My Name is Lazarus

John 11:38–44 “38 Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. 39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. 40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”

My Background

My Hometown - Bethany

If you leave Jerusalem from the East gate of the temple, you’ll come through the Kidron Valley then up the Mount Olivet (Mt of Olives).

Climb the mountain and continue down the other side and you’ll find, nestled against the east slope, a little village.

It’s about 2 miles in total; you could walk it in about 45 minutes.

That village is Bethany, and it’s my home town.

My sisters - Mary and Martha

You’ve probably heard about my sisters, Martha and Mary.

Mary is all drama!

You’ll always know if she’s around because she’s just that kind of person - bursts into the room with an explosion of energy and pizzazz.

Mary is a bundle of emotion.

Martha is all business

Martha is nothing that Mary is, and everything Mary isn’t.

Martha’s a lot stiffer than Mary - stiff upper lip kind of person

She’s also large and in charge most of the time.

To be honest, she’s a bit up tight, to the point that she can make everyone else around her uptight, too.

But she’s the one who always gets things done.

A First Introduction to Jesus

Jesus: a Controversial Man

Martha she’s probably the one to credit for our introduction to Jesus - a controversial and polarizing man from the north country.

Being so close to Jerusalem, we had been hearing a lot of talk about a man who had been making waves with the things he was doing

Apparently, he had been healing people, feeding people - apparently, he used a little boy’s lunch to feed thousands of hungry people, and generally being good to people

Even the most unworthy people - sometimes especially the most unworthy people, were the beneficiaries of his goodness - prostitutes, widows, and even Romans

That made a lot of people upset with him.

But what really upset some folks was how people started to look at him as our Messiah - the promised Savior from God.

Jesus’ Reception in Jerusalem

Being so close to Jerusalem, we could feel the tension that this Jesus produced.

The temple was a magnet for anyone with any interest in the Scriptures and the promises they held.

And not only teachers; it wasn’t uncommon to see members of the Sanhedrin milling about in their discussions, and sometimes we’d even see the high priest - Caiaphas - usually preoccupied with the business of the religion.

It’s kind of funny to me how all of these people who seemed to be so fully invested into the promise of a Messiah would be so upset when the possibility of its fulfilment showed up. But that’s a topic for another day.

It’s also possible that I’m biased because of my experiences.

Our First Visit from Jesus

In any case, this Jesus showed up in Bethany one day. And I’m sure it was because of Martha’s diligence that he ended up at our house. She was ready with a dinner, and she invited him in.

He hit it off with our family pretty quickly. It was amusing to watch him watch my sisters. Right from the beginning he caught onto their personalities.

Martha, as usual, was bustling around the house tending to 14 things at once and full of fluster and fumes.

Mary, unsurprisingly, was starstruck and fully transfixed by Jesus. She just sat at his feet and stared up at him in rapt and rapturous attention while he talked to the folks in the room.

Jesus handled Martha pretty skillfully when she came in all miffed that Mary wasn’t helping her with the service errands. He gently chided that she might be a little too obsessed with the details of service, and that Mary had a better balance in her priorities.

Mary and I may or may not have teased Martha about that since then, and she may or may not have swatted at us with her wash rags, but we did notice that she tried to mellow out a bit after that. She’s still Martha, of course, but something changed.

Somehow, Jesus became our friend that day, in spite of all our quirks and quarks.

A bit about me . . .

I wasn’t as prominent as my sisters, and sometimes I didn’t really feel like a had a place in the mix like they did.

He loved me, of course. I guess I knew that on some level

I just didn’t have as much exposure or personality, or whatever it was, that made them a household name in Jesus’ circle.

My name is Lazarus.

My Experience

My Illness

It’s funny, with all the talk about Jesus, and with what even I knew about him, I didn’t call for him when I got sick.

I heard the bustle, the call for help, the word that Jesus had been called

And I waited for him, in vain

Have you ever felt that feeling of hope fading? Felt the discouragement.

He never came. Didn’t he care? Wasn’t I worthy? Was something wrong with me? Well, yes, but still…

I guess I just faded away

My Deadness

How do you know you’re dead?

A cave and a stone, a pretty forlorn place.

I stunk! Of course, Martha would point that out.

Being dead, I didn’t really know how badly I stank

I was in decay, but I was completely unaware of how much of me was rotting away.

My Sisters’ Responses

Well, we found out later that Jesus knew I was dead. He told his disciples so when he told them he wanted to come see me.

Get that: he knew I was dead, and he still wanted to come see me!

Martha Goes to Jesus

Martha was the first one to go meet him in the road (of course - ever the one in control).

And she gave Jesus a piece of her mind (of course - ever the one to know how everything should be done).

John 11:21–22 “. . . Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.”

Was that desperation? Hope? Faith? How do you tell the difference?

And guess how Jesus responded to her?

John 11:23 “23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

Martha took it to refer to the next life, which we believe in.

John 11:24 “24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

But Jesus seemed to be hinting at something entirely different, something new to our understanding.

John 11:25–26 “25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

I’ve told you about Martha … a tough nut. But she did! She believed.

Before he called me out of my grave; she believed what he said.

And honestly, probably before she really understood what he meant, she still chose to believe him.

I’m thankful for the people in my life who believed when I was still dead.

Mary Goes to Jesus

When Martha told Mary that Jesus was coming, she went out to have her turn talking to him in her ‘Mary’ way.

She said the same thing as Martha (Lord, if you had been here my brother wouldn’t have died)

Somehow, everyone knew that Jesus had power to prevent my death.

She said it in her ‘Mary’ way - she threw herself down at his feet.

The disciples and everyone that looked on told us afterward how much that moved Jesus. He groaned and was troubled in spirit.

Jesus’ Response

He Sought the Glory of God

He told his disciples that my death was for the glory of God.

He Proclaimed a Resurrection

He told Martha that I would rise again. She believes like I do in the resurrection at the end of time, but Jesus seemed to be hinting at something different - similar, perhaps, but different.

He told Martha that whoever believes in him would never die.

He Wept

When Mary came, He wept! For me!

My Resurrection

He Had Been Preparing While I was ‘Sleeping’

After 4 days … when all hope was exhausted.

Sometimes the bleakest moments are the ripest moments for a miracle.

I didn’t know until afterward how Jesus had prepared for the moment he would call me back into the land of the living.

Rolling away the stone

When He Spoke

His voice is the first thing I remember.

“Lazarus, come forth!”

I don’t know how the decay could reverse,

But life surged through every fibre of my being!

Suddenly I had to get free

I was wrapped up so tight in those grave clothes, but I managed to struggle and wriggle my way out to the sound of his voice.

I had to get out of the dark and isolated place and back into the light - and especially the light of His presence.

When Jesus said, loose him, and let him go… what sweet freedom.

The Fallout

My New Status

Something changed me that day

I was still Lazarus

In many ways I was still the same

But some things were profoundly different

Now I wasn’t just Mary and Martha’s brother any more

I had an experience.

I had an identity.

I also saw the world a little differently after that.

I recognized that bit of death in everyone.

Mixed Reactions

It’s funny how something like this draws out different reactions in people.

I was something of a celebrity, I guess.

People found out about my story and started showing up just to see me because they had heard that Jesus had raised me from the dead (Jn 12.9).

But others were upset about what Jesus had done in my life

Not everyone liked my testimony; it’s funny how some people feel threatened when others take a turn for the better just because it threatens their comfortable beliefs or something.

Some people even wanted to kill me because me very life confirmed things about Jesus they couldn’t accept, and a lot of people were being persuaded about Jesus as a result (Jn 12.10-11).

Reminded me of Cain, really; kill a brother because you’re mad at God!

Caiphas decided that one man should die to save the nation.

John 11:50 “ . . . consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.”

I don’t think he realized what he was saying, now that I look back on it.

You could feel the drama in the atmosphere.

It was that kind of restless buzz you feel when everybody feels that something big is going down.

Everybody in the city was looking for Jesus.

Jesus’ Final Visit

A New Place for Me

It wasn’t long afterward that Jesus came to visit our place one final time. It was Passover.

Martha was going what she does - busily attending to the logistics and making sure everything went as well as it could.

Mary was doing what she does, only she outdid herself this time.

And me …. Somehow, I felt like I had found my place reclining at table with Jesus.

I realized that somehow it’s enough to just be with him, eat with him, share table talk, and just enjoy the company of his presence.

A Fragrance for Burial

When Mary broke it over Jesus’ feet, somehow the fragrance of that offering carried the aroma of the immense gratitude I felt in my own heart, and I know she and Martha felt, for all he had done for us.

Judas’ comment seemed to have a crusty edge that struck me as odd.

To be honest, Jesus response to the criticism was another level if strange.

What did he mean by burial? I had been buried, and it wasn’t good!

Another Resurrection

The Loss of a Friend

There were some similarities and some differences, but I felt like I identified with his experience.

My death was natural; his death was intentional.

I died from my own sickness, he died from the cruelty of a hostile mob.

My death was to reveal the glory of God; his death was to save others who deserved that death.

I was death given a new chance of life; he was life itself submitting to death.

Hard Days of Burial

The days after his death were pretty hard!

I don’t want to get into everything on this; it’s enough to say there is such a thing as the afterlife!!

Peter found out from Jesus after that during his time in death, he was in hell preaching to the imprisoned souls there.

Meanwhile, we were living our own kind of hell, if I could say it that way.

I guess we just assumed Jesus would always be there. We never thought he would be dead. It just somehow never occurred to us.

I think I felt a little more than most, having just been dead myself not very long ago.

The darkness, the isolation, the suffocation of the grave clothes; it was again almost like I could identify with Jesus.

Even in his death, I could feel that affinity.

Grief. Pain. Uncertainty. Anger. Fear. Despair. We felt it all. For 3 long days.

Three days might not feel long when you’re dead, but when you’re alive and someone else is dead, three days can feel like a really long time.

The Euphoria of His Resurrection

The Explosive News

I’ll never forget the explosive news that shot through Jerusalem that Sunday morning!! It reached our ears in Bethany shortly after sunrise.

The Visit to an Empty Tomb

There a couple of different stories going around town about the events of that morning.

It seemed like every Mary in town except my sister had gone to the tomb.

They wanted to come and tend to the body of Jesus with spices and fragrances

(That reminded me of what Jesus had said about my sister’s actions that day a week before.)

When they got there, the tomb was open and the grave clothes were folders up and placed nearly aside.

The Announcement of Resurrection

Then two angels materialized and announced something remarkable: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen.”

Of course!

What was it Jesus had told my other sister Martha? “I am the resurrection and the life.” I AM the resurrection and the life!

Things started clicking pretty quickly from there.

Of course he could raise me from the dead. He was life itself. And not just life in the first case; he was resurrection!

He WAS the force of life when we thought life was over.

The Purpose of His Resurrection

The excitement of all this discovery seemed to find its own momentum over the next several weeks.

There were quite a few of us believers by this time - over 500 hundred by one count. You’d probably guess that I was certainly happy to be called one!

One day, several hundred of us were with him at Olivet, eager to hear him talk to us again.

He started to explaining his whole purpose and motivation for his own death and resurrection.

Luke 24:46–48 “46 . . . Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: 47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And ye are witnesses of these things.”

He went on to say that we would be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days and told us to wait in Jerusalem for that promise.

A Different Kind of Resurrection - Pentecost

It was the Day of Pentecost when it happened.

We were all in the upper room, praying and encouraging one another for about a week.

All of a sudden there was a loud ‘whoosh’ - it sounded like an ocean wind just shot through the place.

I looked around, and there were split tongues of fire hovering over everyone in the room.

All at once, everyone started exclaiming and praising God, only my words weren’t coming out like I intended. My speech was taken over by a power and force beyond my own understanding.

I recognized that power, though; it was the same force I felt the other day when I heard Jesus call me out of the grave.

Peter connected this event to the Jesus’ resurrection a just a few weeks before.

When people heard about this, there was a desperation and hopelessness about their complicity.

Their feeling resembled the hopelessness I remember feeling when my life was fading out and I was headed to my tomb.

My Message

My resurrection, Jesus’ resurrection, your resurrection in the power of the Holy Spirit - it’s all the same resurrection power of Jesus himself!

Folks, I’m not anyone special. What Jesus did for me, he will do for anyone. That’s the whole point of everything he endured.

What Jesus did for me was really about providing a ‘real’life’ example of the resurrection he was bringing to the unseen part of our being.

Life after resurrection is even better than life before resurrection.

Not everyone will approve of the life Jesus brings to you, but the new life is worth it anyway.

Jesus is a friend worth having. He is resurrection!

Dead dreams come to life.

Dashed hopes are restored.

Broken relationships are revived.

Deflated spirits are reinvigorated.

Resurrection touches every part of your being.