BELIEVE – The Raising of Lazarus John 11:1-44

“In your mind’s eye, see yourself going to the funeral of a loved one. Picture yourself driving to the funeral parlor or chapel, parking the car, and getting out. As you walk inside the building, you notice the flowers, the soft organ music. You see the faces of friends and family you pass along the way. You feel the shared sorrow of losing, the joy of having known, that radiates from the hearts of the people there. As you walk down to the front of the room and look inside the casket, you suddenly come face to face with yourself. This is your funeral, three years from today. All these people have come to honor you, to express feelings of love and appreciation for your life. As you take a seat and wait for the services to begin, you look at the program in your hand. There are to be four speakers. The first is from your family, immediate and also extended —children, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents who have come from all over the country to attend. The second speaker is one of your friends, someone who can give a sense of what you were as a person. The third speaker is from your work or profession. And the fourth is from your church or some community organization where you’ve been involved in service. Now think deeply. What would you like each of these speakers to say about you and your life? What kind of husband, wife, father, or mother would like their words to reflect? What kind of son or daughter or cousin? What kind of friend? What kind of working associate? What character would you like them to have seen in you? What contributions, what achievements would you want them to remember? Look carefully at the people around you. What difference would you like to have made in their lives?” This is an excerpt from Steven Covey’s book 7 Habits of Highly Effect People. This comes from Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind. This gets you thinking about what really matters at the end of the day or the end of your life. You begin analyzing your life and asking profound questions: What is the purpose of my life? What am I trying to achieve? What outcomes do I want from this life? Why are these outcomes important or valuable to me? Why am I making the decisions I am making today? Why do we begin to ask these questions? We ask these questions because we all will die one day. It’s inevitable. You can bet on it. When we think about the finality of life, we start to question everything. One could say, we start to think about what really matters. I believe that is why you are here today or watching online. You desire something more, even if you aren’t entirely sure what that is. Today, we are talking about death. Not only are, we are talking about death, but we’re going to enter into a funeral scene. If I can be honest, this funeral is all over the place. The person who has died is Lazarus. He has two sisters, Martha and Mary. When Lazarus was very sick, they sent word to Jesus. They informed Jesus, not just because he could heal, but because he was also their dear friend. Jesus probably stayed at their house during his travels, so they have experienced close and intimate moments together. Upon hearing the news that Lazarus was sick, Jesus stayed where he was for two days before heading their way (which would take a day to travel). So, we enter into the scene where Jesus, a close friend, is late to the funeral and you might say he is one of the speakers for the funeral. Emotions are tense and in walks Jesus to the funeral. When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. – John 11:17-19 (NLT). Jesus arrives in Bethany and it has been four days since Lazarus’s death. Our writer John is trying to draw attention to the TIMING of Jesus. This is an important detail for two reasons. 1. Formal mourning in Jewish culture would last seven days and would start the day of the death. In Western culture, we like to sterilize death. We don’t like to mourn and take time to feel the emotions of loss and pain. Our desire is to move on with life. In Eastern culture, people take time to mourn and feel the pain. The main point is that Jesus arrives in the middle of this grieving process for the family and friends: He’s late! 2. There was a Jewish belief during this time that the soul of a person would remain near the body for three days after the death attempting to reenter it. Therefore, the person wasn’t officially dead until after the third day. Our writer, John, wants to be clear that Lazarus is officially dead. There is no coming back from this death on basis of resuscitation. It will take an act of God to bring Lazarus back to life. It would appear as if Jesus had bad timing and that Martha was experiencing the emotions of frustration and loss. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” – John 11:20-22 (NLT). I believe we can all resonate with Martha in this moment. She lost her brother, and the one person who could have healed him, wasn’t there He arrived late. We can become extremely frustrated when it appears God didn’t show up when we needed him most. Have you ever experienced a moment where God didn’t show up? You tried to seek him out and listen for his voice but received nothing. It can feel as if the days of no answer get darker and darker. Eventually, you doubt if he even cares what you are experiencing. It may be as simple that God is delaying in his timing, but that doesn’t make the pain go away. We also want to trust that God is powerful at the same time and that he has a bigger plan. Therefore, it can feel as we are wrestling with God between our will and his will. I believe these are some of the emotions that Martha and Mary were experiencing in those days where Jesus did not arrive. Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” – John 11:23-24 (NLT). The Jews believed in a final resurrection. And this is seen in Martha’s response. She has the correct belief, but it is incomplete. I want to stop here for a moment and dig into this comment by Martha because I believe that it is very similar to how we view our faith in Jesus. Martha looks to the last day when everyone who believes in Jesus will experience resurrection. Her belief in Jesus seems to only be beneficial at the end of time. If we are honest, I believe many of us share this belief. Jesus’s timing in our lives appears to only be relevant at the end of our lives when we go to heaven. Until then, what difference does Jesus make for us? The truth is that Jesus wants us to experience much more than that. Let’s shift our focus from Jesus’s timing to his WORDS as we view this next part of the story. Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” – John 11:15- 26 (NLT) Jesus is saying, you don’t have to wait, Martha! This is how Eugene Peterson translates this passage: “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?” – John 11:25-26 (MSG). Jesus responds to Martha with this powerful claim that the resurrection isn’t just down the road one day, but it is embodied in Jesus who is literally standing right in front of her. Jesus is making two claims. (1) He is the resurrection. Resurrection is not an event, but a person. That person is Jesus. We have access to resurrection power when we profess belief in Jesus as the Savior of the world. (2) He is the life. We all have this abstract idea of what eternal life is. The truth is that real life in found in Jesus. Jesus gives life to everything. I would like to expand on what it means to truly live. Many of us know we will die, but we live lives where our focus is to avoid death. We live with an avoidance mentality. Have you ever had an incident where you were hurt by someone and you spend days, months, years avoiding this person? Have you ever had a traumatic incident that you avoid anything that comes close to symbolizing it? The real question is, can you truly live when every action or decision you make it based on avoidance? Avoidance is not living. Therefore, fear of death does not bring life. Jesus gives us power over death and permission to truly live. “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.” Jesus is stating that he resurrects people and that he brings life to people. You experience freedom when you believe in Jesus. You experience life after you die when you put your faith in Jesus. You do not need to live in sin or fear anymore. I may be able to say this confidently, but it’s not what I believe that matters. The more challenging question is what do you believe? Jesus asks Martha, “Do you believe this?” So let me ask, Do you believe that Jesus is the Savior of this world? Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Why or why not? Your answer to this question has the ability to set you free. Do you believe in Jesus’s words? Let’s look at Martha’s response. “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). Even in the midst of pain and suffering, Martha still believes and claims that Jesus is from God. Her world has fallen apart. She has lost her brother. One of her good friends, Jesus, let her down. Her faith is almost unwavering. I think we all want to ask why? We also want to reminder Martha that he wasn’t there. Matter of fact, he delayed when he got the news of Lazarus’s sickness. Why does Martha believe in the words of Jesus in the midst of suffering? Our scene shifts as Martha leaves to go get her sister, Mary. Martha tells Mary that Jesus wants to see her. A crowd of mourners follows her to Jesus. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” – John 11:32 (NLT). Mary has the same response as Martha, and rightfully so. She is hurt and feels the pain and emotions of loss. The life she knew and experienced is now over. It will forever be changed. She understands that Jesus could have stopped this but doesn’t understand why he didn’t. Her understanding is limited and incomplete, and so is ours. You may be wondering why we are spending so much time in the details of this story. I believe that you can’t understand this story until you feel the emotions of this story. It can be easy to read through this and miss the pain and the hurt. We can forget to empathize with Martha and Mary and their loss. When we view Jesus from their perspective, we begin to understand who Jesus reveals himself to be. I want to turn our attention to Jesus’s ACTIONS for this next part. When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” John 11:33-34 (NLT). We see Jesus show emotion in this moment because he relates to Martha, Marty and the crowd. He displays for us the emotion of anger. He is mad. Why is Jesus mad? Jesus is mad at death and the tragedy that it brings. Death brings pain. Death brings loss. Death takes away life, and Jesus came to give us life. All of a sudden, we see Jesus’s anger turn to tears. Then Jesus wept. – John 11:35 (NLT). As I said earlier, pay attention to Jesus’s actions. Don’t just read over this. See how Jesus feels with Martha, Mary and the surrounding crowd. He enters into their world and emotions. He shows a tremendous amount of empathy. He hurts with them. He cries with them. He shares anger with them. That’s who Jesus is. When you cry, Jesus cries with you. When you get angry about the right things, Jesus is angry with you. We have a God that is right here with us in this very moment he relates to us in all that we do. John is trying to show us that Jesus wants to enter into our pain. He is not afraid of what we say or do. There is nothing that can keep Jesus away from us. His actions prove this. The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?” – John 11:36-37 (NLT). This is the very question we wrestle with as we read the story. Why did Jesus let Lazarus die? Why? If Jesus is the Son of God, why did he let this happen? If he is the author of life and has power over death, why? I want to take us back to a verse at the very beginning of this story. Upon hearing the news of Lazarus’s sickness, Jesus said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” – John 11:4 (NLT). Jesus knew what he was going to do from the very beginning. He knew Lazarus’s sickness would not end in death. But yet, he allowed the previous events to take place. Let’s go back through the main parts of the story focusing on Jesus: Jesus’s Timing – Jesus waited until Lazarus was fully dead. Jesus’s Words – Jesus stated that he was the resurrection and the life. Jesus’s Actions – Jesus experienced the pain and suffering with the family. If we skip the story and Jesus heals Lazarus from the very beginning, we get a transactional Jesus. We have a need and Jesus fulfills it. If we experience the story moment by moment, we see a relational Jesus. We experience Jesus being the resurrection and the life. We experience it along with Martha, Mary and the crowd. We come to know Jesus as the master over life and death. It’s one thing to know it in your head, but it’s another to experience it in your heart. Jesus wants you to experience in him intimately through his timing, words, and actions. He wants to take us deeper in our understanding and belief in who he is. Unfortunately, pain, suffering, and heartache, are some of the best ways to experience Jesus. What difficult situation are you going through? Where do you want to see God show up in your life? Where are you desperate for Jesus to reveal himself? I know you want to see immediate intervention by God, but the author of life and death wants you experience him at a deeper level. Let’s finish the story John is telling here. Jesus tells them to roll the stone away from the tomb entrance. Lazarus was buried in a rock-cut tomb. There would have been a wheel-shaped stone rolled in front of the tomb to seal it shut (Picture of Tomb). It would have taken a couple of men to roll this rock out of the way. Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” – John 11:38-39 (NLT). Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” – John 11:40-42 (NLT). Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” – John 11:43-44 (NLT) Part of experiencing God is taking action ourselves. God uses us and invites us to work with him. Can you imagine being told to roll the rock away from a dead man’s tomb? They couldn’t see the miracle yet, but we’re asked to take action in order to experience it. These men who rolled the rock had to believe that Jesus could raise Lazarus from the grave without seeing it. What is Jesus calling you to do in this moment? Is he calling you to do something in belief, even if you can’t see it yet? This is what we celebrate on Easter. We celebrate a belief in a resurrection that we did not see, but we get to experience. Let’s return to our personal funeral scene that we started with at the beginning. This is your funeral, and it is three years from now. Who will be there and what will they say? What would you change in your life today, if you knew you only had three years until your time was over on this Earth? Better yet, how would you live if you believed death is not the end for you? GOSPEL INVITATION & PRAY

——————————————— DEVOTIONAL ———————————————

Read: John 11:1-44

The raising of Lazarus from the dead was Christ’s last big miracle in front of the Jews before His death. More than turning water into wine, making bread for a multitude, or opening eyes blinded from birth, this was the definitive miracle of miracles that should have shut the mouths of the naysayers once and for all. Behold this glory and marvel: Yeshua of Nazareth brought a man four-days dead back from the grave. Notice Christ first gives thanks to the Father and prays for the sake of those who hear Him (vs. 42) that they might believe the Father had sent Him. However, He does not plead the Father’s will here. He does not ask God in Heaven to raise Lazarus. He does it by His own authority. This fantastic and breathtaking miracle was to showcase our Lord’s Almighty power over the grave and death itself. “Lazarus, come forth!” Nothing can disobey when God gives a direct order. Even dead flesh will reanimate, the soul that fled shall return, and the heart that stopped beating shall rush to obey. The Word of God commands Lazarus to “Come forth!”, and nothing in Heaven or on earth could stop Lazarus from rising and walking out of his tomb. To the shock, disbelief, joy, and trembling of those who had gathered around, Lazarus does indeed show himself at the tomb entrance, still wrapped in his graveclothes. Many believed that very day, but many fled in their fear to tell the Pharisees. Who is this man Jesus? He is the Lord of Life. The One who commands life can also command death. Who has that power but God alone? For the crowds who had demanded a flashy and showy sign that proved Christ’s identity, this was it. The man who has power over the grave must be feared just as deeply as those terrifying rumblings of Sinai. The man who can command death can do anything He wants. Even greater, however, was the final act of Christ’s miracles, His own resurrection that first Easter morning. The raising of Lazarus was a foreshadow of what was to come only days later. Yes, Christ has the power to command death even when He is dead Himself. The grave cannot hold its Sovereign. To Him, death bows the knee and gives up her dead. The Lord Jesus Christ entered the grave to lead all of us out of it. Like Lazarus, all who believe on His name shall come forth from their tombs on the Last Day. To the grave, the Lord of Life, the King of Glory, the Word of God, declares His direct order: “Let My people go!”

Reflection: What keeps you from believing in Jesus? What holds you back from fully surrendering to His will? Lay it down at His cross today. Die to yourself and rise in new life with Him.