Message/Application: In John 12 the miracle of Lazarus raised from the dead was the most powerful miracle they had seen yet (although there was another one more powerful to come). This was an undeniable miracle, and it drew many people to believe, for a while anyway. The crowd that witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead was the same crowd that waved palm branches in His honor one day, and called for his death the next. This wishy-washy crowd abandoned the Jews to follow Jesus after the resurrection of Lazarus. In their jealousy, the Jews plotted to kill Lazarus. This seems almost humorous to me given the fact that they already knew Jesus raised him once. Did they believe he couldn’t do it again? The next sign was when Jesus prayed about his troubled soul and God answered Him audibly for all to hear. The crowd called it “thunder” and a little further on the prophecies of Isaiah were quoted about the blinding of their eyes, hardening of their hearts, and their lack of understanding. This scripture terrifies me because the realization that they are spiritually blind is completely beyond them. They were the most educated in the scriptures of anyone there. They held the honor and respect of all the Jews, yet they were so concerned with their position and their privileges that their focus was not on understanding the truth. It was completely on themselves. This was the cause of their blindness. My takeaway from this is that if we are self-focused, we will miss the signs and movements of God around us, but if we are looking for truth, we will find it.
