The pedagogy of the miracle

The pedagogy of the miracleWritten by Rev. Hernandez Dias LopesMonday, March 29, 2010 17:09
  Reference: John 11.1-57
INTRODUCTION
1.This is the last great public miracle of Jesus. It was held last week of Jesus before being arrested and killed on the cross.
2.This miracle has several important lessons:
a) The crises are inevitable - even if Lazarus was sick friend to Jesus.
b) The crisis may increase - and even worse Lazarus die. There are times when we are bombarded by problems beyond our control: illness, loss, loss, grief. We pray and nothing happens. In fact, worsening. We want relief and the pain increases. We want to rise and sink even more.
c) When the illness and bereavement come to our house, we are deeply distressed - these hours increases our pain, because our expectation was to receive a miracle and it is not enough. Like the disciples of Emmaus began to conjugate verbs of life only in the past: "We had hoped that he who would redeem Israel, but ..." (Luke 24:21).
3.This text speaks of the teaching of Jesus in the realization of this great miracle.
I.O TIME OF MIRACLES
1.How to reconcile the love of Jesus with our suffering - see 3
The family of Bethany was loved by Jesus - He loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, but even so, Lazarus was sick. If Jesus loved Lazarus by allowing him to get sick? Why did you allow her sisters to suffer? Why did you allow to Lazarus died? Here is the great mystery of love and suffering.
Martha and Mary did the right thing at the time of distress - They sought help in Jesus.They knew that Jesus would change the agenda and addressed without delay.
They sought help at the bottom right - Jesus' love for Lazarus and not the love of Lazarus by Jesus. Who loves you in a hurry to help the loved one. Today we say: Jesus, the one you love has cancer. Jesus, whom you love is getting divorced? Jesus, the one you love is unemployed.
Why did not Jesus heal Lazarus distance - Jesus could have prevented Lazarus was sick and could also heal him from a distance. He had healed the nobleman's son at a distance.Why did not heal his friend whom he loved? Jesus' attitude seems to contradict his love.
Jews could not reconcile the love of Christ with the suffering of the family of Bethany (v. 37) - They thought they could not love and suffering go together.
If Jesus loves us, why do we suffer? - If Jesus loves us, why we went through the trouble. If he is all-powerful, why does not free us from suffering? Why a child of God gets sick, loses his job, faces the fight?
No special immunities - The Father loved the Son, but allowed him to drink the cup of suffering and dying on the cross in our place. The fact that Jesus loves us does not make us beloved children. The love of Jesus does not warrant special immunity against tragedies, sorrows and pains. Illustration: None of the disciples died a natural death, except John, and he died in exile in a solitary island. Jesus did not protemeu special immunity, but immanence special. He never promised an explanation, he promised himself that he has all the explanations.
2.How to reconcile these requirements with the delay of Jesus - see 6.39
Instead of changing your schedule to help Lazarus, Jesus stayed two more days it was.Instead of going, just send a message: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God," but Lazarus died.
Martha had to deal not only with the illness of his brother, but with the delay of Jesus. Why does not he come? Will he come? Does he love us so? Many began to blame the delay of Jesus.
Marta ranged between faith and logic. For how to understand Jesus' words: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God" when the messenger delivered it to Jesus, Lazarus was already dead? She doubted. She was vexed.
The delay of Jesus left frustrated, almost disappointed (v. 21).
Often, Jesus seems to take:
a) God promised a son to Abraham and Sarah - Only after 25 years fulfilled the promise.
b) The storm at sea - only the fourth watch of the night went against the disciples.
c) Jairo will seek help from Jesus - when Jesus comes his daughter was dead.
d) The faith of Martha goes through three tests: 1) The absence of Jesus (v. 3), 2) The delay of Jesus (v. 21), 3) The death of Lazarus (v. 39).
3.How to reconcile our time (chronos), in Jesus' time (kairos) - see 6
The distance between Bethany where Jesus was and gave more than 32 Km It took a day trip. The messenger has spent one day to get to Jesus. Straight out of Bethany, Lazarus is dead. When he broke the news to Jesus, Lazarus was already dead. Jesus takes over two days. And spend another day to arrive. Then when he arrived, Lazarus had been buried for four days.
Jesus was glad not to be in Bethany before the death of Lazarus (v. 15). He gave thanks to the Father for it (v. 41b). Jesus always acted in accordance with the agenda of the Father (2:4; 7:6,8,30, 8:20, 12:23, 13:1, 17:1).
He knows the right time to act. He acts according to the schedule of the sky and not on our agenda. It acts at the time of the Father and not according to our hurry. When he seems to take, is doing something bigger and better for us.
Martha and Mary thought Jesus had come late, but he arrived at the right time, in due course of God (v. 21.32).
Jesus did not arrive late. He does not fail. He is not caught by surprise. He knows the end from the beginning, tomorrow from yesterday. He sees the future from the past. He knew that Lazarus was ill and that Lazarus was dead. He took two more days because he knew what he would do.
II. MODE OF MIRACLE
1.Jesus is not tied to the categories of our time - see 22-25
Martha believes in Jesus could have avoided death (v. 21) - PASSED.
Martha believes in Jesus will raise the dead on the last day (v. 23-24) - FUTURE.
But Martha does not believe that Jesus can make a miracle now. Marta wavering between faith (v. 22) and logic (v. 24).
We are so. We have no doubt that Jesus performed miracles in the past. We have no doubt believe that he will do terrible things by the end of the world. But our difficulty is to believe that he still operates with the same power.
Maybe that's your trouble - you have prayed for your marriage and see it closer to dissolution. You have prayed for the conversion of her husband and sees him harder. You have prayed for their children and they remain more distant from God. You have prayed for his job and he has yet to emerge. You have prayed for his emotional life and she still looks like a desert.
Oh if everything was different - Past and Future - The great mistake of "Oh it was different," the two sisters, was omit the present power of the living Christ. Marta lived or past or future. But is that in this time touches eternity. We can not live on memories that have passed not only the promises that are still future. We need to believe today. Jesus is not the great or the great I WAS I WILL BE. He is the great I AM. In this Gospel he says: 1) "I am the bread of life" (6:35), 2) "I am the light of the world" (8:12), 3) "I am the door" (10:9)and 4) "I am the good shepherd" (10:11), 5) "I am the resurrection and the life" (11:25) 6) "I am the way, the truth and the life" (14:6) ; 7) "I am the true vine" (15:1).
2.Jesus identifies with our pain - see 35
A) He who heals our wounds hurt us is
The tears of Jesus reveal his humanity, his compassion, his love (v. 36). Jesus cares about you and your pain.
He is not the distant God of the deists, not the impersonal God of the Pantheists, nor the God of fatalistic Stoics, not even the God of good-natured Epicurean. He's not dead God, nailed to a cross or the legalistic God, cosmic sheriff of the Pharisees.
He is the God Emanuel. He weeps with you. He suffers for you. He cares about you. He identifies with you. He is the God who weeps, who suffers, who terapeutiza our pain.
a) Jesus knows what is the pain of the homeless - because he had nowhere to lay his head. Jesus knows what pain is poverty. He knew the language of the minimum wage painful.
b) Jesus knows what is the pain of loneliness - in our darkest hours he was alone. He was left alone in Gethsemane and on the cross.
c) Jesus knows what is the pain of persecution - was hunted by Herod, guarded by the Pharisees, the scribes hated and delivered by priests.
d) Jesus knows what is the pain of betrayal - betrayal by the crowd applauded. Betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, abandoned by his disciples.
e) Jesus knows what is the pain of humiliation - was arrested, beaten, spat on, left naked, nailed to the cross as a criminal.
f) Jesus knows what is the pain of the disease - he took upon himself our pain and our weakness.
g) Jesus knows what is the pain of death - He endured death pull the sting of death and resurrection bring us.
B) Any person who wipes away our tears weeps with us
Jesus not only is present with you in your suffering, he has compassion on you, cry with you. Jesus wept in public, before a crowd, being grieved for that bereaved family.
He went so far as to descend to Hades, in his identification with our pain. Illustration: Seven years before the ship Titanic to be found, the National Geographic magazine began preparations for the day when the ship was found and could be photographed. When it was discovered in 1985, photographer Emory Kristof began to check the water depth and visibility problems. Finally in 1991, with the help of scientists and filmmakers, Kristof took a series of photos is 3.500 m. And stamped them in the magazine. The propaganda that preceded the announcement said, "By what point a Geographic photographer to get a perfect picture?" The extent to which God comes to reveal his tender love for sinners and suffering? To the extent of His Son descend into the abyss, to Hades.
3.Jesus not exclude human participation in the face of his miraculous intervention - see39,40,44
A) Take away the stone - Only Jesus has the power to resurrect the dead. This he does.But take away the loose rock and the man who is bandaged, so people can do and he commands them to do.
Jesus calls Lazarus from the grave. If Jesus had not mentioned the name of Lazarus, all the dead out of the tomb.
But even dead Lazarus could hear the voice of Jesus. On the final day, the second coming of Christ, the dead will hear his voice and come forth from the grave (John 5:28-29).
Lord, it smells bad - Take the stone means facing a situation that no longer want to move.It is playing in a situation that will only bring us pain. You open the door to something that already stinks. We are afraid to face the pain of our past.
When we removed the stone and looked into the tomb, Jesus looks up and prays (v. 41) - Faced with the stench of an open grave Jesus prayed. We pray for those who are afflicted? We believe that God answers prayer? As Jesus prayed? When the miracle happened? When Jesus gave thanks. Illustration: Leah was unloved by her husband (Gen. 29:31-35). It was during the fourth pregnancy of Leah that the miracle of restoring grace was in his heart, "then said: I will praise the Lord. And so she called his name Judah (v. 35). The name comes from the root word of praise. Jesus came from the tribe of Judah While Lia based his life on "Oh if I were pretty like my sister," "ah, if I loved my husband" - his life was a well of bitterness. But when she adopted an attitude of praise and faith opened up to God who gave him a new identity: the mother of the founder of the tribe from which the Messiah would come.
B) Loose him and let him go - now Lazarus was alive, but with burial garments. Your feet, hands and face were bandaged. We need to take off the clothes of the old life. We need to put the clothes on the new man. We need to help each other to remove the bonds that bind us. We need to help each other to remove the shackles of the past. We are a community of healing and restoration. We need to start this process first in our home. There are bonds that bind us to past habits, sins, vices, habits that limit us and take away our freedom and our action. Unleash your children, let them grow. There is time to bind and to loose time.
C) If you believe you will see - not only that Jesus wants to find a solution but we become the solution. Instead of doubting, questioning, regret, Martha should believe. The door opened with the miracle is the key of faith.
III. THE PURPOSE OF MIRACLE
1.The glory of God - v. 4
Everything Jesus taught and did was for the glory of God. The glory of the Father was the biggest project of his life. He came to reveal the Father He came to show how God's heart.He never shied away from this ideal.
The death of Lazarus was an opportunity for the Father was glorified. The resurrection of the dead is a greater miracle than the healing of the sick. The resurrection of a dead four days is greater than the resurrection of someone who just died.
The most important thing in our life is not being spared the trouble, but glorify God in all we are and do.
When we are confronted by disease, disappointment, delay and even death, is our only encouragement to know that we live by faith not by sight. Psalm 50:15: "Call upon me in time of trouble, I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me."
2.The awakening of faith - see 15,42,45
The miracle is not an end in itself - It is meant to open doors to saving faith and avenues to greater confidence in God. The miracles of Christ have always had a pedagogical purpose of revealing spiritual truths.
a) When he multiplied the loaves, he wanted to teach was the Bread of Life.
b) When healed the man born blind, he wanted to teach was the Light of the World.
c) When raised Lazarus, that he wanted to teach is the resurrection and the life.
1) Jesus was meant to strengthen the faith of his disciples (v. 15).
2) Jesus was meant that Martha believed before seeing the glory of God (v. 26.40).
3) Jesus was meant to awaken saving faith in the Jews who were present at the tomb of Lazarus (v. 42).
4) Jesus was meant to proclaim that the future life can be achieved only by faith in him and that death has the last word for those who believe in him (v. 25-26).
3.The death of Jesus - see 8,16,25,26,46-57
The weather was great tension - the last appearance of Jesus in Judea, the Jews wanted to stone him (John 10:38-42; v. 8). Thomas believes that Jesus going to Jerusalem was walking to his own death (v. 16). Everyone knows that Jesus runs the risk of Judea. Martha will find Jesus outside the home (v. 20). Marta Maria will call in secret (v. 28). There was an orchestration behind the scenes to get him to death.
When Jesus raised Lazarus, many Jews believed in him (v. 45). Others, however, came to deliver it (see 46-48,53,57). The Jews decided to kill not only Jesus but also Lazarus (12:9-11).
When Jesus was at Bethany in the home was willing to gloficar the Father in two aspects: first, by the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus and the second by his willingness to fulfill the plan of the Father to give His life a ransom of his people (Jn 17: 1).
The members of the Sanhedrin is that thought they were in control, orchestrating the arrest of Jesus. But that was part of God's plan. The death of Christ was not an accident but an appointment of the Father (Acts 2:23).
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, perhaps you are now going through a grief like Lazarus, Martha and Mary.Perhaps there is someone sick at home. Maybe you have prayed for healing and see your loved ones worsen. Perhaps you expect the intervention of Jesus, and he seems late.Maybe the people you cover, why did Jesus have not answered their cry.
Learn one thing: He never comes late. He is not only the God who made and make. He is the God who does. He weeps with you. He cares about you and it makes it impossible for you.
To help you he gave his own life. To raise Lazarus from the grave, he faced arrest and death. To save you he descended into hell: he was arrested, condemned and nailed to the cross.
Even if your problem is insoluble, even though his Lazarus is buried for four days, and believe you will see the glory of God!