This morning
we are going to look at the Gospel reading as if we were doing a Bible study.
Looking at
each bit of the story as we go along and trying to make connections as we go.
On the outside it seems like a straightforward miracle story, but as is often
the case, there is more than meets the eye.
A man was
sick , Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. This was the
same Mary who massaged the Lord’s feet with aromatic oils and then wiped them
with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was sick. So the sisters sent
word to Jesus, “Master , the one you love so very much is sick.”
This miracle
is one of several recorded in John’s gospel as proof that Jesus was the Son of
God and the Messiah, but these verses give us proof of something else as well.
Jesus was not just fully God, he was also fully human. While God might love all
of us equally, it is part of human nature to form deeper relationships with
some human beings more than others. Jesus had friends and Jesus had best
friends. Do you have a best friend? What would you do if you heard that they
were very ill? Strangely Lazarus name was a short form of Eleazar, which means
“God has helped.” But what happens next must have got people to wondering, was
he going to get any help from his friend?
4 When Jesus got the message, he said,
“This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God’s glory by
glorifying God’s Son.” 5-7 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, but
oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two
more days.
One of Jesus
best friends is sick and when he is called to come help, he decides to stay for
another two days instead of rushing to help. We don’t even find out what he was
up to for two days but the message seems to be, that Jesus mission was not to
be at the beck and call of his friends when they were in need but to glorify
God. It’s only the same as when Jesus mother asked for his help at the wedding
in Cana, although he did relent on that occasion, he was a good Jewish boy
after all and good Jewish boys listen to their mothers.
After the
two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” 8 They said,
“Rabbi, you can’t do that. The Jews are out to kill you, and you’re going
back?”
Not long
before these events Jesus had been on the other side of the river Jordan,
preaching and performing miracles and when the Jews had asked him “Are you
God’s chosen one?” Jesus could have said yes and that might have been the end
of their questioning but instead he said “I am the Son of God, The Father and I
are one” How do you think that the Jews reacted to this? They tried to stone
him! So going back there was likely to mean trouble! 9-10 Jesus replied,
“Are there not twelve hours of daylight ? Anyone who walks in daylight doesn’t
stumble because there’s plenty of light from the sun. Walking at night, he might
very well stumble because he can’t see where he’s going.”
This is
Jesus linking back to his earlier teachings about being the light to the world
but also the idea that he was not in any real danger yet as “His day was not
done.”
11 He
said these things, and then announced, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.
I’m going to wake him up.” 12-13 The disciples said , “Master, if he’s gone to
sleep, he’ll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine.” Jesus was talking about
death, while his disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap.
This is
something which we say today without thinking about it, we don’t like using the
word dead or death , so we use every word or phrase we can to avoid saying it.
Apparently every region in Britain has a different way of saying it, asleep,
gone, late, passed away, pushing up daisies, kicked the bucket, resting in
peace, expired, departed, checked out. Why do you think this is? Do you think
Jesus was saying this for the same reason? Was he afraid of death? Or was it simply
to point out that this was a temporary state for poor old Laz.
14-15
Then Jesus became explicit: “Lazarus died. And I am glad for your sakes that I
wasn’t there. You’re about to be given new grounds for believing. Now let’s go
to him.”
So was this
then the reason for Jesus waiting? So that when he brought Lazarus back from
the dead it would be a greater proof of who he was than simply healing him?
What do we
think?
16 That’s
when Thomas, the one called the Twin, said to his companions, “Come along. That
we might die with him.”
-end of part
1-
17-20
When Jesus finally got there, he found Lazarus already four days dead. Bethany
was near Jerusalem, only a couple of miles away,
Jerusalem
was only about 20 miles from where Jesus was when he heard the news that
Lazarus was ill, even with waiting 2 days before beginning his journey it was
likely that Lazarus was dead by the time Jesus had received the news of the
illness. After all it was not like you could just call or email Jesus, you had
to walk to where he was. However, the fact that four days is mentioned is
important . There was an ancient tradition in the region that after 3 days the
soul of person had completely left the body and not even the Gods could have
brought a person back. It is not a teaching found in the Bible but the people
of that region would have been familiar with the idea. So for Jesus to do what
he does next shows him to be more powerful than pagan Gods and reveal something
to us about the love and power of God, we are never so far gone that God cannot
bring us back, we are never so dead in our sin, the things we have done to
separate us from God, that God cannot bring us back to life in him.
many of
the Jews were visiting Martha and Mary, sympathizing with them over their
brother. Martha heard Jesus was coming and went out to meet him. Mary remained
in the house. 21-22 Martha said, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother
wouldn’t have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give
you.”
Amazingly
Martha seems to immediately show a greater and deeper understanding of who
Jesus is and what he is capable of, far greater than the disciples, even if she
still does not fully believe it.
23 Jesus
said, “Your brother will be raised up.” 24 Martha replied, “I know that he will
be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”
The Jews had
no real concept of heaven as somewhere people go to when they die but instead
they believed that the faithful will be brought back to life on the final day.
She believes in Jesus but is still tied to her Jewish roots.
25-26
“You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life.
The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone
who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”
27 “ Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son
of God who comes into the world.”
If only we all had such great faith!
28 After saying this, she went to her
sister Mary and whispered in her ear, “The Teacher is here and is asking for
you.” 29-32 The moment she heard that, she jumped up and ran out to him. Jesus
had not yet entered the town but was still at the place where Martha had met
him. When her sympathizing Jewish friends saw Mary run off, they followed her,
thinking she was on her way to the tomb to weep there. Mary came to where Jesus
was waiting and fell at his feet, saying, “Master, if only you had been here,
my brother would not have died.” 33-34 When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews
with her sobbing,
The Jews
went very heavy on the mourning. They would have 3 days of very heavy mourning,
4 days of heavy mourning and then continue in a lighter mourning for the
remainder of 30 days. It wasn’t a show, it wasn’t over the top it was a time to
openly wear your grief and to deal with it. When Mary and the Jews were
sobbing, this was still within the heavy mourning period
a deep
anger welled up within him. He said, “Where did you put him?”
The words
used to describe the “deep anger” are a combination of anger and being deeply
shaken. Jesus is greatly moved by the grief outpoured all around him, how would
you feel? Which leads us to the shortest verse in many translations.
34-35 “Master, come and see,” they said.
Now Jesus wept.
36 The
Jews said, “Look how deeply he loved him.” 37 Others among them said, “Well, if
he loved him so much, why didn’t he do something to keep him from dying? After
all, he opened the eyes of a blind man.” 38-39 Then Jesus , the anger again
welling up within him , arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the
hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
Even as
Jesus moves towards one of his greatest miracles, the greatest example of his
divinity we see the greatest example of his humanity as well. When was the last
time any of you were moved to tears or to anger by something you have seen? It
is part of human nature to feel hurt when we see others hurting, to smile when
we see the joy of others. The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, “Master, by
this time there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days!” In the King James
version of the Bible it says “he stinketh.” Martha is being the Martha we are
familiar with here, a woman of immense faith but also immense practicality . It
is tempting to think that she has a lack of faith in Jesus at this point, but
in reality she still had no idea what Jesus hhad planned. If this can be seen
as an story describing how we are brought back to life after being dead in our
sin, separated from God in the things we have done wrong how true is it that at
the point of this healing, we stinketh! Like the prodigal son who has been
sitting in the pig poop trying to elbow out Peppa and Porky just to get some
food to survive, while we are still lost, we stinketh. Giving our lives to
Christ and putting our faith in him changes this, it cleans us and makes us
whole.
40 Jesus looked her in the eye. “Didn’t I
tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41-42 Then, to
the others, “Go ahead, take away the stone.” They removed the stone. Jesus
raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, thank you that you have listened
to me. I know you always do listen, but on account of this crowd standing here
I’ve spoken so that they might believe that you sent me.”
Thank you: The Greek word used in this prayer is eucharisteo
which, we recall from Chapter 3, means to express overflowing joy with
thanksgiving and heartfelt gratitude. No prayer asking God to bring Lazarus
back, but a sweet smelling prayer of thanksgiving for that which Jesus knew God
was already at work doing. This shows us just how close the intimate
relationship between Jesus and the Father truly is. Prayer can be a difficult
thing for us at times, especially if it is something big. But God already knows
what we want and need before we even ask for it. But all too often we forget to
say thank you, which is by far the most important part of the prayer.
43-44
Then he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And he came out, a cadaver, wrapped from
head to toe, and with a kerchief over his face. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him
and let him loose.”
I can’t help
but have an amusing picture of Lazarus in my head at this point. If he was as
the Bible states, still wrapped up head to toe, he would have had to have
hopped out of the tomb! So what does this story teach us? John included it in
his gospel for a reason. It is one of several miracles included so that we
might know that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God, but I think it is
also a reminder to us that Jesus was also a human being, every single thing
Jesus did he did as a human being with full complete and unshakable faith in
God, this was why he said in John 14; 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who
believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater
works than these, Jesus was in a state of constant prayer, always talking to
and relying on God. The Second point of this story is also prayer related. God
is not there to grant all our requests. He is not the genie from Aladdin, but
there is a point to all that he does even when we do not understand it. We may
feel hurt when God says no or not yet but we can trust that if we put our faith
in him then our ultimate destiny is set. And because I am a Methodist preacher,
a third point also on prayer.
We need to
remember to thank God, thank God for hearing us and answering our prayer. It is
in fact the most important part of prayer as it is the part which shows our
faith just as Jesus did. In an episode of the Simpsons, the son Bart is praying
that would cancel school the next day in order that he can escape a repeat oral
book report that he has not studied for, Well, Old Timer, I guess this is the
end of the road. I know I haven't always been a good kid, but if I have to go
to school tomorrow, I'll fail the test and be held back. I just need one more
day to study, Lord. I need your help... a teacher's strike, a power failure, a
blizzard... Anything that'll cancel school tomorrow. I know it's asking a lot,
but if anyone can do it, you can! Thanking you in advance , Bart Simpson How
often do we pray like that ? Out loud and in full confidence that God will
answer us, so confident that we thank God in advance of the answer. It should
be noted that, God answers Bart’s prayer with a blizzard. Bart studies and
passes and later proudly tells his dad, "Part of this D-minus belongs to
God! We are called to be like Christ and often we use the excuse when we fail,
I’m only human. But Jesus as human, and he taught us all that if we are in God
we can be so much more.
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