DAY SIXTY-FIVE:
Raising Lazarus from the Dead
All this week we've been looking at some of the miracles that Jesus performed. So far we've considered four miracles: feeding 5,000 + people with just five loaves of bread and two fish; walking on water; healing a blind man; and delivering a demon-possessed man from his bondage to Satan. All of these fit the two definitions of miracles: first, each of these cannot be explained by natural means; and they point to God and bring glory to Him. Today we're going to look at the greatest of Jesus' miracles, raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. This miracle, witnessed by hundreds of Jerusalem's most prominent citizens, attested that He was indeed the Messiah of Israel and the Son of Man. This miracle also set into motion the events of Jesus' final week.
Jesus received a message from Martha and Mary that Lazarus was deathly ill. Understood in the message was a plea for Jesus to come and heal him before it's too late. But instead of heading right away for Bethany, Jesus stayed two more days where He had been ministering. Then all of a sudden He told the disciples to pack up and head south. This made the disciples uncomfortable. Jesus barely escaped stoning the last time they were in Jerusalem. It was suicide to go back! He told them of Lazarus' death, and that He was glad for their sakes that His friend had died, so that they might believe. It appears that Jesus was constrained from leaving for Bethany for a couple of days, but when that constraint was lifted He wanted to leave right away.
When Jesus arrived Lazarus had already been in the grave for four days. It was necessary, due to Israel's hot climate, to bury the dead as quickly as possible. The funeral service and prayers for the dead came later. The period of mourning lasted up to 40 days with guests coming to comfort their bereaved friends. This was a prominent family, and John tells us that many Jews came to offer their sympathy.
Martha went out to meet Jesus. She said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Martha no doubt wondered why Jesus didn't come right away and heal Lazarus. Yet she still has faith in Jesus. He replied, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said she knew that her brother would rise, along with everyone else, at the end of the age. But Jesus pushed way past that: "I am the resurrection and the life.Whoever believes in me,though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" Jesus not only has life, He life itself. He not only hopes for the resurrection of the dead, He IS the resurrection. Jesus said in John 5:25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." Jesus asked Martha if she believed this. She answered, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,who is coming into the world."
Jesus went with Martha to the house. Marty didn't come out to greet Jesus as Martha did. Perhaps she was bitter that He didn't come before Lazarus died. Martha sent word that Jesus wanted to see her, and she ran out to Him. She fell at His feet and wept. "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." She once sat at Jesus' feet, soaking in His wonderful words. Once again she's at His feet, but this time she is grieving unconsolably. Emotions start to bubble up inside Jesus. Remember, He was God Himself, yet He was also a man, in every way like us. The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, "Jesus wept." Just two words, but so rich in meaning. Jesus experienced the same sorrow that we do when a loved one dies. One of my favorite hymns is "Does Jesus Care?" This verse shows that He does care about our sorrow and pain!
Jesus went out to the garden behind the house to see the tomb. He ordered the stone to be rolled away. Martha protested that Lazarus had been dead four days. I love the King James Version's rendering: "He stinketh." Jesus said do it anyway. Then He prayed, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 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." Then He yelled out, "Lazarus, come out!" And Lazarus did just that, still wrapped in the linen strips and with a cloth wrapped around his face. He must have had to waddle to the entrance! Jesus said to unwrap him, and under all that cloth was Lazarus, alive and well, cured of the disease that had killed him. Jesus raised the widow of Nain's son when He saw the funeral procession. He raised Jairus' daughter. Each of these had been dead for less than a day, probably just a few hours. Lazarus was rotting away when Jesus raise him.
This is where our reading ends, but we need to look at the aftermath. First, many of the most prominent citizens of Jerusalem witnessed this miracle. They believed in Jesus- how could you not believe if you'd seen Lazarus come out of his tomb? Yet there were some who went to the Pharisees and reported what had happened. Certainly they would finally believe. How could they deny that Jesus was the Messiah if He could raise a man who was four days dead? But they didn't believe. Their hearts, like Pharaoh's, were hardened and they hated Jesus all the more. They feared that everyone would believe in Jesus and that the Romans would crack down hard. Caiaphas, the high priest, said, "...it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish." (John 11:50) John comments that even though he didn't realize it, Caiaphas was prophesying. "...Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad." The miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead was the catalyst that led to the cross.
Jesus is the Lord of Life! The raising of Lazarus from the dead is incontrovertible proof. As John said back in the first chapter, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." Jesus offers us life- all we have to do is believe. Eternal life doesn't begin when we die, it begins when we are born again (John 3:3). We're living the reality of eternal life right now! If this isn't good news, there is no such thing as good news.
Why, then, did the Pharisees and the other Jewish leaders not believe? They were expecting a Messiah who would affirm what they had done and make them His officials in a restored Israel. Jesus threatened the place they had made for themselves and the prestige they enjoyed. But beneath all of this we see fear. Yesterday I mentioned M. Scott Peck and his book People of the Lie. He wrote that fear underlies evil, a fear that will not allow faith. John wrote in 1 John 4:18, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." If they could not accept Jesus they had no choice but to destroy Him. From that moment Jesus was under a death sentence, even before He was arrested and tried.
The movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar came out in 1973 and had a remake in 2000. Here is a scene from the latter version, where the Jewish leaders discuss Jesus and His growing popularity.
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