5/23/16

At the crossroads of faith and reason by Gary Rose


Saturday evening I had terrible pains at my left flank. They continued and increased to the point where I begged my wife to take me to the ER. After several doses of morphine, I no longer felt pain and that was fine. Then, they poked, prodded, tested and retested and determined I needed surgery. Sunday evening I came home minus a rather large kidney stone.

I didn't understand how the cat-scan or the x-ray worked; for that matter I could only guess how the surgeon could actually use something called a laser to blast that terribly large stone into bits and pieces. However, I could reason that it needed to be done and understood what was going on in a general way. I took it by faith that those who helped me knew what they were doing and judging by the end result- they did.

Reality is this; we understand as much as we can and accept the rest by faith. For me, there is no greater example of these things than the narrative of the raising of Lazarus by Jesus...

John, Chapter 11 (WEB)

  1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister, Martha.  2 It was that Mary who had anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, was sick.  3 The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, “Lord, behold, he for whom you have great affection is sick.”  4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God’s Son may be glorified by it.”   5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.  6 When therefore he heard that he was sick, he stayed two days in the place where he was.  7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let’s go into Judea again.” 

  8  The disciples told him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 

  9  Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world.   10  But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.”   11 He said these things, and after that, he said to them, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I may awake him out of sleep.” 

  12  The disciples therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 

  13  Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep. 14 So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead.   15  I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.” 

  16  Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go also, that we may die with him.” 

  17  So when Jesus came, he found that he had been in the tomb four days already.  18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia*n2 away.  19 Many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.  20 Then when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary stayed in the house.  21 Therefore Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.  22 Even now I know that, whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”  23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 

  24  Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 

  25  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.   26  Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 

  27  She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.” 

  28  When she had said this, she went away, and called Mary, her sister, secretly, saying, “The Teacher is here, and is calling you.” 

  29  When she heard this, she arose quickly, and went to him.  30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha met him.  31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”  32 Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” 

  33  When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,  34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” 

They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 

  35  Jesus wept. 

  36  The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!”  37 Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?” 

  38  Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it.  39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” 

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” 

  40  Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?” 

  41  So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me.   42  I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude that stands around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.”   43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 

  44  He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. 

Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.” 


Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead. HOW? I have no idea, except to say that he ordered it done!!! If someone has the power over life and death, then that person is unique in all the world. He is a person to be reckoned with; someone VERY IMPORTANT!!!

When faith and reason intersect, wondrous things can occur!!!  I encourage you to investigate who Jesus was (is) by reading your Bible and then doing everything you possibly can to follow its teaching. If you (and I) genuinely follow Jesus, we won't need to be at the crossroads of faith and reason- we will see Jesus in heaven and I am quite sure he will be kind enough to answer our questions.

Enough said... go find your Bible...