"But I know that even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you."  John 11:22

Martha says, as it were, to the Lord, "even now, at this desperate hour, I know (paraphrased) that whatever you choose to do or pray for, you do what is right, and what´s right will happen for sure!"

The Lord chooses however to raise up Lazarus from his grave "for the glory og God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."  That miracle served its own glorifying purpose, for "on account of him (Lazarus) many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus."  John 12:11.

The Lord had, to start with, assured His disciples that "this sickness (of Lazarus) is not unto death, but for the glory of God..."  (John 11:4) and was thus referring to His raising Lazarus from the dead.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard has in his excellent book "The Sickness unto Death" a fine and practical commentary. He asks the question,  What if Lazarus had not been raised at all?  Would Jesus´ words still have been true to the effect, that "this sickness is not unto death"?

 
His apt answer is YES!  This sickness is still, even now, not unto death for the simple reason that death to a believer is not death, but just a step of transit unto the eternal glory.  So if Lazarus had remained dead, it could still have been written on his stone, "This sickness was not unto death!"

And many grave stones belonging to interred, redeemed bodies deserve the same epitaph, since the "destruction of our earthly tent house" (2 Cor. 5:1) has not destroyed the saved soul, now enjoying incessantly the glory of God.  Indeed, they have been promoted to the rank of glory!

I like sometimes to take a quiet walk at some graveyard and dwell on a few gravestones witnessing of Jesus Christ as the One the departed saint had trusted in this life.  I then leave the place refreshed in my spirit with this desire, "To  me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.."  (Phil. 1:21)

Isn´t that what life is about?  Or what?

August 13, 2016 - jn