John 11:1-57
The Death of Lazarus
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17 On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.”29 When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32 When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 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.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
54 Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.
55 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56 They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn't he coming to the festival at all?” 57 But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.
John 14:6-7
Jesus is the Truth, the Way, and Life Itself
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
John 16:33
Jesus Overcomes Death
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
When someone dies, it is hard for me to find the right words to say...It is hard to know what to say when a person is grieving...Sometimes I feel that there is little I can do or say...This is not true for Jesus...He knows what to say at all times...Jesus is the Absolute Truth, the Absolute Way to God, and Life itself...Sometimes we may not understand what He says with our limited knowledge of His wisdom, powers, and abilities...
Lazarus was very sick...In fact, he was dying in the town of Bethany...Yet, Jesus tells His Disciples this about Lazarus, “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 knew and LOVED Martha and her sister Mary and their brother Lazarus...So when He heard that Lazarus was sick, Jesus stayed where He was for two more days...Jesus did not go to see Lazarus as he lay sick and was nearing death...And I agree with Martha, had Jesus been there with Lazarus, he would not have had to die, at that time...Yet, Jesus was using this death to show us something more...This something more is the being able to see the glory of God and the power of God...God will give Jesus, whatever He asks...And in Martha's faith, she knew this...Martha uses the words "even now", when she says, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died...But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."...She believes that even now with the death of her brother Lazarus, that God will answer any prayer that He communicates to Him...Martha sees Jesus as a Man of God, but maybe she does not see Him as Life itself yet...After all, when Jesus tells the people to take away the stone, Martha says that by now their is this bad odor from his deathly body, because he has been dead for four days...Martha has this great faith in Jesus, yet she doe not know exactly who He is and what He can do...But He will reveal Himself to her, when He raises her dead brother's body after the four days...Martha, even with her great faith, is learning more and more about Jesus and the Great Powers He possesses over life and all creation...Jesus has told her that her brother would rise again...Yet, her response is, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”...She knows that God is listening to His Son, but she does not know all that He can do...Jesus gives her more to think about Him and her faith...In fact, these are the greatest and comforting words He might be able to give her... When Jesus said to her, "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.", these are comforting statements -most comforting statements if we have complete faith in Him, with no doubts...Jesus has told her here that He can raise her dead brother, but she (and we) cannot believe or our faith cannot understand things like this...Maybe because our minds are limited, or maybe because we just do not see things like this very often...But we are lacking in this respect...So Jesus asks Martha, "Do you believe this?"...He is asking, do you believe I can right here and right now raise your brother from the dead...If He is the Truth, the Way, and Life itself, then He can...And so He does...
I think as we read these verses, we see the great strength of Martha's great faith here...I think, as I read the gospels, her faith is as strong, here and even in the event of her brother's death, as the Disciple's faith (at this particular point) in the gospels...Yet, her faith, (and this is not a criticism of Martha's faith) is somewhat flawed...He faith is somewhat defective, because she (and we) do not know His power...We often lack how powerful He is...He has given her the great and comforting words that He is the resurrection and the life, and can sustain life even after death...Did she understand this?...He gives us life, by our faith, and He becomes our life giver...And He will show Martha this and the others, and those reading the gospel who He is...Jesus goes far beyond our earthly life, and the power to raise us in resurrection, but we have trouble understanding and believing in these things...
Her sister Mary with her grief now comes and seeks Jesus...In her faith and reverence to our LORD she falls at His feet and says, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”...Jesus deeply moved in spirit and is troubled...He weeps...Maybe He is troubled in Spirit with and mad at death itself, and the grieving Martha and Mary and the others have done (and we have to do) -but this is only a guess...We know He LOVES Martha, Mary, and Lazarus...
Jesus orders the stone away and raises the four day old dead man, and Lazarus has risen...Lazarus is alive and living again...Jesus has proven to Martha, Mary, the crowd, to us, and especially Lazarus that He is the resurrection and the life...If we believe in Him we shall not die but live, and live on eternally...
Faith is such an interesting thing...I think the more faith one has, the more one thinks God can do...With all that has happened the next verses could be all about a celebration of Lazarus coming back to life...So after seeing and reading about Lazarus one's faith should increase...But we see that there is now a plot to kill Jesus...Faith has increased in the family of Lazarus and others, while the disbelief and confusion and wanting Him dead has increased...If they really know Him, do they think they can really kill Him, and how...And how long will He stay dead?...Didn't Lazarus just come back from death?...