“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die – ever.”
- John 11:25-26 -
A very important question is asked in Psalm 121. Thankfully, the answer comes in the very next verse: ‘I will lift up my eyes to the hills - from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth’ (1-2). The psalmist knows that when pain and affliction come, we must look with spiritual eyes to the heavenly hill of Zion, the dwelling place of God. We must know that God is bigger than all our problems and that He helps in times of need. ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble’ (Ps. 46:1). Jesus is our good shepherd. Yet, as happens in John, we don’t dictate when Christ comes: ‘Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick’ (11:1-2).
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus were beloved friends of Jesus who willingly received Him in their home (Luke 10:38). They were part of the Lord’s inner circle and worshiped Him with all their heart. Here was a family that loved Jesus deeply, yet they had a major problem. Many believe Christians aren’t supposed to have problems, forgetting that Jesus warns: “In the world you will have tribulation” (John 16:33). So even the saved experience difficulties in this godless world. While we should never wear woes on our sleeve for all to see, it’s hard to smile when a spouse says they’re leaving or a child is hit by a drunk driver. Problems are real, but it’s our closeness to God that saves us in the storm. Be like Paul, who says: ‘We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed’ (2 Cor. 4:8-9).
Mary and Martha knew what to do in the face of calamity when Lazarus grew ill. They sent for Jesus rather than seeking advice from friends or a doctor. It’s no wonder that ‘Lazarus’ means ‘God is my help.’ The Greek word used for Christ’s love toward Lazarus is ‘phileo’ which is an emotional love; a deep, personal affection for another. Mary and Martha made no specific request of Jesus, but simply sent word reminding Him how much He loved their brother. Jesus responds by telling His disciples: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). Jesus would take this bad situation and use it to glorify God.
Mary and Martha must have cried out: “Where are You, Jesus?” Have you ever done the same? Your bills are overdue, your child is sick, or tomorrow’s the day your divorce becomes final. You ask: “Where are You, Jesus? I prayed and you didn't come.” Lazarus is dying and the Lord is nowhere to be found. Jesus gets word that His friend is sick but just kicks back and hangs around for a couple days. Scripture doesn’t say exactly what Jesus did but if He was tired or busy, couldn’t He have spoken a few words and healed Lazarus from a distance? Then, finally, two days later, He tells the disciples it’s time to go even though He knows Lazarus is already dead.
Death is natural in a fallen world, yet it truly is unnatural. God made Adam and Eve to live forever. For all eternity, man was to walk in the presence of God. That all changed when sin entered and brought death, pain, and separation. Since then, the stark reality of life is that all are doomed to die. None are exempt from death. Life’s final finish line is out there, yet most don’t want to think about it. They know they’re destined to die but deny it might be today. Death is the last enemy, but Paul says it’s been defeated for the born-again believer: ‘When our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”’ (1 Cor. 15:54-55). And so Jesus will use Lazarus’ temporary death to show the disciples that He can overcome all enemies.
‘So when Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother’ (John 11:17-19). Due to the climate, it was Jewish custom to immediately bury loved ones. The Jews didn’t embalm bodies like Egyptians, so by this time Lazarus’ body began to decompose and produce a foul odor. When Christ shows up, Mary and Martha have an attitude and are ready to speak their mind: ‘Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died”’ (11:21). Here is a grieving soul dictating to God how things should be. When the devil said Eve could be like God, knowing good and evil, he meant she could judge right versus wrong. This profound sin is operating in Martha when she lays blame at the Son of God.
Martha partially recovers when she admits: “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You” (John 11:22). Was this real faith or mere mental assent? Thinking you believe when you don’t is worse than open unbelief. So Jesus replies: “Your brother will rise again” (11:23). God loves Martha enough to not give her what she asked for as He has something better planned. It is love that delays the answer to prayer. Love told Jesus to wait two more days. His timing is better than ours. Martha responds: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (11:24). She trusts in God for an eternal future but clearly not for the present. In her mind, hope is still lost and victory is dead. That’s when Jesus pulls out the big guns: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (11:25-26).
Christ came to call men from death to life. In the face of pain and confusion, Jesus is telling Martha that He is the only hope for resurrection. The resurrection isn’t an event. It’s a person, and His name is Jesus. We look to Him in our darkest hour. He is the light of the world and the resurrection and the life! He alone has power over life and death. So He asks Martha, “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26). In God’s kingdom, life starts and ends with faith. As Hebrews asks: ‘What is faith? It is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen. It is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it’ (11:1). Scripture gives us confidence that God’s promises will come to pass in His good time, ‘for we walk by faith, not by sight’ (2 Cor. 5:7). Faith gives us the strength to know that we have the resources and ability to overcome and rise above it all with God.
Martha confesses, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, the One who comes into the world,” but her words lack conviction, so ‘when she had said this, she went away’ (John 11:27-28). She doesn’t understand Jesus’ claim, nor does she ask Him to explain or help her unbelief. She simply leaves. How did this make Jesus feel to watch such a close friend go? This is how we wound Jesus. We walk away and return to unbelief. When Mary then comes and blames Christ for being late, He must have thought: “Oh, no. Not you too, Mary. I thought surely, of all people, you would understand and believe.” Therefore John tells us: ‘When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled’ (11:33). The same Greek term describes a snorting, indignant horse. Jesus is rightfully upset by such hopelessness in the face of His miraculous resume.
If these people trusted in Christ, they wouldn’t have buried Lazarus. They would have waited for Him to arrive. Remember when in 2 Kings 4 the Shunammite woman’s son died. She didn’t bury him. She laid him on a bed and searched for a man of God to come and raise him back to life. She confessed, “all is well” (4:26), and soon it was. Therefore, Jesus asks: “Where have you laid him?” (John 11:34). He wants to see the place where they gave up and stopped believing He could do the impossible. Jesus then weeps, not just because He misses Lazarus, but because unbelief truly bothers God incarnate. Faith was in short supply, so Jesus wept and groaned. Where are those who truly trust God? Where are those who believe in the God of the impossible?
Jesus approaches the tomb. He says to roll the stone away, but Martha’s unbelief speaks up: “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39). She’s rationalizing her lack of resurrection faith when she really needs to stop making excuses and let God be God. She doesn’t see that in the stench of death, Christ is still the resurrection and the life. He is God in our darkest hours, in the grief and confusion of life. Martha says, “But, Lord...” when she should be saying, “Yes, Lord.” Graciously Jesus reminds her of His promise: “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (11:40). What is about to happen is a sneak preview of what will one day happen to all who make Jesus their Lord and Savior. A day is coming when the graves will open and an eternal resurrection will take place (1 Thess. 4:16-17).
When the stone is rolled away, the first thing Jesus does is look to heaven. He thanks His Father for hearing Him. He wanted those standing there to hear so that they might believe He is the Christ sent by God. Next, Jesus cries out with a loud voice: ‘“Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go”’ (John 11:43-44). Christ returns Lazarus to life to demonstrate His resurrection power. There is no life without Christ. Just dark, stinking tombs that only the God-man can rescue us from by the word of His power. So hear that word while there is yet time and ground your faith in His promise to one day raise you to glory with Him.
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