Day 11

September 1, 2023

Day 11: Gospel of John Chapter 11

When we think about Jesus, it’s easy to go to one of two extremes. One extreme emphasizes His humanity. People who do this will read the Gospels and especially notice where Jesus talks about His compassion for others, His tiredness, the pleasure He gets from being in the company of others. When they read John 11, they’ll be particularly moved by the verse, “Jesus wept” (11:35, ESV). Who wouldn’t weep at the tomb of a good friend? Others will focus on the divine nature of Jesus. They’ll look at the miracles of turning water into wine or giving sight to the blind man and declare that only God can do such things. When they look at John 11, they’ll key in on verse 43 where Jesus “cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out'” (ESV). It’s not entirely wrong to lean toward one or the other view of Jesus, but it does become wrong when that view begins contradicting the rest of Scripture. When a person starts believing that the miracles of Jesus are just legends added to the Bible at a later date, they invalidate the entire Bible. And when a person says that Jesus was so much God that He didn’t experience life like we did, they contradict verses like Philippians 2:6-11 and Hebrews 4:15 (check them out and see what we mean.) We pray that as you continue reading that you also continue to see the wonder and miracle of Jesus, completely human and yet totally God.