Greetings, the last few Sundays our texts have been long ones and this Sunday’s is no different. We are still in the Gospel of John. The scholars of the Jews believed that when the Messiah came he would appear on the Mount of Olives and raise the dead. The Mount of Olives is on the east side of Jerusalem and today many Jews are buried on the east side of the city to be the first to rise when the Messiah comes. They thought all Jews would be raised to new life when the Messianic age broke in.
John’s themes are included in this text too. This is the seventh sign and the fifth “I am” statement.
Bethany is on the Mount of Olives about 2 miles from Jerusalem. From Bethany one would have to travel up and over the Mount of Olives to arrive at Jerusalem, which Jesus does for his Triumphal Entry.
In the Synoptic Gospels the final act that gets Jesus killed is the attack on the Temple. In the Gospel of John it is the raising of Lazarus that leads the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus. Why? Because if the Messiah is to stand on the Mount of Olives and raise the dead and Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives and raises a dead man doesn’t that indicate he is the Messiah? And if he is the Messiah he isn’t acting like they had thought he would. If he is the Messiah the people will start to follow him, leaving the leadership behind and Rome will intervene in this divisional crises destroying their Temple.
V1-6 Jesus has left the area of Jerusalem because the people had attempted to stone him the last time he was there (Chapter 10). He was out by the Jordan River somewhere. He was close to a family in Bethany; Mary, Martha and Lazarus. He would stay at their house while traveling. Lazarus became so sick that he died. The sisters sent a message to Jesus that Lazarus is ill. Jesus comments to his disciples that this illness won’t lead to death but it is for the glory of God. It sounds odd to us but Jesus didn’t leave immediately, even though he loved them, he stayed where he was for two more days. Charles Swindoll has noted “that if the hypothetical timeline Swindoll proposes is close to accurate, Lazarus was dead by the time the messenger reached Jesus”.
V7-16 After two days Jesus said to his disciples “Let us go to Judea again”. The disciples are surprised. The people in Judea have tried to kill Jesus, why does he want to go back? Jesus replies with a statement that has a double meaning. Work can be done during the twelve hours of daylight but at night no one can work and all travel would stop. Another meaning underlying this is that Jesus is the light of the world and he has work to do while he is in the world. Those who don’t walk in his light will stumble and it may be too late. We each have our working “day” from God and we are to use it wisely before “night” falls and we can work no more. Jesus says Lazarus has fallen asleep and the disciples misunderstand. If he is just sleeping, Jesus doesn’t need to risk his own life and theirs to go wake him up but Jesus then clarifies by saying “Lazarus is dead. But let us go to him.” The disciples are probably wondering “why go now, there is nothing we can do” but Thomas bravely says “Let us also go so that we may die with him.” Do they know that Jesus is going to raise Lazarus; no but Jesus knows that when he does their faith in him will be strengthened.
V17-27 By the time Jesus and his disciples arrived Lazarus had been dead and in the tomb for four days. The day he died he was wrapped in linens soaked with spices, to cover the smell, and put in the tomb. Jewish literature taught that the soul of the dead person remained by the body for three days hoping to reenter. When it saw the decay of the body by the fourth day it departed. In other words Lazarus is completely dead and smells. The sisters would have been in the house in deep mourning for seven days. The house would have been ritually unclean due to having a dead body in it and the sisters would have been ritually unclean because they had touched the dead body to prepare it for burial. When Martha hears that Jesus is finally coming she leaves the house to meet him. She should have stayed in the house. In agony she says to Jesus “if you had been here my brother would have not died”. She had witnessed Jesus heal people and she knew he could have healed her brother but she isn’t angry. I think I may have shown some anger towards Jesus, after all he is healing others and he loves us so why didn’t he heal my brother? Are we not good enough? Why do they get healed and we don’t? She continues to say that she knows God will give Jesus whatever he asks of him. Not that he will bring her brother back to life but that she believes and trusts Jesus. Jesus replies that Lazarus will rise again. Martha says that she knows he will rise in the resurrection on the last day. (When the Messiah comes and raises all the dead from the Mount of Olives) Jesus then says “I am the resurrection and the life”. In me the Messianic age has broken in. He is the Messiah and the resurrection which Martha thought was in the future is here now. Their hopes concerning death and resurrection have been transformed and fulfilled now. It is not a future event anymore but a present reality. Those who trust in Jesus as the Messiah will never die. Death has now become a door to walk through, it is not the end. Martha makes a profound statement “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the (expected, true) Messiah, the Son of God (God’s anointed one) the (expected) one coming into the world. She made this confession on the Mount of Olives. This is more than the disciples had understood.
V28-37 Martha returned to let Mary know that Jesus was asking for her. Mary got up to go meet privately with Jesus but the house full of mourners followed her thinking she was going to the tomb to weep. When Mary got to Jesus she too said “if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Mary did not rebuke Jesus either but spoke with agony at her loss. In a patriarchal society the women had just lost their means of support and economic protection. Jesus, seeing the people weeping, was deeply moved. There are differing views on the translation of deeply moved but nonetheless Jesus empathizes and mourns with us. When we see a tragedy most of us wonder why God allowed this to happen. The answers are varied depending on the historical views you believe (i.e. Calvinism ect.) but know that God mourns with us. God cries with us, as Jesus weeps with us. We are not left alone in our sorrow. When the pastor father of the women murdered through a craigslist add was interviewed on national T.V. he was asked where was God in all of this? He replied that God was all around them, he brought them food when they couldn’t think of cooking, he visited them at home and allowed them to cry on his shoulder, he sat in silence with them for hours sharing their pain, he came to the funeral to support them in their sorrow, he sent them cards and flowers; we are the presence of God for people who mourn. Some however looked at this and wondered why Jesus didn’t keep Lazarus alive, he had after all opened the eyes of a man born blind which had never been done before.
V38-44 Jesus has Mary and Martha take him to the tomb. Jesus says “take away the stone” but Martha reminds him that Lazarus has been four days and stench will come from the tomb. Jesus reminds her of their earlier conversation that if she believed she would see the glory of God. Jesus looks to God and prays, not for his own success but so the people would understand that the miracle came from God. He shouted for Lazarus to “come out”. In the first chapter of John the Word was in the beginning with God and in him was life and light. The Word becomes a person. In Genesis God speaks words and everything is created. Here the word of God is spoken by the Word that became flesh and it gives new life. Lazarus lives! God’s glory is revealed. Death is conquered. It isn’t final anymore. It doesn’t bind us anymore. “Unbind him and let him go.”
V45-51 Many of the Jews that witnessed this event believed Jesus. He was the Messiah. But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Did they go in anger, probably not, they may have gone in awe to let the Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection, know that a wondrous thing had happened on the Mount of Olives. The leaders call a meeting to figure out what they are going to do with this man. This is getting dangerous, more and more are believing him and following him. We need to get rid of him. The irony is that Jesus is raising the dead and the living are plotting his death. The Messianic age has broken in, which they were waiting for, and they are trying to stop it. Why? Because it didn’t look like they thought it would so they didn’t believe it.
That is what we, as humans, do. If something doesn’t look like we thought it would, we dismiss it. We try to stop it. Unknown is uncomfortable. It’s heresy. We need familiar even though it may be wrong. But is it really or is it that we are fearful of losing the status and power we have with the familiar so we refuse to consider the new. The Jewish leaders knew the Messiah would raise the dead on the Mount of Olives. Jesus raises a dead man on the Mount of Olives. Therefore he is the Messiah. However, he doesn’t act like the Messiah the Jews wanted and envisioned so he is crucified.
I wonder what I miss of the new because I am too comfortable with the familiar and unwilling to see.
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