John 11:45 Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him
When you come to John 11, you find the apex of Jesus’ miracles. He raises Lazarus from the dead. You find a messenger who came to Jesus and said, “Lazarus, your friend, is sick.” When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” They thought that Lazarus would not die, but Jesus’ point was that the sum and substance of his being sick was not that it was not going to end merely in his death. Jesus knew what He was about to do. What follows is both skepticism and obedient faith.
On one hand, you have those that no matter what they saw Jesus do were skeptical of Who He is. Then you have the faith, faltering though it may have been, of Mary and Martha. You learn an important lesson: if there is truly a God, skepticism is no match for obedient faith in Him.
Skepticism abounds in this world, but like darkness, it is a negative. It is the absence of something. Darkness is the absence of light and Jesus is the light of the world. So, if there is really a God, skepticism is no match for obedient faith in God.
In the first place, no one could anticipate Jesus’ answer. They seemed to think that if He was late and Lazarus died, it was over. Both Mary and Martha said, “Jesus, if you had been here earlier, my brother would not have died.” That is exactly what happened. Jesus tarried intentionally and Lazarus died.
Mary and Martha were beside themselves. Even the people who were standing around said about Jesus, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” They seemed to say, “He was late, and so He could not do what could have been done to help this family.” No one could anticipate His answer. No one was even thinking that Jesus might come and bring Lazarus from the dead, but that is exactly what He ended up doing.
No one could fabricate Jesus’ answer. Jesus loved Lazarus, and He said that his sickness was not unto death. He did die, but that wasn’t the purpose of his sickness. Later, Jesus said that He was glad for the sakes of those around that He was not there before Lazarus died to the intent that they would believe. In other words, the whole purpose of this was so they would believe Who Jesus is. In verse 45 it says that after Jesus brought Lazarus from the dead, many of the Jews believed on Him. No one could fabricate, replicate, or fake Jesus’ answer to this needy family.
Then, you find that no one could eradicate His answer. In verse 53 it says that after the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, “Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.” We are talking about the religious leaders. They wanted to kill Jesus, but they could not eradicate His answer.
In the next chapter, the Bible says that many believed in Jesus for Lazarus’ sake because they saw the miracle, but “the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death.” What a fruitless proposition, to kill a man because he had been dead and was raised back to life. What would have happened if they had killed him? Jesus would have raised him from the dead again. It was a losing battle. They could not eradicate the answer or do away with Jesus’ answer. What Jesus did was something that could not be undone.
In short, you see a battle in this passage between skepticism and obedient faith. The same is true today. There is a lot of doubt, and that is understandable. There are a lot of people who deceive and lie, but Jesus is not one of those people. Jesus is someone Who keeps His promise and is capable and caring. Skepticism is no match for obedient faith in the living Son of God.