Dusty Feet

A Bold Claim

John 11:27

John 11:27 HCSB

“Yes, Lord,” she told Him, “I believe You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”

Learning the lessons...

When last we saw Martha and Jesus interacting we saw a very different Martha.

Luke 10:38-42

Luke 10:38–42 HCSB

While they were traveling, He entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what He said. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.” The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”

We see a different Martha in these few verses in John, we see a Martha who gets it, who has taken time to learn who Jesus is. A Martha who hearing that Jesus is now in town rushes out to meet him. One that knows what he is able to do, but more important than all of those things, A Martha that knows exactly who Jesus is. Her statement of who she believes Jesus is speaks volumes. Each of those names she is giving to him has huge meaning to the Jewish people and her making that claim about Jesus in public is no small thing. This proclamation then makes what happens next and what we are going to be looking at today all the more amazing.

A Regular Guy

John 11:35 HCSB

Jesus wept.

There is something that we know but we don’t always embrace when it comes to Jesus. Something that is decidedly the opposite of what the disciples had to embrace and deal with.

Jesus was a person. A real life, flesh and blood human being. He grew up like we did. Does it bother you to think about that. We know about Jesus at his birth, we know about Jesus at 12, and if we look at what happened at that interaction we see that Jesus did in fact have to grow up like we did.

Luke 2:51 HCSB

Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. His mother kept all these things in her heart.

We know that he grew up. If Jesus was human, really human he had to deal with all the emotions that we deal with. Do you realize.

Jesus would have good days and bad days growing up?

He would be mad at his parents at times?

He would have liked people

He probably had a crush

He had to deal with being a teenager and all the stuff that goes with it?

He got frustrated with his mom sometimes.

It’s not yet my time

He got angry

Cursing the fig tree

Turning over tables and chasing people with a whip

He experienced anxiety

Jesus in the Garden

He felt sadness

He felt alone.

But perhaps the thing that I love the most about Jesus is that he actively chose to hang out with regular people. It was almost like he was compelled to be with people that the important people didn’t want to be around.

(Robin Wiliiams biography)

Dinner with a bunch of tax collectors sure, talking to women, Samaritan women at that, of course. Hang out in her town with the other Samaritans for a while yep. Touch a leper yep, touch a dead body yep, heal blind people, uhuh, get tired and need to be alone there it is. Have a little bit of fun freaking his disciples out you bet. Cry when he sees his friends being sad absolutely.

It’s important to note that Jesus was fully human, He was a man subject to like passions as are we. He was tempted just like we are. He had to make choices the same way we do.

Those ain’t crocodile tears.

John 11:33 HCSB

When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, He was angry in His spirit and deeply moved.

There are two types of emotion going on here. There is the emotion for show, the theatrical version meant to elicit a response.

Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 2799 κλαίω

κλαίω [klaio /klah·yo/]

Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 2799 κλαίω

κλαίω [klaio /klah·yo/] v. Of uncertain affinity; TDNT 3:722; TDNTA 436; GK 3081; 40 occurrences; AV translates as “weep” 39 times, and “bewail” once. 1 to mourn, weep, lament. 1A weeping as the sign of pain and grief for the thing signified (i.e. for the pain and grief). 1B of those who mourn for the dead. 2 to weep for, mourn for, bewail, one.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 11:35–37

klaiontas

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 11:35–37

(klaiontas

Then there is the sorrow that comes from a sadness and empathy, rooted in a personal relationship.

Then there is the sorrow that comes from a sadness and empathy, rooted in a personal relationship.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 11:35–37

edakrysen

Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon 1145 δακρύω

δακρύω [dakruo /dak·roo·o/] v. From 1144; GK 1233; AV translates as “weep” once. 1 to weep, shed tears.

Quiet shedding of tears.

Jesus weeping has been given many different meanings, coupled with his anger. Some have suggested that Jesus was angry at peoples unbelief, others have said it was anger at the Tyranny of Satan that the his weeping was over the tragic consequences of sin. And while those are valid interpretations, I tend to go for a much more simple understanding.

Jesus was angry because there was a group of people that likely barely knew Lazarus and Mary and Martha, that were putting on a show of sadness and anguish so that they could look good. That Jesus quiet weeping was over the loss that he felt as a human, at the tears he saw in Mary and Martha’s eyes. Jesus the Human, Jesus, Mary’s son, was processing the death of his friend and the emotions and sense of loss that Lazarus sisters felt. Think about what it means though, for the Creator of the Universe. the one that was with God and Was God, to activly lay down his divinity, to come to earth, and to actually have feelings to live with humans , to feel like humans to be fully human. That should make us all excited and that should make us all terrified at the same time.

Dusty Footed Divinity

As much as I like to point out that humanity of Jesus, as important as it is that he was a “regular guy.” It’s important to remember that He was anything but a regular human.

We see a couple of things in the last part of today’s text that we need to recognize and apply to our understanding of God and our relationship to him.

John 11:38-44

John 11:38–44 HCSB

Then Jesus, angry in Himself again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. “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?” So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You heard Me. I know that You always hear Me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me.” 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.”

Here we see Jesus operating not as the regular guy but as the God of all creation, the one that is Lord not just over what is alive and well but over what is already dead.

Realize what I just said because it’s important. There are people that have some mistaken notion at times that Jesus, after his Crucifixion spent three days in Hell fighting with Death and the Devil, that there was somehow some possible worry that He may not win. Jesus did not have to die on the cross to show that He beat death. Death was not even in the same league as Jesus. Jesus wasn’t going to triumph over death and the grave. He already owned it (explain what being owned means)

And so we see him do three very important things.

Jesus gave instruction that made no Human sense.

Jesus reminds Mary of what He just told her.

Jesus does not hide who he is, in fact he reveals his identity in a spectacular way, and just in case people think that it’s a ghost Jesus tells them to let Lazarus loose.

Jesus calls Lazarus in a loud voice. A verb only used 9 times in the new testament 8 of which are in the gospels. Augustine made the statement that had Jesus not specified Lazarus come out of the grave, all those in the graves there would have come. Again a statement of the fact that Jesus was not going to defeat death, death was not even a concern for the one that created all things and was walking around with dusty feet on the earth.

WHen Jesus calls Lazarus out he does so in a loud voice

The question you have to answer

Which Jesus do you follow?

Say Pastor Aaron, come on we are in church, we know this stuff, look at the room there are a bunch of us that you’ve seen week after week, we have been to the alter somewhere. We know this stuff. Of course we follow the Jesus that raised Lazarus from the dead.

Or maybe you’re not sure, maybe you’ve been doing this for a while and the Jesus you identify more with is the one that had dusty feet. The one that got angry, or laughed or cried. Maybe you like the Humanity of Jesus because it shows you that humans can be “good people.”

Here’s the thing, choosing to follow just one of those is not enough, if you choose to just follow the human side of Jesus, the good man, the prophet the human. Then you miss out on the point of God wanting so badly to repair the relationship that Humanity broke. Sure following that mans teachings will help you, sure it will make you a good person, of course you will do good things and live a good life if you follow that Jesus but it won’t be enough because you won’t be accepting the fundamental part of who he is that can change you.

And if you just follow the Deity part of Jesus, you will be out of touch with the world around you, you will look down at those that are lost and trying so hard in this world from a perch that is impossible for them to reach.

A few things to remember.

(talk about Jesus fully God, hanging out with every day people etc)

We must embrace all of Jesus not just the parts that we like!

This Week’s Challenge

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