Daily Devotions
Boundless Hope
Title: Boundless Hope
Reading for December 6: 2 Corinthians 10-13
Weekly reading for December 2-8: John 11-15
But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?"
John 11:37
Perhaps the most surprising part of John chapter eleven is that when Jesus hears that Lazarus is ill he waits two whole days before he goes to see him (11:6). When they finally leave Jesus tells his disciples that Lazarus had died but that he was glad that he was not there so that they might believe (11:14-15). And we're reminded not once, but twice that if Jesus had been there that Lazarus surely would not have died (11:21, 32).
What is the point? I believe that this story communicates comfort to all of us in our struggles and frustrations with life. Jesus wants us to see that as long as we believe in him, we cannot be defeated by any circumstance in life. Even death is not greater than Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. No disease or calamity or handicap or burden or trial can overcome or overwhelm the believer who holds onto that anchor. With Jesus there is always hope. In Jesus there is freedom.
Jesus closes the scene at Lazarus' tomb with two bold commands. First, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." (11:43) Death is not greater than Jesus. Death has no power over the one who believes in him. The grave is powerless before the one who is called Resurrection and Life.
And then finally, because Lazarus was still bound in his grave clothes, Jesus said, "Unbind him, and let him go." (11:44) This is the hope of every believer, that finally and ultimately everything that has bound us in this life (including death) will relinquish it's power over us at the command of our Lord and Savior!
Father, thank you for the victory that we have in Christ Jesus!
