The Death of Lazarus John Chapter Eleven
The chapter unfolds with Jesus and the disciples a day’s journey from Bethany where Lazarus and his sisters lived. The sisters, Mary and Martha sent word that Jesus close friend, their brother Lazarus was sick. This sickness is serious since the sisters sent word to Jesus a days journey away. In verse four Jesus pronounces: “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
Jesus loved the family and decided to delay returning to Bethany for two more days. After two days past Jesus said lets us go to Judea. In verse eight Jesus’ disciples once again are being used by the opposition to persuade Jesus not to go to Judea because the people there tried to stone him and then mocked Jesus with the comment— “and yet you are going back.” In verse nine Jesus rebuked the disciples with an illustration between night and day. In this rebuke that I suspect the disciples did not understand Jesus is telling them they are of the night and lack light to see. After he said this, Jesus informed the disciples that Lazarus had died. I wonder why the text does not contain a question about how Jesus knew Lazarus died since no further word was received by the sisters. To me, Jesus’s revelation should have brought up a lot of questions about who he is.
Everything that is going on concerns God’s glory revealed through and in Jesus. There is a hint of nascent disbelief among his disciples, and I would imagine troubled Jesus.
In verses fourteen and fifteen Jesus lays it out for his disciples when he says: “…then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Again, Jesus talking to his disciples telling them that they do not believe who he is. I wonder if there is any difference with people today. Today, people acknowledge Jesus and I suspect few know who he is. As it was during Jesus’ day God’s glory was viewed with historical understanding. Now that Jesus is among the people and God’s glory is seen through him by countless miracles, many people did not believe, and even those who said they did display a nascent disbelief in him. This is evident in Thomas’s remark in verse sixteen where he said: “Then Thomas, (known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us go, that we may die with him.” Not certain if Thomas is talking about dying with Lazarus or with Jesus; this statement to me falls back on verse eight—unbelief and fear.
In verses twenty-one even Martha fell into the opposition’s trap and rebuked Jesus by saying: “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. “Then in the next verse she has hope when she proclaims: “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Here hope is misguided because she believes that Lazarus will rise again in the last days. She cannot or will not believe that Jesus can perform a miracle that would result in Lazarus coming back to life. Jesus on the other hand reiterated to Martha who he is by staying in verse’s twenty-five through twenty-six that, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” In verse twenty-seven Martha reaffirms her belief that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God who has come into the world. The statement of belief is faithless in nature, she believes what she said and that is it.
Martha reminds me of many of us today: We believe, doubt, and then hope that our faith is in the right place.
Skipping along the time has come for Jesus to raise Lazarus from his four-day nap. Mary and Martha were telling Jesus that the body has been in the tomb for four days and it will stink. Jesus orders the stone removed and I imagine they were all covering their nose. However, Jesus saw something else, he saw their unbelief because in verse forty he says: “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” In verse forty-one through forty-two Jesus prays: ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’
Lazarus was raised and walked out of the tomb to everyone’s amazement and fear.
The story in this chapter of John deals directly with unbelief even when with Jesus. That is the story through the gospel when it comes to the disciples, even though they were with Jesus most of the time, they still struggled to believe. Today is no different, many struggle to believe in a risen Christ. People say the words, hear it from the pulpit but still find it difficult to genuinely believe.
There is an article published by Christian Post titled “Unbiblical Christianity and its dangers.” I am not going to summarize this article here and point you to the article so you can read it at your leisure. Click here to visit the article.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this. Faith isn’t fleeting or wishful thinking: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not yet seen. If we truly believe and trust in Christ Jesus, then it is our responsibility to show the steadfastness as Jesus and many others after him did. We do not defend God, we defend the faith by being faithful. It is imperative that every follower of Christ Jesus read the book. That book (the Bible) is His testimony to all the world and we need to share that testimony until He calls us home or He returns.
NOTE: There are some in academia who claim the gospel of John was borrowed from Mark and Luke’s gospels. Reading that account in Luke sixteen the parable of Lazarus is not the same man in John’s gospel. The Lazarus in John’s gospel is a very close friend of Jesus and the one in Luke is definitely not. You can read some about this at BibleAsk.
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