Jesus knew the outcome but still cried.

Intro

You will have heard me talk previously about how if something is repeated in the bible more than once it is probably something that we should sit up and take notice of. In some ways the same is true in life.

Some of us are working through ‘How to pray’ and I mentioned this comment at that. Over the last few weeks I have had four (it was three) people say to me something like “I would ask for prayer but there are so many people that need prayer more than me”

It is interesting how there is a translation between our hearts/minds and our mouths.

There are so many people that need prayer more than me...

deserve

are worthy of prayer

more likely to see prayer work

believe that prayer is effective.

I am not being condemning , but I want this morning to look a little at the heart of God and why this statement does not make sense.

To do that I want to start with the reading for today which is taken from: John 11:35

John 11:35 CSB

35 Jesus wept.

Often cited as the shortest (in English at least) verse in the bible it is one of the most powerful incites into the heart of God. To understand the nature of this we need to hear the whole reading John 11:1-44

John 11:1–44 CSB

1 Now a man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. 3 So the sisters sent a message to him: “Lord, the one you love is sick.” 4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was. 7 Then after that, he said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.” 8 “Rabbi,” the disciples told him, “just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going there again?” 9 “Aren’t there twelve hours in a day?” Jesus answered. “If anyone walks during the day, he doesn’t stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks during the night, he does stumble, because the light is not in him.” 11 He said this, and then he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.” 12 Then the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” 13 Jesus, however, was speaking about his death, but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep. 14 So Jesus then told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. 15 I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.” 16 Then Thomas (called “Twin”) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too so that we may die with him.” 17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away). 19 Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. 20 As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her. 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. 26 Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.” 28 Having said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 As soon as Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw that Mary got up quickly and went out. They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to cry there. 32 As soon as 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 wouldn’t have died!” 33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked. “Lord,” they told him, “come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the blind man’s eyes also have kept this man from dying?” 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 “Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent me.” 43 After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

Let’s have a look at some key points.

Who was Lazarus?

In some ways Lazarus was a nobody. We know more about his sisters and his home in Bethany than we do about Lazarus. He appears in the Gospel story, not because of any shining qualities in his personality nor because of any resounding achievement, but solely because of the amazing miracle that was given to him. He was perhaps quite an undistinguished sort of man, ‘scarcely heard of half a mile from home’, and yet it was to him that the very wonderful thing happened.

In other ways Lazarus was incredibly important - He, like Mary and Martha was a friend of Jesus.

Everything that happens in this story is based around that - as it says in v3 Lazarus was loved by Jesus.

Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead not because of who he was but simply because he was known / loved by Jesus.

Jesus knew Lazarus was dead before he got the news.

The two sisters sent a message to Jesus, who was ministering in Bethany beyond Jordan, the sisters obviously expected Jesus to come and heal Lazarus

Jesus knew that Lazarus would die v4 This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

It is a confusing statement as it says he will not die but also infers that he will in order to glorify God.

Jesus knew at the outset that Lazarus would die

It would be no surprise when he gets to Lazarus that Lazarus would be dead butJesus still cried when he got to Bethany.

Jesus knew the desire of the Sisters to go at once and heal Lazarus but he didn’t instead we read another confusing statement in v 5- 6

Out of his love for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, Jesus stayed two more days in his place even after he learned that Lazarus was ill (11:5–6).

Lazarus was less than a days walks from Jesus (15-20 miles) but Jesus stayed where he was for two days

Was that because he didn’t care? - clearly not

This delay is due to Jesus’ commitment to work in God’s time so that God’s glory may be revealed magnificently in human powerlessness and that his disciples may believe in him

God’s timing - John 5:19

John 5:19 CSB

19 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things.

Jesus obeyed God’s timing - the Sisters have asked, the need is known - the wait begins.

We don’t have to wait for our situation to be critical before we take it to God. - in fact we are encouraged not to.

Philippians 4:6 NIV

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

The text makes it clear again that Jesus knows Lazarus is dead.

Jesus enigmatically states that Lazarus, “our friend,” has fallen asleep and that he goes to awake him (11:11). “To fall asleep” was used in Judaism and in Christian circles as a euphemism for death

In the end Jesus has to spell it out. Jesus needed to make it clear what the facts of the matter were.

Sometime we don’t take things to God in because we don’t understand the consequence of our situation.

Some of you may have seen an nhs advert called “it only...’

It goes along the lines of it’s only a little cough, it’s only a little blood, … pointing out that the it’s only is the reason for not seeing your GP. emphasising that the ‘it’s only’ is often nothing but sometimes is the start of something serious.

I don’t want us to think of God simply as some sort of supernatural health service but the analogy holds your Father is interested in hearing about all things. He doesn’t want or need you to filter out the inconsequential. let Him in his wisdom decide what matters, you may not have it right.

Jesus knew Lazarus would be alive in a few moments

When Jesus arrives at Bethany he knows that Lazarus is dead, he knew that in a few moments Lazarus would be alive again.

But Jesus still cried.

Jesus - could see Marthas frustration,

21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. 22 Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus told her.

Jesus could see the sorrow and the loss in the people who surrounded the Sisters.

Jesus was moved again when he saw the the reality of the situation of Lazarus and the impact on those around.

God is interested when we are bothered by something. The cause of the what is bothering us may be inconsequential or it may be huge. - God take note that we are bothered - don’t hide if from your prayer life.

Stone in a shoe. the stone is minute but the effects are huge.

Jesus knew death in this life is not for ever

Jesus knew eternity and kingdom better than anyone else could

Because the world is full of pain and regret and loss and depression and devastation and that little thing that you don’t feel worthy of prayer - Jesus cried.

Jesus cried because knowing the end fo the story doesn't mean you don’t find the journey sad.

Not the only time Jesus cried

Jesus cried

At Lazarus - others

at the garden in gethsemanie see - for himself - Psalm 42 - distressed and agitated mark 14:33034 also grieved and

Distress arises from the approaching events of his passion: his betrayal and arrest, his trial, and his crucifixion. Indeed, he has prepared his disciples for these very events.

At the cross - for humanity.

Jesus’ cry from the cross may be considered a genuine divine lament—the suffering of Israel and humanity taken up into the divine life, in continuity with and in transformation of the Old Testament tradition of divine mourning. As divine lament, Jesus’ cry is an articulation not of God’s abandonment of Jesus, but a radical expression of God’s ḥesed, [lovingkingsness)

God’s commitment always to be for and with Israel and humanity, and never against them. This interpretation of Jesus’ cry depends on reading the cry within the wider context of Psalm 22

A pattern for lament

Jesus has already predicted his betrayal, suffering, death, and resurrection three times in Matthew and Mark (and in Luke).17 As described by Jesus, this basic pattern of the passion reflects the movement of the individual lament psalms from humiliation into vindication; the righteous one faces shame, affliction, betrayal, and slander at the hands of his enemies, but God vindicates the righteous one and rewards him for his faithfulness.

A God that mourns but remains God.

Jesus’ cry from the cross may be considered a genuine divine lament—the suffering of Israel and humanity taken up into the divine life, in continuity with and in transformation of the Old Testament tradition of divine mourning. As divine lament, Jesus’ cry is an articulation not of God’s abandonment of Jesus, but a radical expression of God’s ḥesed, God’s commitment always to be for and with Israel and humanity, and never against them. This interpretation of Jesus’ cry depends on reading the cry within the wider context of Psalm 22—a move authorized by Mark and Matthew—and within the wider canonical context of Luke and John, seeking to give equal weight to all four gospels and their accounts of Jesus’ lament from the cross. Finally, Jesus’ lament as divine lament points to a God who mourns and yet remains a God—i.e., a God who joins in the human cry of lament, complaint, and suffering, and still remains the God who can hear and respond to cries for help.

Treatments of Jesus’ cry from the cross as an ‘expression of the most profound horror’ tend to detach Jesus’ quotation of Ps. 22:1 from the rest of the psalm and therefore from its grounding within the lament tradition of Israel.

We are all familiar with Jesus exclamation of the cross of the first words in Psalm 22.

Psalm 22:1 CSB

1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning?

The entire psalm, not simply v. 1, is crucial to the understanding of Jesus’ sorrow on the cross and the purpose behind it and the promise this lament on the cross beholds.

The New International Version Psalm 22

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from my cries of anguish?

2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

you are the one Israel praises. z

4 In you our ancestors put their trust;

they trusted and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried out and were saved;

in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

it goes on - i suggest you read it.

There is a typical pattern to lament that goes something like this, it echoes through the whole bible, through the story of Lazarus and through the story of the cross.

Concern and sorrow - trust, hope, salvation/restoration.

Note that trust comes before hope - that trust is taking our situations to God

Enduring is not the same as ignoring

The reason for patient endurance is hope and trust; this hope is grounded in the fact that God can do anything, that God is interested in you. and ultimately that God raised Jesus from the dead and trusts that God will likewise raise the faithful from death into new life. The one who endures hopes in what she cannot see (Rom. 8:25) but believes in it nonetheless.

Romans 8:25 CSB

25 Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.

Conclusion.

God’s interest in you is driven by his love for you, Lazarus was loved by Jesus and look what happened there.

God knows you and wants to know you it is not your role to filter out the unimportant or pass judgement on your worthiness or someone else right to have prayers answered

Don’t shy from expressing your desires but don’t be surprised if God has a completely different solution - Martha wanted Lazarus healed. God wanted Lazarus restored.

God is interested in all but you may have to wait, to endure. Those 4 days must have been hard for Martha and Mary - not to mention Lazarus

Action.

Be honest with God in all things, filtering out things is not being hones.

This week spend five minutes telling God all the things that bothered you that you didn’t want to bother God with. Then tell him thanks for all the things you didn’t bother to thank him for.