Iconoclasts

 This week's verses are John 12:9-11:

Now a large crowd of Judeans learned that Jesus was there, and so they came not only because of him but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to kill Lazarus too, for on account of him many of the Jewish people from Jerusalem were going away and believing in Jesus.

 We are reminded this week about the plot to kill Jesus almost two thousand years ago, but we forget that his murderous accusers were also planning to kill Lazarus. You could at least argue that Jesus was provocative. He was preaching things that affected the chief priests income streams in a way they didn't like, and he was showing that they were not the ultimate power.

But Lazarus? His only crime was being alive. Much in the same way that ideological fanatics have blown up statues, burned books, and erased history, the chief priests wanted to erase all evidence that Jesus was God. They wanted that role for themselves, even though they were far from qualified.

Luckily for Lazarus, they seemed to forget about him once they succeeded in having Jesus crucified. According to church tradition, Lazarus went on to live happily ever after as a bishop.

Lazarus was targeted for the same reason Christians are persecuted everywhere. Their pursuers want every last evidence of Jesus Christ removed from the world so they can live without being reminded of their inadequacy. If we are devoted Christians, we will eventually run afoul of people who consider themselves to be higher priests than Jesus.

We ourselves are guilty of this too. How many times have you read Bible verses that you didn't like and found some explanation that let you absolve yourself of the obligation to respond? How many times have you tried to push doctrines that let you live as you do, while trash-talking people who hold a different view? How many times have you been confronted by concerned friends or family about lifestyle issues and spent hours hunting on the Internet for someone to tell you you don't need to change a thing? This is what high priests do when they are high-priesting for the God of self comfort.

Killing Lazarus is not going to help you live forever in comfort. God's sovereign power will just manifest in different ways. He is the God of everything in this world and beyond. If he has decided to bend the laws of nature to bring Lazarus back to life, it's not going to be you who puts him back in the tomb.

Instead of hating God and hating Lazarus for the way things were, the high priests would have been better off rejoicing with their curious fellow Judeans. So instead of trying to suppress the truth for a life of comfort, we should celebrate with God and work to spread his truth.