Lazarus

This past Thursday was Opening Day for MLB. Sometimes it feels like we’re living life in the major leagues. What I mean is, life has a way of throwing curve balls at us. And when a curve ball is coming you can’t just stand there at the plate undecided. You have to make a decision. Do you step into the pitch, and step into faith, and swing for the fences? Or do you step back, hoping that whatever comes next will somehow be better?

In this series through John’s gospel, we’ve surveyed who JESUS says HE is. We could make a pretty substantial list of claims! But at the end of the day, you have to decide for yourself, who Jesus really is. You can’t just stand there in the batter’s box, forever in a neutral position, clinging to your bat. Are you willing to trust who Jesus says that he is? Are you willing to step up and swing?

In John 11, life throws a couple of curveballs at Jesus’ closest disciples. The first curveball is in John 11:1-3, “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.”

As a general rule, we’re apt to shrug our shoulders at sickness. Got the flu? No need to raise alarm. No reason to get the church on its knees in prayer. No reason to sweat this one out before God. Whenever we get sick, there’s a good chance we’ll soon get well. That the doctor will have some diagnosis, Walgreens will have some medicine, or some treatment that will get us back on track. How many times have you fallen ill only to recover?

Inevitably, though, our health throws us a curve ball: For reasons unknown, Lazarus’ sisters are pretty concerned about him. They raise the alarm and send word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

Now these siblings are no strangers to Jesus. There is an intimate bond between them and the Lord. Remember that time Jesus was in Mary and Martha’s home? Martha was distressed, and busied herself with many chores. Guests were about to arrive, and she was busy making preparations. But meanwhile “indulgent” Mary was sitting there, “wasting time”, being with Jesus, worshipping Him. Martha criticizes her, “Shouldn’t she be helping me in the kitchen Jesus?” Mary will also be the one (next week in John 12) who anoints the Lord with a POUND of perfume and wipes his feet with her hair. In John 12, it will be Judas who takes umbrage with her, “Shouldn’t she have rather sold that perfume and given the money to the poor?” Poor Mary! Everyone always has an opinion about her.

In John 11:4, word comes back from Jesus, saying, “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.” Life is about to throw you a huge curve ball, but it’s happening that God might be glorified through it.

You might notice here that Jesus says the same thing to Mary and Martha that he said about the man born blind in John 9. Do you remember? The disciples asked Jesus whose sin was the reason the man was born blind. And Jesus said it was neither because of his sin, nor his parents that he was born blind. But he was born blind that the “Work of God” might be put on display in his life. You might also remember that the “work” of God throughout the gospel of John isn’t what we suppose. Earlier in John 6:29 Jesus declares, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.” As with the Blind Man, what is about to happen with Lazarus is going to supercharge people’s faith in Jesus!

Now the second curveball that gets thrown is in John 11:5-7, “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.” While Jesus seems preoccupied with the wellbeing of Lazarus, the disciples are worried about the temperature in Jerusalem. In John 11:8 the disciples say, “Rabbi,” the disciples told him, “just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going there again?” Jesus you are crazy to stay here! Let’s get out of Dodge. Let’s get as far away from Jerusalem as possible. It’s too dangerous. Our lives are in danger by persecution.

Whether it’s our own health and well-being. Whether it’s the health and well-being of someone we love. Life itself doesn’t allow our faith to be merely academic. In John 11:9-10 Jesus says, 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.” If you are walking with Jesus, and know Him as the light of the world, you have nothing to fear! Not sickness or death. Not persecution.

John 11:11-16 continues, “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.”

Before the crucifixion, Thomas is a lot like Peter, oh the bravado! But having seen Jesus crucified, Thomas was quite reluctant to believe. Everything that is about to happen to Lazarus, to Jesus, is that they would “truly” believe.

So, what about Martha’s faith? John 11:17-22, “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.”

Remember, Martha is the more hyperactive sister. Mary is more contemplative, maybe resigned to Lazarus’s death. But Martha is up on her feet, out the door, to confront Jesus! How do you reconcile the goodness of God—oh how Jesus loved this family. How do you reconcile the greatness of God—Jesus has authority to lay down his life and take it back up again. How do you reconcile the curveball life has just thrown your way? Your brother died. Jesus may be the loving and good Shepherd, but he was four days late. Jesus may be the great Shepherd, but why didn’t our prayers seem to move any mountains in heaven while there still seemed to be hope?

John 11:23-27,“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.”

So, what about Mary? John 11:28-32, “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!”

When Jesus calls us to faith, he doesn’t call us to believe in a vacuum of a pain, suffering, even death. We’re called to believe in the very face of pain, in the face of suffering, in the valleys, in shadow of death, in presence of our enemies.

There is a paradox to faith. On the one hand, Jesus is able to come along us and truly weep, acknowledging the real struggle of faith, the anguish of sickness, the utter terror that death brings. In John 11:33-37 we see the goodness and love, the empathy and identification of Jesus with us in our suffering.

“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?”

But then we also see the greatness and power, the victory and hope Jesus provides. “Too Late” from our perspective is never “Too Late” for God. Jesus said, “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?” Our sickness may end in death. We may lay there one day, two days, three days, four days. For God, not even in death or after death, is too late, or too limiting.

 John 11:38-44, “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.”