waking to an eternity with God?

The disciples, thick or obtuse or confused as ever, push Jesus into speaking plainly, and here we learn at least one of the reasons for his delay in travelling to see Lazarus before he died. Jesus wants his disciples to strengthen their belief in him as a time of great testing approaches. Time for action.

Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother.

Thanks Eeyore . . .

Quite a crowd had built up, suggesting that the house and the people who lived in it were popular with lots of folk apart from Jesus. If only we were able to visit and join them all for a meal, just one cosy evening. Fascinating, eh?

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

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