Let us also go… (John 11:8-16) 300307
Last year, I was asked if I could serve the college as the chairman of the student council. I knew that was a tough task and difficult things to do. It was never easy to be the middle man between the student body and the school administrative and the faculty. I struggled if I should take up the challenge or to run away from it. During those days, deep within me, I knew that God had called me. I kept it to myself, I was hoping God will call someone else too. But the Exodus 3 kept reminding me that God has His purpose to call me to this position, it was to train me. Well, the rest was history. I was nominated with highest votes and behold, I have been the chairman since then.
Sometimes, I was amazed that I had the courage to say yes to this ‘dangerous’ task. It was not that I was ignorance about the commitment and inconveniences involved, and I happened to be in this position. I knew exactly what I was in for, and I said yes! Jesus knew the situation He would be encountering when He went to Judea, the Jews there were seeking to stone Him (v8). But why did Jesus still insist of going there after two days and knowing that Lazarus was already dead (v11,14)?
Have you ever wonder why verses 9 and 10 were inserted here? Does these verses make any sense to the problem or situation Jesus and His disciples were facing? Jesus seemed to have answered out of point!
There are a few key things we need to understand before we can make sense out of these two verses. First, we have to recognize that these two verses are inversely parallel.
‘If anyone walks in the day (A), he does not stumble (B), because he sees the light (C) of this world’ (v9)
‘If anyone walks in the night (A’), he stumbles (B’), because the light is not in him (C’)’ (v10)
We can see that day verses night, does not stumble verses stumbles and sees the light verses the light not in him. The point here is that Jesus was stressing on only one thing, that is He is the light and if anyone walks in Him will not stumble.
Second, we have to understand what did Jesus meant by the word ’stumble’. This is not a exegesis paper, I will not do a Greek word study, but simply propose that stumble could mean falling or tripping over. What is the thing that Jesus was referring to that might cause stumbling here? If we pay attention to the context, we will know which disciple of Jesus was mentioned here. Yes, Thomas (v16)! In this passage, Thomas proposed to his other friends that they should all go with Jesus, so that they may died with Him (v16). If we know Thomas, he was famous for doubting. Why did he has such faith and courage here to follow Jesus? May be Apostle John was hinting something here! I think the thing that Jesus was referring that might cause one to stumble was doubt. The doubt of your call, the doubt of your relationship with Jesus, the doubt of your identity in Christ, and even the doubt of God’s ability to accomplish what He has promised.
Jesus was going to bring His disciples to do the impossible. That was to raise someone from the dead, who was buried for a few days. I will have doubt if God is to ask me to do so. But Jesus stressed that we will be stumbled by our doubt only if we do not have Him as the light (v9,10). What are some of the doubt you have that is stumbling you to move forward with the Lord?
For me, I had doubt if I can cope with the demands and expectations of people whom the Lord asked me to serve. But I just have to trust that I am in the His light, and He will show me the way so that I may not stumble as I see those doubts in another light. Do you doubt that you can be a good parents? Do you doubt that God is interested in your career? Do you doubt that God will see you through rough patches in your life? Do you doubt that God can use your testimony to touch the lives of others?
Though Thomas had his doubts, but he recognized Jesus as the light and said, ‘Let us also go.’ (v16)
Shall we also go with Jesus to where He is leading us?
Let’s go.
