Berlin Church held Easter Retreat and Service. Through the story of the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11:1-44, that happened just outside of Jerusalem where Jesus would soon be arrested and nailed on the cross, apostle John wants us to see the glory of Christ crucified. Jesus, knowing that Lazarus was sick, waited and let the family walk through suffering because he loved them and he intended to show them the full extent of the power of God’s love (vs 4). The love of God is to show himself to us, to make himself known, to reveal his glory to the mankind so that by seeing its fullness, all who believe may receive his grace and have eternal life in him (John 1:14,16, John 3:16). The eternal life is to know the Father and to know the Son (John 17:3), and the coming of Christ into the world, his death and crucifixion is an act of showing himself to us so that we may know him, know his love (John 14:21b). And to show us himself, he doesn’t just make us live better, he doesn’t first remove the suffering, the pain, first he shows us himself by giving himself whole. When Jesus comes to Bethany to reveal the great truth to all people that he is the resurrection and the life, his love is being questioned (vs 20-21, 32, 36-37). They say the Lord is too late, he could have come earlier when Lazarus could still be helped, he knew, and yet he came late. How could this be love? How could it be called love to leave us in our suffering, to let us walk through the valley of the shadow of death? But Jesus wants more for us than just sparing us from suffering, in verse 40 says, he wants us to see the glory of God, he wants us to see his love for us in its fullness, he wants us to see him, so that he can have us for eternity. The great love of God is not in making our lives easier and sparing us suffering. The love of God displayed on the cross is God giving us everything, giving us himself.