THE RAISING OF LAZARUS
This is THE pivotal moment in the Gospel narrative. The last time Jesus was in Judea and Jerusalem for Hanukkah, they picked up stones and were about to kill Him when He escaped. After Jesus raises Lazarus, there is no more uncertainty. The die is cast. The leading priests, Pharisees, and the council have made the decision to kill Jesus.
This story unfolds in sections (and here it is in a free sermon outline complete with alliteration. You’re welcome.)
- The News, v1-16
- Meeting Martha, v17-27
- Meeting Mary, v28-34
- Tears & Triumph at the Tomb, v35-44
- The Aftermath, v45-57
THE NEWS
When Jesus gets the message that Lazarus is sick, because He loved this family, He waited.
Lazarus’ illness has a purpose: that the Father and the Son may be glorified (v4) and that the Disciples would believe (v15).
The blind man in John 9 was blind so that the works of God could be displayed.
We are so used to thinking of negative things as, well…negative. Perhaps we might look at our own disadvantages and ask, “How might God be glorified in this? How might God’s grace and power be put on display? How might this situation help others believe on Jesus?”
Why would we let Evil have the last word?
God does not require favorable circumstances.
He can turn anything – including death itself – into a victory. Satan and the World do not have the last word in your situation. If it brings glory to God, displays His goodness, and helps other people escape judgment and believe on Jesus, is it ultimately a bad thing?
MEETING MARTHA
The last time we saw Martha she was fussing about her dinner preparations and the fact that Mary was sitting and learning and not helping.
We again see something of their personalities. Martha doesn’t wait for Jesus to arrive. She’s up and taking initiative. She goes out to meet Jesus. Where’s Mary? Sitting still in the house. They are polar opposites. Rather like my older sister and I. She’s a jump-in-and-tackle-it person who has more initiative on a weekend than I dare to have in a month (or more). I’m generally more likely to be found sitting quietly, pondering how one might go about the thing that my sister is actually getting done.
In Martha’s brief conversation with Jesus, we see something of a typical Jewish understanding of the resurrection. She knew her brother would rise again “on the last day.” We’ve seen hints of this over and over since Job declared:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,”
Job 19:25-26 ESV
Jesus introduces a whole new aspect to the concept of what it means to be resurrected.
“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?”
John 11:25-26 ESV
Resurrection and life will no longer be things to be granted at a far off, final resurrection day. Jesus announces something entirely new: that the resurrection isn’t just a day, it’s a person.
Him.
The implication is that physical death is not an end at all for the believer. It’s not even going to be a comfortable “waiting room” in Sheol anymore. The life that you have by living and believing in Jesus is everlasting and it starts NOW. Everlasting life isn’t like a life insurance policy that goes into effect after you die. No. We can LIVE via the everlasting life of Jesus right now. And when physical death comes to the body, it’s barely a blip on the radar.
Jesus asks Martha if she believes this staggering claim. And, in typical Martha fashion, she doesn’t hesitate. She is already all in. The tense of the Greek verbs here is that Martha has already come to believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
“Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.”
John 11:27 NLT
MEETING MARY
Where Martha confidently goes out to meet the Lord, Mary waits for an invitation. And as soon as she has it, she immediately goes to Him. Mary says the exact same thing Martha does, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” They both had full confidence in Jesus’ ability to heal.
Mary is weeping. The friends and family are weeping and Jesus… gets frustrated?
“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”
John 11:33 ESV
Most newer translations have “deeply moved.” The KJV’s “groaned,” is also a very good word choice. Here’s the Greek:
This isn’t necessarily the groan of lament. It’s more like the groan of my-kid-has-AGAIN-done-the-thing-I’ve-told-him-a-thousand-times-NOT-to-do.
This word is used twice in this narrative; verses 33 and 38. In this first usage, Mary is at the feet of Jesus.
This word is used in Mark 14:5 to describe how Judas (see Jn. 12:1-8) reacts to this same Mary of Bethany in just a few more days when she is again at the feet of Jesus anointing Him with a whole pound of expensive spikenard. Judas (and others) grumble, groan, and “have indignation” because they consider her gift an impractical “waste.”
In His gentle patience, I don’t think Jesus is frustrated AT Mary for weeping.
If Judas was indignant toward Mary for “wasting” valuable perfume, Jesus may be indignant toward sin and death itself for wasting human life.
TEARS & TRIUMPH AT THE TOMB
I don’t think Jesus is sad for His own sake, as in, “Oh… my dear friend Lazarus is gone and I’ll never see him again, and I’m really going to miss him!” Jesus has already told the disciples that He plans to “wake him up.”
Kids love memorizing the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.” But WHY did Jesus weep when He knew full well that the funeral was about to be over?
Here is the Author of Life, the Eternal One in human flesh, walking among His creation and feeling in a more experiential way than ever before the effects of sin. It is loss, suffering and separation.
Again Jesus “groans in Himself” or feels this deep indignation, (probably directed towards death itself), as He comes to the grave.
Jews would place the wrapped (but not “mummified”) body of the deceased in a burial niche in a cave. The Jews did not embalm their dead, but buried them as soon as possible after death. Lazarus’ body would’ve been wrapped in strips of linen from toes to neck with his head wrapped in a separate cloth. Into those strips of fabric they would’ve placed spices. The body would be allowed to decompose in the cave for a year or more and then the bones would be collected and placed in an ossuary – a stone box with a lid and carved with the name of the deceased like a tombstone.
There is much made in the narrative of the fact that Lazarus has been dead for 4 days. This is a significant number. Rabbinic tradition held that the soul of a person lingered around the body for 3 days and finally departed to Sheol. Here are some sample quotations:
In their minds, after 4 days, nothing can be done. It’s all over. All hope is gone. Jesus knows this. So He waits on purpose because…
God does not require favorable circumstances.
Jesus has them remove the stone from the tomb opening. And then He prays out loud for the benefit of the witnesses so they will understand some things.
- That GOD is Jesus’ Father
- That God hears Jesus’ every request and Jesus is 100% confident about that
- That God has sent Jesus – He’s not just a random rabbi or even a powerful prophet or teacher. He has been sent FROM God. In Heaven.
- That both God in Heaven and Jesus want these people to know and believe that Jesus has been sent from God. It’s not some big unknowable secret.
You know how Jesus has often been rather secretive when He healed someone before? “Don’t go back into the city.” “Tell no one.” Now Jesus prays loudly knowing He will be overheard. Something has changed. He WANTS people to see this miracle and know exactly how it happened.
Then the epic, “Lazarus! Come forth!”
THE AFTERMATH
Obviously, there’s no keeping a miracle like this a secret. And it splits the community in two:
“Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.”
John 11:45-46 ESV
For some of the witnesses, this was the event that made believers out of them. For others, it was the last straw.
Rumors of raising a little girl and a young man from the dead up in Galilee are one thing, but raising a man who has been dead for 4 days before dozens of eyewitnesses? And right outside of Jerusalem? The chief priests and Pharisees and the council have a REAL problem on their hands. They can’t raise the dead. Or perform miracles. And everyone knows it.
“If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
John 11:48 ESV
The Romans aren’t ignorant of the local religions and customs of the peoples they rule over. I’m sure the Romans are aware that the Jews teach of a coming Messiah King who will rule over all nations. They probably blow it off, but at the same time, they won’t allow anyone to challenge the authority of Rome.
At the moment, the Jewish leaders have a rather uneasy agreement with Rome. They are not compelled to worship Caesar. They are allowed to practice their religion and maintain their temple and priesthood without Roman interference. They can even, to some extent, govern the people of Judea. The last thing they want is a disturbance of the status quo.
Jesus does not allow people to go along with the status quo. He has a way, even today, of pressing people to pick a side; to make a decision about Him.
Jesus is in complete control. He knows exactly when the cross needs to happen to fulfill prophecy. He leaves Bethany and moves in secrecy until the right time comes.
The location of the town of Ephraim is believed to be the location of the modern Palestinian town of Taybeh. It’s the last remaining all-Christian village in the region.
From here on out, we’re going to notice the pacing of the Gospel narrative slow down dramatically. What we have read up to this point has covered about 33 years, and primarily 3 years. We still have a lot of text to read in the Gospels. It’s only going to cover about 2-3 weeks. The level of detail is about to go 4K.
To The Reader 