Jesus works in the details of life and shows Himself to be God.
By Dr. Rafat Amari
The Christian life has been designed by our heavenly Father so that as we mature we reach the point where Jesus enters our lives to solve those things that are impossible for us to solve without God’s help. It’s the point where we see Jesus moving where only God can move and doing only what God can do. Work that would remain undone in life and in history is accomplished when Jesus passes by.
For many broadcasts now, we have been discussing the raising of Lazarus, a man who had been dead and decomposing for four days. No human being could have hoped to see his body raised from dust without the intervention of Jesus.
Lazarus’ body reminds us of the state of any sinner who collapses under the pressures of sin and corruption. No human being has ever been healed from sin without Jesus. The dead heart has been separated from God. There is no hope unless the One who originally created it intervenes.
The creature has plunged to the depth of corruption. To raise him up is a step which is impossible to accomplish apart from the One who came to earth when He formed mankind and breathed His Spirit into him.
To repair the corrupt heart from the effects of spiritual and moral death is a responsibility and a prerogative of the Creator who passed by that body of crumbling clay in the first years of the Christian era and raised it from the dead, summoning to it the spirit which had departed from it and gone to Paradise..
In the account of Lazarus, we have an invitation to witness a sight similar to the first creation of man. If we think about it, we can recognize the person of the Creator as He creates once more from dust.
The first years of the Christian era were characterized by a return of the voice of the Creator. The melody of His unlimited power was heard once again ringing throughout the earth. To distinguish the voice of man among the birds of the forest is an easy thing for the ear to do. Similarly, to distinguish the voice of God, the Creator, as He moved about in human form in the person of Christ was possible for those with the right sense and an unprejudiced mind. There is no way to identify this sovereign and creative voice except by observing the One who creates a spiritual being from the dust of humanity.
Does human experience allow us to hear what has not been heard in the history of peoples, humanity and the prophets? That is, the creation of life where there was but dust
Whether in the original creation or the re-creation, as in the case of Lazarus, nothing was done without purpose. Christ possessed creative words with practical meanings which were aimed at the most difficult of all human conditions, the body’s subjection to the principles of death and corruption. Jesus moved toward the dead and decomposing body of Lazarus with the express purpose of resurrecting it, just as He moved in the original creation of Adam.
When any creature dies a handful of extra earth is produced. But how can there be a program for that little handful of dust into which the stinking body lying beneath a large stone has begun to turn. Can anybody else but the Creator move towards something that has begun to turn into a small handful of dust and talk about a plan of life for that abandoned and forgotten aspect of the creature.
We see the body that has returned to dust as lost, absent and pertaining to the past. But Jesus sees it as an object through which He can successfully manifest His power and reveal His identity as the One who created mankind in the beginning. He moves towards what we as human beings consider to be no more than a handful of dust, but for Him it is a rerun of the ancient scene of creation when a handful of dust waited for His hands to touch and His breath to vitalize. He walks with us so that we might stop at this scene so reminiscent of the old, and watch its ancient elements come together before our eyes
As Jesus walked toward Lazarus He had the absolute conviction He could raise Lazarus to life in the same way as He took those elements of dust on the sixth day of creation and created mankind. In this act we discern who the Creator is.
He sought an opportunity to be in a situation similar to the one he had worked in before, in order to help us to recognize him through the perfect way he worked . he made to stand on a dimension or entity which was turning into a handful of dust , he made stand a human spiritual being which reminds us of Adam and his healthy spiritual fellowship with Him before sin )* and brought into being a spiritual human being. As Lazarus sat at table with Jesus just as Adam had walked with him in Eden before falling into sin, he displayed the health of Adam, the beat of his heart, and his ancient fellowship with his Creator.
Can you picture Lazarus sitting at the table with Jesus a few hours later-sitting with the same Jesus who walked with Adam in Eden before Adam fell into sin.
As He did with the disciples, Jesus extends an invitation to us to attend a scene full of profound meaning. Jesus told His disciples that His intent was “so they might believe.” In other words, as we understand the raising of Lazarus, Jesus puts us back into the nursery of Eden. We experience a miracle that is more than a miracle. It’s a sign pointing to the creation of the first man, Adam. Jesus did this so we might ponder and appreciate the One who walked our earth both in creation and in the early years of the Christian era.
Just as a mother shows her lost son pictures from his childhood so he might know who his mother is. Jesus is concerned that we see samples indicating how man first sprang from dust. Jesus uses what is turning into a handful of dust to help us experience the process of creation as recorded in the Old Testament. He does all this to give us a complete picture of His identity and imprint it on our souls.
Have you come to the place where you desire to believe in Jesus. You can do that today, right now, by praying and asking Him into your life.
Copyright 2006 by Dr. Rafat Amari. All rights reserved