G'day, Dave here.

Welcome to stories of a faithful God for kids.

When you think about how to love and care for someone, what do you think of bringing them

flowers, making them a meal? Just sitting with them while they're sad?

Those are all nice things.

Sometimes caring can look a little bit

different.

A few years ago, a man had me knocked out and

then he got a really sharp knife and cut into my arm.

Don't worry though, the man was a doctor.

He was working to fix me after an accident I'd

had.

In order to fix me, he had to hurt me a little

bit so that later I could get better.

Sometimes caring for someone doesn't look like

caring at the time, but something hard is needed to help them with what they really

need.

In today's story, Jesus is going to do

something really strange.

He's going to do something that looks a little

unkind, but he's actually doing it to give people what they really need.

Get ready for our next episode of stories of a faithful God for kids.

At the end of our last episode, Jesus had left Jerusalem where people wanted to kill him.

He'd gone back up north and lots of people had come to him and started to believe in him.

That seems to make a lot of sense, doesn't it? Who'd want to hang around with people who want

to kill you? Then John tells us about a man named Lazarus.

He tells us a few things about Lazarus.

First he tells us he's sick.

In those days they don't have all the great medicines that we do.

Anytime someone gets sick, they might get better or they might die.

It's impossible to know which way it will go.

So even if you only have a cold or a fever,

you could be dead in a few days.

Lazarus is sick, which means he might be about

to die.

Next were told that he lives in a town called

Bethany.

Bethany is just a half hour walk from

Jerusalem.

That means its just down the road from where

there are lots of people who want to kill Jesus.

Then were told that Lazarus lives with his sisters, two ladies named Mary and Martha.

We havent actually met them in Johns gospel yet, but John wants us to know that they

really, really love Jesus.

In fact, he tells us a little story about Mary

to show us how much she loves him.

In chapter eleven, verse two, he says Mary is

the woman who later put perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.

Johns going to tell us about that event later on in chapter twelve.

But already we can say that you dont use up expensive perfume and clean someones feet with

your hair unless you really care about them.

So Lazarus is sick, possibly dying.

He lives in a town near where people want to kill Jesus.

And he lives with his sisters who really love Jesus.

If you lived in Jesus day and your brother was sick and you were friends with Jesus, what do

you think you'd do? Hopefully you do what Mary and Martha do.

They send a message to Jesus, who's a long way away, that says, Lord, the one you love is

sick.

You see, it isn't just that they love Jesus.

Jesus really loves them.

When Jesus gets the message, he says something

really great.

He says in verse four, this sickness will not

end in death.

Phew.

That's a relief.

Then he tells us why Lazarus is sick.

Do you remember a couple of episodes ago, there was a man who'd been born blind, and

Jesus told us he'd been born blind so that people could see the greatness or glory of

God.

People saw how great God is when Jesus healed

him.

Well, it turns out Lazarus is sick for the

same reason hes sick, so that people can see the greatness or glory of God and of his son

Jesus.

Somethings going to happen with Lazarus to

show how great he is.

If youre thinking about what happened with the

blind man, youre probably thinking that Jesus will heal Lazarus like that.

But youd be wrong.

John tells us something really, really weird.

First, he tells us in verse five that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

That's not weird at all.

That's one of the things that's great about

Jesus.

But then John tells us that because Jesus

loves Mary and Martha, because he cares about them, he doesn't rush off to heal Lazarus.

What? He loves them, so he doesn't go.

Lazarus is possibly dying.

And the way Jesus shows his care is by not

going to heal him.

What on earth is going on here?

Two days go past.

Two long days.

Then Jesus says to his disciples, let's go back to Judea.

Judea is the area where Bethany and Jerusalem are now.

The disciples, they hadnt been surprised at all that Jesus didnt rush off to Bethany, not

because they thought that was really loving for Lazarus.

Its just that as a general rule, you dont hang around near people who want to kill you.

They say to Jesus in verse eight.

But teacher, the Jews there tried to kill you

with stones.

That was only a short time ago.

Now you want to go back, back there.

But Jesus tells them that now's the time to do

God's work.

Then he says, our friend Lazarus has fallen

asleep, but I am going there to wake him.

The disciples are relieved and confused.

Relieved because if someone's really sick but then they fall asleep in a calm way, it

usually means they're getting better.

It's a good sign.

So hooray.

No need to go to Bethany where people are

trying to kill Jesus.

But they're confused because now that there

doesn't seem to be any reason to go to Bethany, that's when Jesus wants to go.

This isn't making any sense.

Jesus doesn't go when it seems really urgent

to go.

And he wants to go when there doesn't seem to

be any need to go.

No wonder they're confused.

The disciples try to gently help Jesus see that everything's all good now.

He doesn't need to go.

So Jesus explains something that they hadn't

understood when he said sleep.

Lazarus has fallen asleep.

That's his way of talking about dying.

In other words, Lazarus has died.

Now it's even more confusing.

One, because Jesus said that Lazarus's

sickness would not end in death, but now he's dead.

What's up with that? And two, if Lazarus is dead, then that

absolutely means that Jesus doesn't need to go there.

It's not like Jesus can heal him anymore.

And then, just to make things even more wild,

Jesus says one more strange thing.

He says to his disciples in verse 15, I am

glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe.

Glad Jesus is glad he wasn't there.

He's actually happy he wasn't there to stop

the sick man from dying.

Umm, before we get too weirded out, let's

think carefully about what Jesus has just said.

He said to his disciples, I'm glad for your sakes.

In other words, if Jesus had gone and healed Lazarus, it would have been bad for the

disciples because Jesus didnt go and heal Lazarus.

Thats really good for the disciples.

He even tells them why its good for them.

Its not good because they wont have to talk to Lazarus anymore.

Its good so that they may believe.

Jesus wants them to believe.

He wants them to believe in him.

Remember what we've learned about believing in

Jesus all through John's gospel.

Whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life.

So naturally Jesus wants them to believe in him.

But hang on, aren't these the guys who already believe in him?

When lots of other people gave up on Jesus, when heaps of them just walked away, these are

the guys who stayed.

So what's wrong with their belief?

And how could their belief possibly be improved by Lazarus dying?

As if to prove the .1 of the disciples.

A man named Thomas, whose nickname is the

twin, says to the others in verse 16, let's go, too.

We will die with him.

Whoa.

How brave is that? They think that if Jesus goes down near

Jerusalem, he's definitely gonna die.

And Thomas is so keen to stick with Jesus,

he's saying, well, if he's gonna die, we may as well go and die with him.

That is super brave.

So let's think about what's happened.

Jesus has waited for his good friend to die.

He chose not to go and heal him.

He did that because he loved Lazarus and his two sisters.

Also because he really cares for his disciples.

He was glad that he didn't go down to heal Lazarus.

It's good for them.

It's good for their belief.

So here's the big question.

What do all these people not believe yet?

These are all people who really love Jesus.

What don't they get?

What's wrong with their understanding? What do they still need to believe?

Thankfully, Jesus has some really good answers for that.

In fact, even though this looks like this is all about someone dying, Jesus is actually

saving lives.

But that's a story for next time.

Bye for now.