Their desire to kill Jesus was a backhanded confession of their belief in Jesus power, even if they didn t acknowledge who he was. I guess they thought that putting Jesus to death would be the end of the matter. But, going back again to what Jesus said about Lazarus and his illness that it was so that the Son of God might be glorified. That s gospel of John language for Jesus being crucified raised high on a cross. What would appear to the ordinary person as a symbol of terrible shame, God uses to show God s power and glory in that death was not the end of Jesus in the slightest.
Overcoming death is a hard act to follow.
Now I d like to back up a little bit. Ken, you clearly identified in a strong way with Mary and Martha grieving the death of Lazarus and wanting Jesus to have been there. Probably because I was imagining how I would have felt if the closest person to me had been sick and died. Something that happened pretty recently to my wife, Mary, and me that gave us quite a scare. One night last summer, we were about to turn the lights out and she said that she had to talk with me.