Rising to Life

John 11New International Version (NIV)

The Death of Lazarus

11 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.”

Jesus Comforts the Sisters of Lazarus

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?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

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. 

This morning I want to touch on a topic that is not easily discussed by me and most other males.  I want to bring up the emotions of Jesus in our scripture for this morning.  For many generations, society downplayed the expression of feelings by men.  These feelings were often bottled up and not easily expressed.  In one instance, I was meeting with a family about the death of a loved one.  The father of the one who had passed was a very hard working man.  He was intelligent, he served in WWII, and he had built his family farm from absolutely nothing.  He had three sons and one of them was the one we were prepping the funeral for.  There was a point of contention as we discussed the life of the one who had passed when one of the sons got upset at their father for not expressing love towards them.  It was an emotional moment.  The patriarch of the family simply stated, “I didn’t grow up in a time where we expressed how we felt.  We didn’t hug and we didn’t cry.  I love all of you but I guess I am not that good at showing it.”  Then there was a moment of silence.  I think it was at this point that the two very different generations had finally realized where the other was coming from.  In that awkward silence, I believe compassion, empathy and understanding finally came to the forefront.  That moment has stuck with me and probably always will.  

Today, this expression of feelings is becoming more and more common in the male portion of society.  Some may feel that this society becoming softer but I do not hold this to be true.  How many years did the sons in the family I mentioned grow up thinking that they weren’t loved when in all actuality, they were?  Over half their lives were spent questioning the love of their father when the father never doubted that love, not even for a second.  He simply did not know how to show it.  The sons took a much different approach to how they expressed their love due to their experiences with their father.  At least two great things came out of that awkward silence.  One, the sons expressed their love on a daily basis to their families.  And two, they realized that their father did in fact love them.  Don’t get me wrong, men still haven’t mastered the expression of feelings and emotions but my request is twofold.  First, understand that it wasn’t until recently that we have realized that these expressions are ok.  Second, know that we do love, we just do not know how to properly express that love at times.  Now, this is not a sermon to excuse the men of society.  Rather, it is an opportunity to show all of us, and especially men, the strength of Christ.  

In our scripture for this morning, Jesus goes through an array of emotions.  The first emotion expressed in this scripture is determination although some may call this stubbornness.  He tells the disciples they are going back to Bethany and their response is, “But teacher, a short while ago the Jewish opposition there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”  “Yep.” Jesus said without hesitation.  Doubting Thomas, had his doubts saying, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”  Jesus most likely knew that this would be the straw that broke the camel’s back and yet he went anyway.  The second emotion or feeling Jesus displayed was confidence.  Martha gets on Jesus’ case about not being there saying, “...if you had been there, my brother would not have died.”  And Jesus replies, “Your brother will rise again.”  Then Martha and Jesus have an exchange where Jesus double checks her beliefs about who he is.  Shortly after that exchange, Mary (Lazarus’ other sister) also has a similar exchange with Christ.  The text explains that Mary was much more upset with Jesus than Martha was.  I think at this point, the human side of Christ kicks in and he realizes his guilt for not being there.  God has sent him out to accomplish something but the death of Lazarus and seeing his sisters this upset caused Jesus to be “deeply moved in the spirit and troubled.”  Some biblical commentators note that the Greek in that verse means “deeply disturbed” and suggests anger.  Anger is the third emotion or feeling we find in our reading.  Anger is often a part of the grieving process.  The greek and the order of the text suggest that Jesus was angry at a couple different things.  First, he was angry at death itself.  One can assume this anger comes from the pain it causes and the doubts it leaves.  The second is that Jesus was angry at those who still didn’t believe who Jesus was.  There was a group of Jews who went to Mary and Martha to console them and many of them didn’t believe who Jesus was.  One commentator suggests that Jesus was angry that death is part of the process to new life, a process he would shortly be living himself due to the unbelief that surrounded him.    

Then comes the shortest verse in all of the Bible, “Jesus wept.”  Upon fully realizing Lazarus had passed and the emotional states of those who loved him, Jesus broke down and cried.  Jesus wept and here we find a combination of emotions: perhaps guilt and regret for not being there combined with sadness and empathy for those who mourn the loss of a loved one.  Perhaps it is this emotion, the physical outpouring of sadness through tears that evades the male portion of society.  I am not a good crier when it comes to my emotions but movies often choke me up.  This is inherited characteristic from my father who showed me it was ok to cry when Willy jumped over the boy standing on the rocks (mimic the scene) because just yesterday I choked up at the movie Creed.  But I digress.  Perhaps, these tears are a culmination of the emotions Jesus was feeling... Maybe it was the frustration of death, the guilt of not preventing it, the empathy for those who mourned, the unbelief that surrounded him that culminated in anger kindled with his determination to share with the world who he really was.

You see, raising Lazarus to life was the culmination of Jesus’ ministry.  Everything he taught, the miracles, the temptations, everything built towards that moment.  Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the blind man and all the other teachable moments led to this and many still didn’t believe in him.  Their concern was self preservation.  There were more than willing to kill Jesus to appease the Romans so the Romans wouldn’t use Christ as an excuse to wipe out the Jewish people.  At first look, we may look at this decision to crucify Christ with a critical eye but how many of us, given their situation, would have done the same thing.  Caiaphas, the High Priest, said, “You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than the whole nation perish.”  This is not a part of what I read to this morning as it follows immediately after verse 45, but it is important because it continues the cycle that new life is brought on by death.  It is important because it allows us to understand why the Jewish opposition to Christ did what they did to preserve their people for they did not understand the new life to which Jesus spoke about.

It is this understanding of where someone is coming from, or the lack thereof, that either unites us or tears us apart.  The Jewish opposition feared Jesus because of their fear of the Romans and the Romans feared losing their power.  Fear is an emotion that causes a lack of understanding, especially when it’s unwarranted.  As Christians, we ought not let fear take hold of us.  As Christian men we must know that understanding and expressing our emotions is who we are, who we are called to be.  For if we don’t, we run the risk of someone living their life in the fear that they were not loved when that statement could not be more untrue.  Showing these emotions of love and understanding is not a sign of softness or leniency.  The toughest, baddest, strongest dude I know did that by hanging on a cross.           Amen.