Prove It!

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (John 11:17-27 ESV). Most of us are of the ilk that we find great reason to be skeptical of spiritual things unless we have seen the proof. Further, we pride ourselves in being logical creatures who demand proof before believing. Yet, a professor can tell us that there 100 trillion stars in the sky, and we accept it without question. We accept as absolute fact that an atom has neutrons and electrons spinning around a nucleus, even though we have never seen any of them. We know that light travels 186,000 miles a second even though we’ve personally never measured it. And we agree that Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address, and that E does, in fact, equal mc2. We accept all these things as facts without ever demanding the proof of their authenticity. So many people will reject Jesus for the same reason. They would rather risk their eternal souls than believe, even when presented with solid proof. You may be tempted to ask what proof is there. There is the witness of thousands of people who saw the miracles of Jesus. There are testimonies from dozens who witnessed His death, then saw Him alive after His resurrection. There are scores of prophecies that have been fulfilled concerning Jesus. However, even after being shown so much solid evidence, many enlightened, logical people reject Jesus as “just some myth for the gullible.” In fact, the divinity of Jesus is just about the only thing people refuse to accept, even when evidence is overwhelming.

With the same evidence we accept the Christmas narrative with little or no effort. And, the resurrection remains elusive to modern man. That is the dilemma Mary and Martha faced in the grief of their dearly loved brother, Lazarus. So, Jesus makes it easy for them. He raises Lazarus from the dead. Then there could be no denial as to his power and authority. Faith became easy for them. This Christmas season take that leap of faith. Once you do, your life will be changed forever. You will never again need to wonder about eternity. You will forever be destined for immortality.