Is your life like mine where joy and sorrow are often occurring together or near each other? I have to concentrate on joy and be thankful for it. I also have to resist the temptation of letting difficulties drag me down and steal my joy. It seems to me that Jesus and his followers definitely had some great moments of joy but they always had difficulty right behind it.
Selections of John 11
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
14 So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethanywas less than two miles[b] from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." 29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 "Where have you laid him?" he asked.
"Come and see, Lord," they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance 39 "Take away the stone," he said
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
There was great sorrow over Lazarus death. But that was not the end of it. No, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. It was a time for great joy as Jesus performed this miracle, Oh, this was not all!
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
Joy was seen as people saw the glory of the Lord in this act. Joy was seen as many believed in Jesus. It seemed everything was going to settle down and be positive. Here comes the difficulty. The Sanhedrin met and be an plotting on how they were going to handle Jesus.
55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, "What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?"57 But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
Life has an ebb and flow that usually involves a regular amount of sorrow and joy. I must understand this is how life in a sinful world works. I need to face both joy and sorrow knowing the Jesus is all powerful and by a word (he chose to use 3 words here "Lazarus, come out!") change an event to reflect his glory!
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