Do you remember the opening scene in Charles Dickens’, “A Christmas Carol”? As Scrooge is approaching his home at the end of the day the narration announces “Marley was dead!” Dickens then goes on to give all the evidence that Marley was indeed dead, making the conclusion that in order to understand the wonderful things he was going to convey in this story it was necessary to know Marley was dead.  In John 11 Lazarus, the close friend of Jesus was dead. And like Dickens’ story, in order to see the wonder of what Jesus does we all must know that Lazarus was dead!  

Have you noticed that it’s in the trying times of life we are forced to pose, and think through the hardest questions of life. When things are going well we don’t question much because we are happy with the way things are. However, when trouble comes into our lives we are drawn to consider why this is happening to me? The deeper the trial, the deeper the questions become. We don’t know much about Lazarus from the Gospel writers: his age, his occupation, his prior healthy situation or how he died. All we know is he was a close friend of Jesus and that he was dead. From the reaction of everyone in the account of John 11 it is safe to assume Lazarus’ death was unexpected, propelling those close to him to ask deep questions of Jesus. I suspect the questions raised in John 11 are the same question you have asked when facing the deep trials of life. The good news of the Gospel is that not only does Jesus have the answers, He is the answer. Join me this Sunday for Questions Answered.