Sunday 11th August
Read John 12:17-19
“Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!’” (NIVUK)
The series we are working through in John is called ‘Come and see’, a call to consider Jesus. As the Book of Signs closes, the raising of Lazarus continues to have an outsize effect on people’s attitude to Jesus. Folk from Bethany continued to spread the word and folk from Jerusalem came out to see. All the Pharisees see is Jesus, despite everything they plot and do, growing in stature and influence. Speaking more wisely than they knew, they recognise that the whole world has gone after Him. It hasn’t quite yet. That is next week’s denouement. But it will eventually reach to the ends of the earth. John presents us with a picture of Jesus, the Word become flesh, and invites us to call others to look and see so that the whole world can go after Him.
