DRAWN INTO LIFE (5)

I Am the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

Jesus’ friend. Lazarus, is dying. Lazarus’ sisters send word to Jesus so that He might come quickly and do what Jesus has done for multitudes of others: heal.

Instead, Jesus waits:

John 11:6 HCSB

So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.

When my phone alerts me that someone I know is headed to the hospital for a health emergency, I’m often in my car within minutes.

Waiting is not in my DNA as a pastor.

Yet, Jesus waited. Our emergencies are not always emergencies in God’s view.

Finally, Jesus discerns it’s time to leave:

John 11:11–15 HCSB

He said this, and then He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on My way to wake him up.” Then the disciples said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought He was speaking about natural sleep. So Jesus then told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.”

As Jesus arrives He learns that Lazarus has been dead four days.

Jewish Rabbi’s taught that the spirit of a person could hang around their body for up to three days after physical death, hoping that somehow the body would be restored.

We’ve all heard too many accounts of people who appeared to be dead but were truly still alive.

But, according to the Jewish Rabbi’s by the 4th day the body had begun to decompose and the spirit left to his/her eternal destination, knowing that there was no hope.

John 11:17 HCSB

When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

Martha hears of Jesus’ arrival. She leaves her sister, Mary, and others to mourn.

She meets Jesus and makes an accusation:

John 11:21 HCSB

Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.

Later in the account Mary will make the same accusation:

John 11:32 HCSB

When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and told Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died!”

To Martha’s challenge Jesus didn’t argue. Rather this became the springboard for one of His invitations to a new kind of life:

John 11:25–26 HCSB

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?”

Jesus goes to the tomb, grieving with all who are gathered - see vs 33, 36, 38.

John 11:39–40 HCSB

“Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told Him, “Lord, he’s already decaying. It’s been four days.” Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

John 11:43–44 HCSB

After He said this, He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him and let him go.”

Let’s revisit the invitation Jesus made to Martha, and all who hear His words:

John 11:25–26 HCSB

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?”

For those who do believe:

Jesus’ claim reorients our view of life and death

It is tempting to look at Jesus’ delay as unconscionable. He had the power to heal. Thousands around Him had been healed. He even interrupted a funeral procession and restored the life of a widow’s only son.

He had intervened in the death of a young girl, the daughter of a synagogue official.

Why wait?

Over the past few centuries we have slowly been deceived. Time doesn’t allow a full exploration, but oversimplifying we have been deceived into defining life from a strictly natural, or material, understanding.

we are often confused about the real nature of life and death.

How can one die yet live? How can one who believes in Jesus never die?

When we reorient our understanding of life so that what matters most is our experience of life as God created it to be through a relationship with Jesus, then death - as painful as it can be - is no longer seen as the end. Rather, death becomes a beginning - of a radically different way of life!

Jesus’ claims reorient our losses so that we see the glory of God revealed

In no way can we minimize the pain and grief that death brings. Remember, three times in a few sentences we are reminded that Jesus was ‘deeply moved, even to the point of weeping.

Twice John records that Jesus was ‘deeply moved,’ and once that Jesus ‘wept.’

John used two different Greek words to capture this picture of Jesus’ emotions.

A) ‘deeply moved’ is a rare Greek word not often found in the NT.

One scholar suggests that this suggests

Profound grief at such bereavement is natural enough; grief that degenerates to despair, that pours out its loss as if there were no resurrection, is an implicit denial of that resurrection

D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 416.

As Jesus heard the crowd, as Jesus heard the grief of the sisters He was reminded of the inevitable consequence of sin - and He was pained because belief in Him could change the very definition of life and death!

B.) Jesus wept

As another scholar notes,

John 1–11 (4) The Encounter with Mary and the Mourners (11:28–37)

The other places in the Gospels where such a depth of Jesus’ emotions were expressed are specifically places related to his mission: the places where he groaned over the failure of Jerusalem to come to him (cf. Matt 23:37–39; Luke 13:34–35), where he prayed for his disciples’ safety and future (cf. John 17:9–26), and where he wrestled with his death and the disciples’ weaknesses (cf. Matt 26:37–41; Mark 13:33–37; Luke 22:40–46; John 12:27–28). Accordingly, I would maintain that Jesus’ weeping here is directly related to the failure of his followers to recognize his mission as the agent of God. God’s Son was in their midst.

We see in Jesus’ reaction to the loss and pain expressed around Him not a withdrawal.

Rather we see Jesus engage in grief. We see Jesus stand with those who are suffering loss. We see Jesus in the midst of places where people are experiencing deep and debilitating pain.

Jesus’ invitation to belief reorients our expectations of God’s future plans

Mary’s response is to agree with her own beliefs. God would raise up all the righteous at the end of the age.

Jesus however offers more than just a vague hope for the future.

In Jesus the kingdom of God is not so far off promise.

In Jesus the kingdom of God is a present reality.

When Jesus claims to be ‘the resurrection and the life’ He is challenging us to rethink what we think we know!

Eternal life is not just something to be hoped for in the future.

The resurrection of Jesus will demonstrate that this eternal life can be seen and even participated in NOW!

REFLECT AND RESPOND

Like Mary and Martha you may be in a season of life where you are wondering…

WHERE IS GOD?

I’m suffering. I’m hurting. God is able. I believe in all that Jesus claims He is.

But where is God?

You might be like many in the crowd -

GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS

In Jesus’ day the size of the crowd of mourners was a sign on one’s importance and wealth. (PS It’s not that different today!)

Some in the crowd were just there because…well, Lazarus was a respected man.

Even some in the crowd expressed unease:

John 11:37 HCSB

But some of them said, “Couldn’t He who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?”

Perhaps you are just here - in person, or listening. You are unsure of who Jesus is and why He matters.

On the Connection card in your Worship Folder we’d like to pray with you -

On one side we ask for your name and other information…

On the other we ask for you to indicate where you might be in your walk with the LORD - fill those out, place them in the blue boxes as you leave…or on our Facebook page leave a message for me…