A key tenet of the Christian faith is the paradoxical belief that Jesus was fully human and fully God. While He was one with God and worked divine miracles, He was still flesh and blood and felt all the pain and joy of being human. Jesus’ humanness is important because it allowed Him to provide a direct example for us to follow. He was literally the Word made flesh–a living example of God’s love and law. And one lesson Jesus taught through His actions was the importance of relationships. There are so many passages in the bible where we can see how much Jesus valued the relationships he had with people, and the raising of Lazarus is a poignant one.
When Jesus received the message that Lazarus was sick, He said “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” So we know that part of the reason all this was happening was to show God’s power in raising the dead. But based on Jesus’ emotions–it’s mentioned multiple times that He was “disturbed” by the situation, and He openly wept over his friend’s death–it’s obvious this wasn’t an impersonal miracle to Jesus. In addition to demonstrating the glory of God, Jesus was restoring and building relationships among Himself, Lazarus, Mary and Martha, and the whole community. These relationships mattered to Jesus, otherwise, He wouldn’t have been so disturbed and saddened by the situation.
While we may not have Jesus’s power to raise the dead, we absolutely do have the ability to build, restore, and treasure relationships the way He did. His raising of Lazarus is only one of the many times He showed how important interpersonal relationships are to a faithful life. God made us to be in community and by honoring the relationships in our lives, we’re following Christ’s example.
Holy Lord, thank you for sending Your Son in the flesh to demonstrate, among other things, the importance of human relationships. Help us never take for granted the relationships in our lives. Amen.