With the telling of the story of Lazarus in today’s reading, and going forward, again, we see the tone change in John’s letter.  We have seen a lot of inference from Jesus so far...a lot of allusion to who He is, what He is doing, and what’s to come.  Now Jesus gets more direct, He gets more hard-lined...it is crunch time.  We are making our way into the time when Jesus will really meet His own resistance as the disciples have experienced.  It is neat to see things presented in the manner John presents them, because we see the disciples struggle to lean into their faith when they were challenged, and now we’ll get to see how Jesus reacts...spoiler alert, Jesus maintains His faith, and Jesus gives us a great example.

Somehow, Jesus is able to keep His focus on His calling.  Jesus knows that He is headed for death at this point; He knows where all of these events are leading.  Yet, He faithfully pushes forward with His calling and His mission.  He gives us a fantastic example of leadership and faith.

There is so much that happens in these chapters from the reading today...but that is really the big takeaway for me.  It is this vision that Jesus gives us - this is what a person who is faith-filled, Spirit-led, and mission-conscious can be like...and it is really compelling.