Daily Encouragement

As the story of Lazarus wraps up at the end of John 11, there are different responses to this amazing resurrection. Some believe. They see the signs as from the only place they could be—God. That makes Jesus unique in some way to them. At the very least they believe Jesus is from God.

Others do not believe. In fact they begin to plan his death. They say it out loud if you were wondering why—John 11:47-48

[47] So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. [48] If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

They didn’t see the evidence that others saw. What they wanted was to keep their place and nation at the expense of not believing that Jesus was the Son of God. They should have seen it through the many signs. The evidence is stacked against them. Anyway, they gave up trusting in God to keep the temple and nation. These were not to be substituted for God himself but it seems that’s what they had become.

Instead of seeing God through the obvious signs Jesus was showing them they looked to the temple and nation as evidence or maybe something else. Are you satisfied with a dead building as evidence of God? I’m not. And you shouldn’t either.

So how do you get people to see Christ for who he is? How do you cause people to hear the gospel and believe? Warnings or wooings? Or both?

This Lazarus event was a clear example of wooing. They should have seriously wrestled with the signs not against them. God has used both with the people and Pharisees. Why did neither of them work with some?

Notice this statement by Jesus about warning and wooing—Matthew 11:16-19

[16] “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,[17] “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ [18] For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ [19] The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

To simplify what Jesus is saying here—I came wooing you with wonderful signs and John came warning you to flee the wrath of God through repentance. Jesus played the beautiful flute and John sang the funeral song (a lament—dirge).

Why did they not listen? There are a few possible answers but only one satisfies to me. What is it?