Who Rolled the Stone Away

John 11:39–40 NASB95

39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

in John 11, everyone is confused but Jesus

starts off with a confusing situation

two sisters and a brother whom Jesus loves, need Jesus, because Lazarus (the brother) is deathly sick, but Jesus won’t go heal him

in fact, Jesus says that this illness will not lead to death, but Lazarus does indeed die . . . confusing situation

Jesus tells his disciples it’s time to go to where Lazarus is because Lazarus has fallen asleep.

his disciples, who are confused, respond “good he needs some rest to recover”

why should we go there because they are trying to kill you in that area, let Lazarus rest, and we will stay away

so confused that Jesus has to tell them plainly, Lazarus has died, and he throws out a hint that he will raise Lazarus from the dead. Around verse 15, Jesus says, “I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe”

one of his disciples, Thomas is so confused through it all that he misses the hint, and tells his fellow disciples, let’s go die with Jesus

By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been dead 4 days

When Mary and Martha hear that Jesus was coming, Martha went to meet him, but Marry remained in the house.

They are both confused and disallusioned by the fact that Jesus did not come earlier to save their brother

it seems that Mary is to angry, disappointed, or both to come out to meet Jesus

it seems Martha wants to be the first to accuse Jesus, to ask the question we would also ask

so Martha comes out to meet Jesus and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. She is confused by Jesus timing, “why come late?” “why did you let this happen” “why did you wait?”

Jesus plainly tells her that Lazarus will rise again, but Martha assumes that Jesus is talking about the last day

Then Jesus makes a powerful statement, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”,

Martha is so upset and confused that she doesn’t answers if she believes that he is the resurrection, she responds that she believes he is the Christ.

then she leaves and goes to Mary, so confused, sad, and upset that she does not share the claim of Jesus that he is the resurrection, she lies to her sister and tells her that Jesus is calling for her

That is enough to get Mary to rush out to see Jesus, she falls at his feet, but makes the same charge, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”

and she is crying, and those with her are crying and weeping . . . so much crying that that Bible says that Jesus was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

Jesus does not try to explain who he is and what he can do, it seems no one gets it, every one is confused, so he simply ask, “where have you laid him?”

they said, “Lord, come and see”

and that’s when the Bible tells us that Jesus wept.

The Bible does not full explain why Jesus wept, but we can see that Jesus was moved by what was happening

We all need to understand that God is moved by what is going on in our lives

He is not unfeeling, he cares

He does not dismiss what we are going through

He does not ignore what we are facing

Jesus is deeply moved by your pain, by your suffering

and of course the crowd was confused over his crying

some said, “oh how Jesus must have loved him”

others said, “isn’t this the one who opened the eyes of the blind, he could have kept this man from dying” . . . hinting that Jesus is crying because he had not come in time

everyone confused

throughout the whole story, everyone is confused

this disciples, Mary and Martha, and by-standers

their understanding is bad

their assumption are wrong

their complaints are off base

They have no idea that Jesus planned this from the beginning

This parallels many of our lives - We are going through some things that have confused everybody

our friends, family, people who know us well, people who barely know us

and everbody has an opinion - and they are all off base

bad assumptions

bad understanding

and we have all forgotten that God is not surprised by any of it, he had it planned from the beginning

but it is so confusing, because we love God and he loves us, and it seems that God should have stepped in already

God could have kept that from happening

and we want to say, “Lord, if you had been here . . . . “

why did you not use your power . . . you authority . . . . healing . . . . wonder working power . . .

John 11:39 NASB95

39 Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

and in the confusion, Jesus tells them to take away the stone

There are some things dead and buried in your life, and Jesus is telling you to remove the stone

somethings that if God had shown up earlier, you have no doubt things would have been different

had God come when you first called for him, things would be different

but for some confusing reason, Jesus delayed . . . it’s way past time

and that thing died: relationship, dream, vision, ministry, business, goals

so you did the normal thing, and buried it . . . .covered it up, so that it won’t stink up your life

yet you are still in mourning

and Jesus now says, take away the stone

still have hope, still have faith . . . actually more faith

Martha is confused by Jesus order, for she is afraid that the dead body of Lazarus will be stinking

And Jesus says to this confused woman, who has no idea of what God’s plan is . . .

John 11:40 NASB95

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

But the question to you is the same question that Jesus asked Martha, “Do you believe?”

I know you are confused, but do you believe

I know you might be mad, but do you believe

I know that you are sad, but do you belive

I know that you don’t like the timing, but do you believe

you’ve been accusing me of not caring, but do you believe

Apparently Martha believed because the Bible says that they took away the stone.

Jesus prayed out loud to try to dispel some of the confusion. this whole scenario was allowed to play out so that the people would believe that God had sent Jesus.

then he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out”