Few things present as great a contrast as Jesus' thoughts and his disciples' thoughts as they walked back to Bethany, near Jerusalem, to the home of Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. See John 10:39—11:44.
The disciples had been informed that Lazarus had died. A short while before, they had had to flee from a mob in Jerusalem that had tried to stone Jesus to death. Now Jesus was returning, and they were certain that this time he would be killed. Gloom and fear haunted their footsteps.
Jesus had given his disciples reason for hope, but his words were incomprehensible to them. He informed his followers that he was going to Jerusalem to awaken Lazarus. He assured them that nothing could interfere with his fulfilling his spiritual mission. The evidence of the ever-present power of divine Life which Jesus beheld, and the testimony of death and danger that the disciples beheld, illustrate the difference between spiritual sense and material sense. The disciples thought they were walking into the jaws of death; Jesus knew that he was walking in the arena of Life, where God's ideas were ever unfolding. The disciples' fears and misapprehension of being could never darken Jesus' spiritual sense; but his demonstration of divine Truth and Love would sweep away the mortal darkness that blinded his disciples.
