The Sleep of Death (part 2 of 2) ...

In verses 17 to 19 of chapter eleven John sets the scene for us.  He first tells us that Lazarus has been in the grave for 4 days by the time Jesus arrives.  It is unknown how long they may have waited to bury him there where he would have been dead in the home (but this is believed to be a short time).  Next, John tells us that Bethany is only 15 furlongs away from Jerusalem, and given the reputation of Lazarus, there were religious leaders who had traveled to the home of Mary and Martha to pay their respects and try to comfort them.  In fact, John uses the words “Many Jews” came to comfort the sisters of Lazarus, a testament to his fame, fortune, and character.  It is against this backdrop that Jesus arrives in the area.  Martha hears of it, and runs out to greet Jesus, and much more importantly to find out – “why”?  Why did He not come?  Why did He delay?  Why would He “let” her brother die?  From Martha’s perspective it is too late now.  The damage has been done.  The thing that cannot be reversed has happened.  A good prophet and man of God might have been able to prevent death, but now that it is here, and it has already been so long, all hope is lost.  History demonstrates this.  Reality is defined by this.  Nothing but this has ever been our lot.  So for Martha, the only question left to know, is why?

Martha begins in verse 21 … “Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”  Her faith in His ability to heal and prevent death was absolute.  But something more was going on here.  Martha must have sensed it.  Perhaps it was a look of love in His eyes.  Perhaps it was His non-verbal responses, His gestures, His motions, an intention of His that she could not put a finger on, but spoke volumes about potential still to come which she could not understand.  So she continues in verse 22 … “But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.”  There it is.  Martha swings the door wide open on the possibility of resurrection right here and now.  What else is there to ask on behalf of her brother.  He is dead and sleeping.  But even now, she knows that His Father listens to His Son, and gives Him what He asks.  Jesus responds to her instinct in verse 23 saying … “Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.”  He means right here and right now.  He means, the door of possibility you just opened, I have every intention of walking through.  You are about to witness His restoration from the grave.  But her mind goes instinctively to what she believes from the scriptures as she responds in verse 24 … “Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  She is sure he will be saved in the Kingdom of God, and that on the “last day” of our world, when calamity is falling on the wicked, Lazarus like all the rest of the dead who put their faith for Salvation in Jesus Christ will rise again.  Notice, this happens at the end of time, not throughout it.  Lazarus will sleep until that “day”, not be aware of everything between now and then.

But Jesus has a larger point to make.  He wants to assure her that on that great day, the mechanism by which the dead will rise, is the same mechanism that is standing before her, he continues in verse 25 … “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: [verse 26] And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”  Jesus is the mechanism by which all who sleep will be awakened as He promised.  Jesus is the mechanism by which all who desire Salvation, restoration, and perfection will find it.  He will create it within us, raising us from death unto life, and a more abundant life at that.  Jesus asks Martha, the true question that matters, do you believe it is ME who will do this?  It is different to believe that “God” will do it, than that Jesus is “God” who will do it.  Knowledge of scripture is not the same as knowledge of Christ that is experienced first-hand as He saves you and does what He promises.  Those who have a first-hand testimony of the saving power of Christ are sure about what He is doing, not just a theoretical discussion about what He can do if we let Him.  Jesus is making this very personal for Martha.  Notice this conversation John records is the very essence of Salvation between man and God, and it is being held with a woman.  This is the meat-and-potatoes of the gospel itself, and the question and the faith is between Christ and Martha.  Mary may often get top billing for her sensitivity and love for Christ, but here is Martha questioning the very source and origin of life itself.  Here is the faith of Martha being verified, despite the logic and the history, and the reality of what she “knows”.

In verse 27, Martha makes her stand, her choice, and her declaration for now and all time.  Her brother is still dead and in the grave.  Nothing has been “proven” to her yet.  But live or die, sickness or health, there will only ever be ONE true Messiah, and ONE true Son of God, and ONE true hope for her own restoration and redemption and He is standing in front of her.  She declares … “She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.”  She has made her choice about what she will believe – BEFORE – any actions or proof are offered that Christ can do what He says He can do.  And with this declaration, the “why” question is no longer important.  In point of fact, it was never answered.  Jesus never told her “why” he delayed, and did not simply heal her brother.  He never answered why.  But he offered so much more.  And now, no matter what, she was at peace, and returned inside the home.

On arriving back through the grieving crowd of support, Martha finds Mary and tells her that Jesus has arrived and is asking for her.  Mary immediately gets up and runs to Jesus.  John records that Jesus was still where Martha had left Him, He had not made much progress to getting to their home.  So when those who were trying to comfort Mary, saw her get up so quickly and head out of the house, they just assumed she was running to the grave site in order to continue to grieve.  For Mary was as sad, as sad gets.  Her heart was broken for her brother to the core.  Those who were with her just assumed she was going to the grave to weep.  But Mary, like her sister, wanted to know “why” as well.  She may have come at this question from a different point of view.  For her it was about love.  Her brother treated her well despite her life and past.  He was merciful and loving to her.  To lose that kind of love was a loss she could not bear.  Then complicated because the love of the Master was so great, having restored her life when she should have lost it; how could a love that great seem apathetic in the time of so great a need?  Love could not do this.  So for her, the “why” was even more important.

In verse 32 John records … “Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”  Having said this Mary began weeping.  She was literally on the ground at the feet of Christ, no pride left, no hope left, only a sadness that cut her to the core.  How could love not have responded to a pain only Christ might fully understand.  The empathy of Christ was keen.  He saw through human eyes what it was like to lose one who was loved so much.  He saw through Mary, how great a loss death is to us who have no vision beyond the grave.  Love laid on the ground in front Him weeping.  And for the first time in John’s record of the gospel, He records that this sight moved Christ to His own core.  John records of this experience in verse 33 … “When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, [verse 34] And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.”  Those who were with Mary still thought she was on her way to the grave to weep.  Mary wept because she could not reconcile how love could let this occur.  She knew that Christ could have prevented it and did not understand why He would not.  She knew she had lost a love of her brother and would not see him again.  For Mary the possibility of resurrection is not something she will be entertaining today. 

And so John records in verse 35 the shortest and perhaps most profound insight into the character of God throughout scripture … “Jesus wept.”  Now keep in mind, that Jesus knows what He is about to do.  He is not weeping over the loss of Lazarus, because Lazarus is about to be alive again.  He is weeping because the heart of Mary is SO broken, that her sadness breaks His own heart.  Jesus feels and sees the loss of death through the eyes of Mary, and sees the question she poses of why Love could allow this to occur.  He knows the answer.  But the answer does NOT stop her pain right now.  He knows that in heaven, there will be an eternity of joy, with a life that Martha, Mary and Lazarus will never see end.  But that does not stop her pain right now.  She weeps right now.  And so, in the most tender sympathies He weeps with her.  He shares her grief, even though He knows what is about to happen.  He sees her pain and it cuts Him to the core. 

Jesus weeps, for all who experience pain, and death.  He weeps that pain and death exist at all.  It was NOT His intention.  It is why He came; to see removed from our lives.  But we cling to it.  We won’t let Him take it away.  We hold on to it like it is a prize, instead of the cancer it truly is.  And He weeps, because He cannot force us to let it go.  Jesus weeps because He is not allowed to end ALL death, all pain, all sin within us.  He wants nothing more than our joy, and He weeps with heart that is broken, because we will not.  He shares her grief, and experiences His own, on a more profound level than any with a broken heart from a love rejected will ever understand.  For His love for us is deeper than any we have ever known, and too often, it is rejected by us.  And so He weeps.

Those who accompanied Mary see Jesus weeping, and His profound sadness is rightly interpreted as an indicator of how much Jesus loved Lazarus.  But it is not just for Lazarus or Mary, that Jesus weeps, He weeps for all of us who reject His perfect love.  He longs that all would be saved from pain, death, and this thing we have made of ourselves.  Then those who are there begin asking the same question as Mary and Martha have posed.  If Jesus healed all these others, why not heal Lazarus?  This question causes Jesus much pain as well, for while He must act in overall best interest, sometimes the pain is still something we experience in the short term.  John continues his account in verse 38 … “Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.”  But it was time now, for grief to give way to joy.

Jesus calls for them to take action in verse 39 … “Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. [verse 40] Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?”  It does not make sense to do what Jesus is asking of them.  How many times did what God asked of His servants not make sense from our point of view?  Martha responds to Jesus by citing Him the facts as she knows them; she gives Him the reason why this request is a bad idea.  4-day old dead bodies in a hot desert climate are not the stuff anyone is going to want to smell.  Logic, history, the facts, all support Martha’s concern.  But Jesus is asking Martha, if she is willing to believe in spite of what she “knows”.  It is the same question put to the Pharisees.  It is the same question put to us.  It was the same question Lucifer walked away from; trust his own instincts, or the word of God.  Ultimately it is the question that will see evil permanently extinguished.  When we trust God more than we trust our own wisdom, the facts will be revealed to be something more than we knew, and evil will be gone forever.

In verse 41, they obeyed the request of Christ, probably due to the urging of Martha to listen to Him.  Notice that Mary is still too overcome with grief to be functional in this story.  She is there, but the interactions are largely between Christ and Martha.  Each of us are different.  Yet each of us are loved by Christ for who we are, not just as a part of a larger group.  Christ interacts with Martha differently than Mary or Lazarus, but loves all three of them.  Jesus was moved to tears with Mary, not so with Martha.  And it will be the faith of Martha, to trust in Christ, in spite of what she “knows” that will see what transpires next.  Verse 41 reveals … “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. [verse 42] And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.”  This prayer is a revelation.  It had already been answered to Christ, but He said it aloud so that those standing near Him could hear Him give His Father the glory of what was about to happen.

This was why Christ was here this day.  This was “why” He had delayed returning to Lazarus, and “why” He had not simply just healed him like He did for so many others.  He was here to establish once and for all definitive proof that He was the author of life and of our resurrection both from evil and from death.  He was more than just a prophet.  He was more than just a “good man” with good ideas.  He was and remains the only Son of God, able alone to do, what no other man will ever be able to do.  Christ alone would be our salvation.  Verse 43 continues ... "And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.”  An old professor of mine once told me, and I agree, that had He not called Lazarus by name, He might have called forth every dead person who had ever walked the earth.  In point of fact, this is what He will do at the last day that Martha described.  He was loud enough for Lazarus to hear, but more so, for the crowd thereabouts to clearly know what was going on.  John continues with the immediate results in verse 44 … “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”  What might have appeared like insanity at Jesus’ loud command, is now revealed to be a miracle ONLY God could perform.  He had now fulfilled His promise to Martha, and the crop would be a harvest of souls much greater than just her, his disciples, and the family and friends of Lazarus gathered there that day.

John records in verse 45 the two responses we have to the miraculous love of Christ … “Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. [verse 46] But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.”  Some of the Jewish leadership there that day were willing to accept the proof and fight no longer against the Son of God.  Others only saw the conversions as a continued threat to their power and went to discuss the matter with the Pharisees who would not believe.  Verses 47 through 54 record the epitaph of this story among those who refuse to believe.  They acknowledged that something must be done about Him, or else “all” might believe in Him.  Then in a twist of fate that defied even their own expectations, they reasoned that if these conversions continued, the Romans would come and take away their place, and their nation.  So the high priest, rationalized that it was better for one man to die than for a nation to be destroyed.  All along they had looked for a Messiah who could undo the Roman occupation, now that they thought this might actually happen, they grew afraid, and decided it was better to kill Christ, than take the chance He might fail in that effort.  Hypocrites.   They could not even keep their motives of hate straightened out where it came to preserving their own power.  But when no proof will ever be enough, there is only one response to love – kill it, or be converted by it.  So John records that Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews, and went to a city called Ephraim.

Jesus had now done something that could not be ignored, or pushed off as merely being a prophet, or good man of God.  He had resurrected the dead.  This was done in front of a great many witnesses.  The story was not even argued by His enemies.  They knew it was true.  They knew it would something they could not refute.  So they opted to kill Him.  But for those who were watching a bit more closely, there was another hope revealed in the story of Lazarus.  It is not ONLY our physical restoration that Christ is capable of performing.  It is our spiritual one as well.  Though we are dead in our sins, and unable to call ourselves back to life – our Savior is more than capable of doing just that.  He is able to fulfill His promise to bring us back to life in the here and now, NOT just in the last great day.  This was a message in the story of Lazarus.  Hope does not need to be deferred to see life in the here and now.  We can be saved today.  We can have a new life that He is the author of.  It is a life without pain and death, and will never see an end.  This is the life He refers to as having no ending, and the only one that matters from the perspective of God.  This is what His mission was that day, and remains today.  The sleep of death is a mere nap, a moment of time we cannot recall.  The life He offers starts today, and lasts forever in His kingdom.  We can be resurrected from sin today, and from death at the last great day, and know life both now and then without the pain we embrace for ourselves.  That is His gift to us.