Do You Believe?

“And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”  John 11:26

It seems almost disrespectful if asked of a pastor of a church, a televangelist, or even neighbor Bob who goes to that church down the street. However, perhaps we should be asking. Jesus did. Jesus asked Nathanael, and then promised that he would see greater things. Jesus asked of some blind men and then healed them. Jesus asked of another healed blind man after the Jews had cast him out. And finally our Lord asked His friend Martha in our verse for today. Do you believe? 

It was a big thing to ask. Martha's brother, Lazarus, lay dead in the tomb. All the words we want to use for the former Lazarus were there: cold, stiff, corpse, expired, kaput... maybe some of those slang words hadn't come into common usage quite yet, but you get the point. And here Jesus asked Martha if she believed what He said. Lazarus was no more. Jesus contradicted all that we think we know about the passing of a person, and then asked, "Do you believe this?" And later on, we know what happened in the story of Lazarus. 

As Jesus might say: Blessed are those who believe in Him without seeing Lazarus stumble out of the tomb bound up in his graveclothes.

Bucky