John 11
November 6, 2014

The story of the resurrection of Lazarus is so familiar that I often miss some of the finer details of it.  Sure, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, which is one of our first indications of just how far reaching the power of Christ is.   It must have seemed ironic to Jesus to be saying to the Jews, "roll the stone away" when he knew that in several weeks or months that he would be in the very same situation.   He called to Lazarus in  loud voice "come out",  knowing that He himself would respond to the loud voice of God (himself, even) calling him out of the tomb.    Someday you and I will pass away and be buried, and someday we will also hear the voice of God saying "it's time to come out" and we will rise again.   I suspect on that day everything will make sense, because we will finally see things clearly, freed from the perspective of our temporary human bodies.

Today I see that Jesus is glad that Lazarus has passed away.  Glad because He already knows that He will bring him back from the dead, and his disciples will get to see it, and be even more convinced that He is God in the flesh.

The text says that Jesus loved Martha and her sister.  We hear so much about Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet while Martha is working, and crying over him and wiping his feet with her hair.....Mary is definitely the more emotive and expressive of the two sisters.   But Jesus loved them both.
It's Martha that puts her grief aside for a moment so that she can travel out to meet the Master.   It's Martha that makes the good confession that Jesus is the Messiah.  One of the clearest descriptions and professions of faith that I have seen in the Bible.   It's in response to Martha's conversation with Him that Jesus says "your brother will live again".

Then I see that Jesus, with Mary and Martha at the grave site begins to weep.   There really is only one reason for it, and that would be emotive.   Jesus feels grief because his dear friends feel grief.   They are sad so He is sad.   God has, in some way of His own choosing, linked himself to us emotionally.   I suspect that it is through the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and in Him as well.   When we are grieved, or elated, our Spirit soars, or plummets.   And that essence is somehow felt within the Godhead.     This is speculation, of course.  No one can know something like this for certain.   But think of it for a moment:  "what possible reason does Jesus have to cry?"   He knows that He is going to resurrect Lazarus.  In a few moments they will be laughing and hugging and many in the crowd will realize that He is the Son of God.    This is a great day for the faith!   Why cry?   It can only be because his friends were sad.    Somehow it is comforting to me to know that when I am sad or lonely Jesus is sensitive to that.   It also pleases me to know that when I praise God it brings joy to Him as well.

Because of this powerful miracle the Jews will redouble their efforts to kill Jesus.  Their reasoning is simple, but also corrupt.   Jesus is going to create such a stir that the nation itself will become a stench in the nostrils of the Romans.   Jesus is clearly against the Pharisees and the Teachers, so they are about to lose their jobs, and the nation will be plunged into a conflict with Rome.
If they believed that Jesus was truly the Son of God, they wouldn't have a problem with that...but they don't believe it, so they think they have to "protect" the nation.    Protect the nation from the very person who gave it life in the first place.   Again, ironic.   Sad and ironic.

PR