Trending
John 11:1-45
I believe the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead is a microcosm of the story of God's salvation of humanity. It shows us the ultimate purpose of the Messiah and the ultimate sacrifice God would make to save us.
When Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus, falls ill. Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha, send Jesus a message: "Lord, the one you love is sick." And then they wait for Jesus to arrive. In the story of Lazarus, we see in miniature the story of the salvation of the world. From the moment that Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden, humanity has been separated from God our Creator. And the consequence was both spiritual and physical death. The story of humanity since that moment has been a story of brokenness and suffering, of humans searching desperately for God, or some substitute for God, and God sending prophets, priests, and kings in the hopes of restoring our relationship with Him. It's a story of love that never gives up.
As Pastor Chuck Swindoll writes, "Jesus didn't come to earth to establish a new religion. He came to restore a broken relationship." Kathryn Butler began to have doubts about whether God cared at all. Kathryn is a trauma and critical care surgeon who teaches at Harvard Medical School. In an article for Christianity Today, she tells how the suffering and evil she witnessed daily as a trauma surgeon caused her to lose any faith in God. She writes of one night when she tried to save the lives of a young couple who had been attacked in their homes while sleeping, only to be assigned moments later to perform emergency surgery on two teenage victims of gun violence. As one of the teenagers died of his gruesome injuries, his mother appeared in the emergency room door. Her howls of grief echoed in Dr. Butler's ears that night as she drove home.
On her way home, Kathryn stopped on a bridge that spans the Connecticut River. She says she stood on the edge of the bridge, gripped the guardrail, and took a deep breath. She opened her mouth to pray. And no words came out. Reflecting on that night later, she writes, "I felt cut off from God. I thought the Lord--if he even existed--had abandoned me . . . Doubt led to hopelessness, and hopelessness to despair. I dreamed of an eternal sleep, of numbness, of annihilation. Thoughts of taking my own life troubled me daily."
Can you see how Kathryn's exposure to evil and suffering would cause her to question the existence or the goodness of God? This world is desperately broken and separated from God's presence. "Lord, the one you love is sick."
So, Jesus entered human existence to share our suffering and show us God's love. Notice that when Jesus received the message about Lazarus, he and his disciples had just left Jerusalem because an angry mob tried to stone him for blasphemy. He'd given up his heavenly majesty and power to become a traveling rabbi who had no home, whose calling to spread the message of God's kingdom put him in opposition to the religious and political establishment of his day.
How long did Mary and Martha wait for Jesus? Instead of responding immediately, Jesus told his disciples, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." And then he waits two more days to return to Bethany. By then, Lazarus has already died.
Martha is the first to confront him when he gets there. She greets him with the words, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." John doesn't tell us Martha's state of mind. But we're all human. Some of us have experienced a loss so heart-breaking a part of us died too. We'll never be the same again. And to add to our heartbreak, we wonder why God, who could have saved them, didn't.
Notice here Jesus could have healed Lazarus from afar, as he did for the royal official's son in John 4. Bethany, the town of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, was just two miles from Jerusalem. Many Jewish friends were at their home mourning for Lazarus when Jesus arrived. Jesus and his disciples walked right back into the area where Jesus' life was in danger. He didn't have to face Martha and Mary's grief and disappointment. He didn't have to face the mourners' questions. He didn't have to put his own life in danger. He chose to enter their suffering to show them the glory of God.
In 1986, Daniel Hans, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife Beth lost their three-year-old daughter, Laura, to cancer. One of the sermons Daniel Hans preached during that last year of Laura's life was titled, "Caution: Your God is Too Big." Pastor Dan said he asked his congregation to share their disappointments with God. What is something you hoped God would do, something you prayed for, that God did not do? They shared heartbreaking stories of unanswered prayers, of suffering and death. Pastor Dan said we tend to notice the miracle stories in the Bible, but there are many more stories of suffering and despair God could have addressed and didn't. He said that when we only notice the miracle stories, we get too big a view of God's will. God's will is to redeem all of creation and heal humanity someday. In the meantime, God came in the flesh in Jesus Christ to walk with us through our suffering, brokenness, and grief.
But in the life of Lazarus, Jesus showed us God will not leave us in our suffering, brokenness, and grief. In the raising of Lazarus, Jesus shows us God's ultimate plan to release us from the power of death and the grave. After Martha's accusation, Jesus replies, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Do you believe this? This is the question that Nicodemus faced, as did the Samaritan woman, the blind man, and Martha and Mary. And that's the question facing us today. Do you and I believe this when our heart is broken and everything important to us has fallen apart, and all the evidence says to give up hope. There's no purpose or meaning to life. There's no God.
And then, as we stand beside the grave of our dead faith, with tears pouring down our face, Jesus says to us, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
At this moment, Martha summoned up everything she knew about Jesus. She didn't have all the answers. She knew he came from God. She knew he could perform miracles. But was this humble rabbi in front of her really the presence and power of God in the flesh? Was he able to raise her brother from the dead? Martha answered, "Yes, Lord, I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
And a few moments later the mourners removed the stone from Lazarus' tomb. Jesus prayed to his Father, then he called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" Then John tells us in verse 44, "The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face."
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
Just as Christ raised Lazarus so that others might believe, so he redeems suffering--gunshot wounds, the weeping, the lost jobs, the despondency beside bridge railings--for his glory."
I believe, as did Martha despite her grief and her questions, that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. If you have come to believe this too, why not pray and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and find the new life he wants to give you?
•••
Rev. Charles Eldredge is a member of Maitland Church of the Brethren. He has a Facebook page and can be contacted by email: ce1133 @verizon.net.