Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead

Seeing Jesus in His Miracles—Part 6 of 7

• Miracle at Cana
• The Healing at Bethesda
• Five Thousand Fed
• Jesus Walks on the Water
• The Man Born Blind
• Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead
• The Miraculous Catch

February 12, 1989

John 11

Introduction: In this passage of scripture we have the crowning miracle of all the miracles that Jesus did before His passion. It is the climax of John's revelation of the mastery of Jesus. It brought about a crisis in His opposition that led directly to his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. From the point of view of Christ's enemies, desperate measures were needed against One who could demonstrate authority even over death.

But we are interested in what this miracle reveals to us of the character of Jesus:

Jesus is 'beyond Jordan' in a wilderness area, under pressure and threat from the religious leaders. He gets word that Lazarus is in trouble. It looks like He is afraid, because He remains in place two days longer. And He is warned (v 8) NOT to go back. Thomas (v 16) says: 'Let's go die with Him!' Jesus is on the way. But He is "late."

I. THE TIMING OF JESUS IN RESPONSE TO EXPRESSED APPEAL FOR HELP ...

Jesus' TIMING is usually far from what WE might think He ought to be doing:

Verse 6 "When therefore He heard that he was sick, He stayed then two days longer in the place where He was."

I cannot hope to explain why Jesus, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, stayed right where He was and apparently let Lazarus die. But I am convinced that Jesus had reasons we will not know until eternity why he tarried. Jesus has the "timing" of the whole world in his control. And Jesus does not toy with personalities; He does not treat people like laboratory animals.

As Jesus drew near, we know what He is going to do. In a few minutes Lazarus will be restored to his family. But still Jesus is deeply moved in His spirit (v 33). He weeps with those who are weeping.

II. THE OBVIOUS AND APPARENT EMPATHY OF JESUS FOR THOSE WHO MOURNED

Jesus shared in the grief of those who mourned. He knew that bereavement and sorrow are the keenest of pain; and He knew that His delay had added to the pain.

Verse 35 "Jesus wept."

1. WHY? WHY DID JESUS WEEP?

   Was He simply weak, and couldn't stand to see tears? Personally, I believe that Jesus was strong like no other man or woman was ever strong. In the words of the songwriter: "He had no tears for His own grief, but sweat drops of blood for MINE!"

   I believe Jesus wept because He cared! And I still think that God grieves, and cares. I DON'T KNOW WHY HE DOESN'T INTERVENE AT TIMES. HE HAS LIMITED HIMSELF. BUT I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE THAT HE IS GOD, AND THAT HE IS GOOD.

2. WHEN DID JESUS WEEP? at least two times:

   Here. Over the sorrowing.

   Over the city of Jerusalem. When He knew the city of Jerusalem was rejecting Him. Over the lost, the rejectors.

   Jesus cares enough about others — about YOU and ME to have His heart broken. Have you ever had your heart broken because people you love were hurting themselves, or were going through deep water and you couldn't help them?

   Have YOU ever broken the heart of Jesus?

   But one other thought here:

3. WHY and WHEN do WE weep??

   [It certainly isn't weak or wrong to weep occasionally.] But what do we weep about? "As the World Turns?" 'A dent in the new car?' Lost opportunities?

   Or, do we care enough about others to listen, and to love, and to weep???

   If Jesus wept, Jesus certainly also changed the expected course of the proceedings that day! Jesus was not weeping because He knew that death was the end! Jesus didn't see Lazarus illness and death the same as anyone else there that day:

III. THE PERSPECTIVE OF JESUS ON THE ILLNESS AND DEATH OF LAZARUS, AND THE MASTERY OF JESUS REVEALED

... This different perspective is apparent early on:

(11:4) "But when Jesus heard it (that Lazarus was sick) He said: 'This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of man may be glorified by it.'"

Jesus certainly did not view the situation in the same way as any one else could view it. He said: "This illness is not unto death." — and yet Lazarus did die. How can we understand what Jesus meant??

1. He could have been mistaken. (I discount that.)
2. He could have meant: "I know in advance that I will be in Bethany in four days and I will reverse the process of death and disintegration, and so the end will not what it seems now." It looks on the face of it that this is what Jesus meant. But I am convinced that Jesus had reasons we will not know until eternity why he tarried. Jesus has the "timing" of the whole world in his control. AND JESUS DOES NOT MANIPULATE US like laboratory animals.
3. What Jesus said is: "This illness of Lazarus, OR ANY OTHER ILLNESS OR SITUATION IN MORTAL LIFE, does not finally end in death."

   DEATH IS NOT THE FINAL GOAL FOR WHICH WE ALL ARE HEADING. And Jesus could say that because He also could say what no one else ever can say: "I AM the Resurrection and the Life."

   In the far reaching eons of eternity, when this wonderful Universe has gone through stage after stage of re-Creation the kernel of reality that is your PERSON, your SPIRIT, the real YOU will still be self-aware!

4. We grasp at the illusion of 'being in some semblance of control' of our lives. We don't like to think that there is so much about life and death that we cannot understand. Only Jesus can speak with authority about life, death, and eternity:

ILLUSTRATION: [In 1975 Henri J. M. Nouwen wrote (in his book Reaching Out,):

"Recently a student who had just finished his long studies for the ministry and was ready to start in his first church suddenly died after a fatal fall from his bike. Those who knew him well felt a strong, angry protest arising from their hearts. Why him, a very noble man who could have done so much for so many? Why now, just when his long, costly education could start bearing fruit? Why in this way, so unprepared and unheroic? There were no answers to all these reasonable questions. A strong angry protest seemed the only human response.

But such a protest is the continuation of our allusion that we know what life is all about, that we rule it and determine its values as well as its goals. We do not, and are challenged instead to convert our protest against the absurdities of the human existence into a prayer lifting us beyond the boundaries of our existence to him who holds our life in his hands and heart with boundless love and mercy. In our attempts to accept this challenge, we are wise to say to ourselves with the words of the Psalmist:

You men, why shut your hearts so long, loving delusions, chasing after lies? Know this, Yahweh works wonders for those he loves, Yahweh hears me when I call to him. (Psalm 4:2-3) ]

Our perspective is necessarily limited. We cannot see anything redeeming about the death of a distinguished student in a biking accident. The loss of a Rev. Dale Parry is stunning, unmixed tragedy to us, and I do not even try to explain it away. I cannot see anything attractive about burying a young man of 26 who is fast "losing" a 10-year struggle with cancer.

But it is precisely when we cannot see or understand that we need to listen to Jesus. We need to hear Him say: "This sickness is not unto death!" And by faith we need to see that HE, and not WE, are the masters of life. He, not we, determines what are life's greatest values, and what are its eternal goals.

And by faith we understand that when we put our faith, our trust, our life in Christ's keeping, then nothing of this wonderful, mysterious, transient, tragic, joyful thing we call LIFE is meant to END in death.

Conclusion: And so in this miracle we see THE MASTERY OF JESUS TO BRING HOPE BEYOND HOPE

We still use these words of Jesus at just about every Christian graveside. "I am the Resurrection and the LIFE!"

At Lazarus's grave he proved His Mastery by calling the dead man forth— but to the same kind of good life he had known before, not to the glorified life that all the Church shall know when we see Him in HIS glory.

But Jesus is just the same today as He was in Bethany; He loves YOU as much as He loved Lazarus, as hard as that is to believe. He cares about YOUR deep hurts and needs.

Prayer: Be present in a healing, assuring way in our Communion this morning. Weep with us, O Lord, but also call forth the power of HOPE into our lives! YOU are the Life! You are the Resurrection of Hope! And You are HERE!

EH #28 - Oh, How He Loves You and Me