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Help support the vision of Woodland Hills Community Church!
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Friday, March 14

Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 5; Jeremiah 31:16-25; John 11:1-27; 2 Corinthians 12:12-21; Psalm 94

I’ve always struggled with the Gospel of John’s telling of the story of the raising of Lazarus. Why is that? Because of the way the gospel portrays Jesus. There are two pieces of John’s portrayal in particular that challenge my view of Jesus. First, I struggle with Jesus’ explanation of what’s happening to the disciples. In John 11:4, for instance, Jesus says rather matter-of-factly: “This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God’s glory by glorifying God’s son” (The Message). Second, I struggle with Jesus’ response to the crisis as well. John 11:6 tells us: “...but oddly, when [Jesus] heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days” (The Message). Neither of these pieces of the story resonates with the loving, compassionate Jesus that I have met so often in other places in Scripture. So what do I do with these challenging pieces of the story? In reading the story once again this morning, I realized a difficult thing: Jesus’ perspective on life wasn’t always the same as my own perspective. While I experienced the story primarily as a story about sickness and healing, Jesus saw it as something more. And while I still struggle with what an appropriate response would be by my own standards given the resources I have to work with, Jesus had a different understanding of an appropriate response given the resources he had to work with. Neither of these thoughts necessarily makes the story a warm and fuzzy one for me. Nevertheless, they remind me that the story really isn’t about me. I hate it when that happens J. Today as I continue to wrestle with the story, I give thanks for the One who brings a new perspective on things to my life and for the amazing power of God that brings new life into those parts of our experience that we had long ago written off. In these final days before Easter, may each of us experience in new ways a taste of this new life. Til next time…

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