City Life Starter

Written by Paul Lane

The Word

The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. ⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹ After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” ¹³ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

¹⁷ Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Jesus Weeps

²⁸ When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³² Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. ³⁴ And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus

³⁸ Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” ⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

The Plot to Kill Jesus

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, ⁴⁶ but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 

John 11:1-46 (ESV)

²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
²⁶ And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I shall see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!

Job 19:25-27 (ESV)

Reflection

This is such a sweet moment in the ministry of Jesus.  We encounter Mary and Martha, the sisters who are often used as examples of personalities in relationships.  I’m such a Mary and my wife is such a Martha, yet we love deeply.  This scene is a bit like a dumb play for the crucifixion and resurrection (Dumb Play: a simple telling of a story so that they audience can take in the storyline before the full play is shown).  There are the women at the tomb, Jesus weeping as if in the garden or on the cross, and the stone being rolled away from the tomb.

We should remember that the people in this story lived closer to the awful scenes and smells of death than we do in our current society.  When one died, the friends and family experienced the results of the fleshly decay firsthand.  John MacArthur described a dead body at our current day funerals as “…the horizontal member of a cocktail party.”  And so, one might think of death and dying as something far off, but in truth we know that it is something fearful, dreadful, and well beyond our ability to control.  As one comedian put it, if 46% of marriages end in divorce, that means the 54% of marriages end in death!  So, where is our hope?

Our hope is in the Lord, Jesus Christ Himself.  He is the hope of our faith and the hope of our resurrection.  As the leviathan is a beast too bold for us, yet the plaything of God, so is death to our Lord.  So, Christ raises Lazarus in the sight of many witnesses and shows that resurrection is possible.  God the Father raises Christ from the dead and shows that death is overcome, so that you might believe and enter eternal life.

Application

As we used to confess in our Lutheran church, “Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ will come again.”  This is a worthwhile saying.  We are taught that Jesus actually died and there is very good evidence of this.  No scholar of ancient times would claim that Jesus didn’t exist.  We are also taught that Jesus actually lived again, after being dead.  There is also very good evidence of this.  No ancient scholar would claim that early Christians did not claim this.  They also would not claim that there is solid proof that Jesus is still dead.  However, the belief of Christ rising from the dead is an element of faith, and not just science.

So, it is left to you.  Do you belief that Jesus raised Lazarus?  Do you believe that Christ was raised from the dead?  Do you belief that this means anything to your life?  I’m here to tell you that the resurrection of Jesus does matter and it is the key to your life.  That is, your life today and your eternal life to come.  So, I encourage you to take time to think on this story and the deep love that Jesus had for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and understand that it is the same love waiting for you.

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Prayer

Dear Lord, I pray that You give us a view of Your glory, that we might understand the eternal splendor that You intend for us.  In Jesus name I pray, amen.