So that you can believe

"Our friend is dead, and I am glad for your sakes, so that you can believe."
This was an enigmatic statement made by Jesus. An enigma which became brilliantly clear after a few days.

It was a problem situation: Lazarus their good friend, had lived with his sisters in a house two miles from Jerusalem. Jesus had left Jerusalem because the people there attempted to stone him to death. When the disciples received news that Lazarus was ill Jesus did not immediately go to him; the disciples would have guessed because it was too dangerous, but they were mistaken; Jesus was not afraid to return to Jerusalem, he was waiting for Lazarus to die. Why? So that the disciples (and you) could believe.

After Lazarus died Jesus announced his intention to go back to the neighborhood. Speaking resignedly, one of the disciples said, "Let us go also, that we may die with him." These men already believed Jesus, believed in him so strongly they were loyal to him and courageous, what more did Jesus want?

Martha one of the sisters of the dead man, the one who was a good hostess, met Jesus (It is possible that Jesus and his disciples travelled discreetly not wanting to arouse the population before Jesus had carried out his plans) after a short conversation Jesus tells her that Lazarus will rise from the dead and Martha replies that she know he will rise at the resurrection in the last day.

Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believed in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
Martha replied, "Yes Lord, I believe that you are the promised savior the Son of God that has come into the world." Then she left hurriedly and sent a secret message to her sister Mary, that Jesus had come. Mary rushed to where he was and throwing herself on the ground said, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died."

Jesus wept, wept at the sorrow his friends had suffered, and groaned when he faced the burial cave. Wept because of the power of death and the shadow it casts over the lives of the living.

Next, he asked for the stone that sealed the burial cave to be rolled away. When they warned him that entering the burial cave would be unpleasant because Lazarus had already been dead four days, Jesus said to Martha. "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory (great majesty) of God?" He did not enter the cave but stood at the entrance. Raising his voice he addressed his Father in Heaven: "I thank you that you hear me, I am thanking you aloud so that he people standing by may believe that you have sent me." He then called to Lazarus, telling him to come out, Lazarus, bound hand and foot with burial clothes, his face covered by a shroud, came out of the cave.

Then many of the friends of Martha and Mary who had been with them comforting them believed. And the leaders of the temple began to plot how to kill Jesus, and also Lazarus.

What did Jesus want? Was this miracle an attempt to convince more people, or was it an attempt to compel the unbelievers to believe? That would not have been like Jesus, he never tried to compel faith, because it would no longer have been faith. His marvelous acts were not done simply to convince people but as evidence of what God will do for all who believe in Jesus. God will hear their prayers, protect them, guide them, heal them and at the end of their earthly life will raise them up to eternal life. This is the purpose of the miracles. This is the purpose of the teaching, and the recording, that we may be enabled to believe and because we believe we may see the glory (majestic power) of God.

Through these records Jesus makes this same promise to whoever reads the record. To you in fact. "Whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet he shall live. Because I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever lives and believes in the me shall never die: then he asks, Do you believe this?" Also he says, "If you believe you will see the great majesty of God." Do you believe?

The gospel of John chapter 11 beginning to end.

In his own words

Jesus continued to talk to the leaders who had accused him of working on the day of rest.

"I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life."
Very truly, I tell you," said Jesus, "the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me."
"The works that the Father has given me to complete, " said Jesus, "the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God?"

The leaders who had accused him of breaking the law and blaspheming were not able to take any action. Large crowds followed Jesus wherever he went. The crowds watched as he healed every kind of sickness, and everyone who asked. Truly no one could do these things unless he was sent from God, surely God had come to them and was saving them from the condition into which they had been born and had lived. Jesus was reversing the effects of sin and restoring to people that sense of union with God which they had thought was lost forever.

John chapter 5: verses 22-45 (parts ommitted)