John 11

What an appropriate story for this time of year!  Jesus triumphs over death.  My neighbors have fake mummies and cemeteries littering their yards…yet to me, none of those things are scary because Jesus overcame death.  Through Him, I will, also, and that is cause for celebration!

In John 11, we read a detailed account of Lazarus.  Dead for four days and buried in a cave, everybody expected his body to be in an advanced state of decay.  Yet Jesus, to glorify God, called that dead man out of the grave, and out he came, linen wrappings and all!

So the skeleton hanging from the tree…the bloody Barbie head…the mummy, and all the other horrors in my neighbors’ yards and in the stores this time of year cannot hold a candle to the REAL victor.  To those of us who belong to Jesus, none of these frightening items is really scary.

²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny^[d]? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.