Jesus and the Resurrection of Lazarus - a sermon on John 11:1-54

I guess stories that involve death get our attention because of our feelings about our own mortality, and also because the mortality of those we love is never far from our minds. Some will not want to think about the prospect of death much and push it to the back of their minds. Others will continue to be preoccupied by the notion of death, and often have dark thoughts concerning it. Jesus has something to say about death in the face of its inevitability … but in more in terms of life – spiritual life, eternal life!

Mary and Martha and Lazarus were well known to Jesus. When Lazarus was gravely ill, his sisters sought to contact Jesus in an attempt to get him to save their brother’s life. Jesus’ response (v.4) is curious is it not! "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

We know that often illness does lead to death, and tend to think that when a terminal illness strikes someone (especially when we feel they’re way too young to die), that this indeed is a tragedy. And I think we’d be right – such a premature death is tragic.

Take Billy Thorpe for instance. Although he wasn’t a young man (at 60) he still had a lot of life before him, still much to offer to his family, and his music was still maturing and developing. If only he had paid more attention to those earlier signs of his heart problems, this trouble might have been attended to, and he could have lived on.

We don’t take illness lightly, or we shouldn’t. When we are unwell, we go and see our doctors, listen to their advice, take the prescribed medication, make necessary adjustments to our lifestyle, and carefully monitor our well-being. [Some of our workplace agreements would include the necessity of annual health check-ups.]

We also pray at times for our healing and restoration to full health, understanding that God works through the whole of our being to bless our lives. Hopefully this combination of medical science and spiritual faith brings us back into fine physical working order.

Sometimes though, the years catch up with us. Also, the prevalence of some diseases existent in our world environment, sometimes take their full toll. Why some survive and others don’t may remain a mystery at times, but my point here is that illness is something we rightly seek to avoid. And death too, is something we rightly try to avoid.

It is true we may learn some important lessons through times of illness, however seeking to prevent such illness is still to be preferred. This is supported by the way God created within us immune systems through which our bodies fight off disease.

Therefore (in v. 4) Jesus was obviously on about something else!

It was this particular illness of Lazarus that wasn’t going to lead to ultimate death, but rather be a sign of some deeper understanding of death (and indeed life). This new insight would lead those – who had their eyes wide enough to see and understand what was being demonstrated – into a vibrant, committed worship of Jesus – Son of God.

Also, whereas this illness would lead to a real experience of death for around four days, this death would be reversed, as if it never happened. So, this illness would only lead to an experience of physical death, and not to the sort of death that was more permanent and more crucial – spiritual death.

We don’t want to underestimate the real fear of death that some people experience. We don’t want to lessen the impact that physical death can have on us! We don’t want to diminish the reality of grief and loss when we lose loved ones. But we are alerted here to deal with Jesus’ challenge concerning our spiritual well-being, and the spiritual well-being of others.

Having made this curious statement in verse 4 (and you could just imagine the people hearing this scratching their heads in confusion), Jesus delayed another two days before travelling to the home of Lazarus. This was not through any lack of love or feeling for this family, but something else was afoot. Why such a delay?

Well we know that God sometimes delays His response to our prayer requests until the time is right. Jesus is no prisoner to our human timelines or expectations. But there would even be more to this delay than that! Jesus was out to absolutely demonstrate that the incidence of physical death was not more powerful than God.

In this particular case, Lazarus was going to be allowed to die, before there would be a remarkable demonstration of physical death not being the last word on life. Jesus seems to hint (in verse 15) that if he had already been with Lazarus (as he suffered in grave illness), Jesus may not have been able to do anything other than just heal him there and then (such was Jesus’ level of compassion – that could not be denied). But given that Lazarus would succumb to his illness in Jesus’ absence, then this would be an opportunity for his disciples (and all those others who would witness or hear about this) to develop in their understanding of who Jesus is – and truly believe in him!

By the time Jesus reached Bethany, Lazarus had been dead and laid in a tomb for four days, and much grief and consolation had been expressed. On his arrival, and through his interactions with family and other mourners, Jesus too got caught up into all the emotion surrounding this tragic death.

First Martha (and then Mary later), express what we can see as natural human thoughts, at the same time as tremendous statements of faith! Martha (in vs. 21-22) first expresses disappointment and regret that Jesus hadn’t arrived early enough – ‘if only you’d been here’ – an understandable response to the loss of her brother; but then confesses her trust … she knows that now Jesus is here, all is not yet lost.

In the face of this deep human need and clear statement of faith, Jesus makes a radical and extraordinary statement (vs. 25-26): "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die".

Those who come to believe in Jesus, although they will still physically die, will live on spiritually. Therefore, in effect, life will not end for the believer in physical death, but rather move into a new dimension (which continues for ever). The “eternal life” that begins through “believing” in Jesus, first experienced in the here and now, cannot be terminated, not even by physical death!

This is the truth of the matter because it is God who is speaking it. And just to prove that it is God who is speaking it, and to prove that death has no power to subvert God, Jesus will now give a sign in the physical realm to prove what is possible in the spiritual realm.

The body of Lazarus, now dead for four days, had begun to decompose, attested to by the stench when they began to remove the stone from the entrance to the cave. What was this meant to prove? Jesus would be able to offer a remarkable sign of the reality of resurrection – Jesus didn’t just choose to heal another person from illness, didn’t just raise someone several minutes after being clinically dead, but chose to raise someone who was absolutely gone and lifeless. There would absolutely be no shadow of a doubt that Jesus had recalled a dead man to life!

What does this tell us?? This was no magician’s trick! More than this – it shows that nobody, no matter how far gone, no matter how much their life seems to be in decay, is without hope!

Jesus can bring life into what seems to be completely dead. Jesus can take our dead hopes and revive them! Even those areas of our lives that seem so deeply lost, can be restored under the healing, resurrecting hand of Jesus! Jesus can bring a vibrant newness to what seemed diminished or lifeless.

When Jesus cried out, Lazarus come out (v.43), the formerly dead Lazarus came out of his tomb!

Ironically it would be this ultimate expression of God’s re-creative power that would seal Jesus’ fate – death on the cross. Such a threat to the comfortable status-quo had to be dealt with severely and removed from the scene. The giving of life to Lazarus would rally the call for Jesus to be killed. But even then, this injustice will bring God’s plan of salvation to a climax, culminating in Jesus himself being raised from the dead.

Many would come to see in this Lazarus incident, a forerunner to Jesus’ own experience of death and resurrection.

All who will truly “believe” in Jesus (and accept that he died in our place for our sins) can participate in the resurrection of the One who holds the keys to life. Jesus both in his teaching ministry and with his very life, confronts the reality of death, and lifts the possibilities of God’s creativity beyond it. Christ’s resurrected life becomes the vital dynamic that drives our life.

2 Timothy 2:11 says: "The saying is sure: ‘If we have died with him, we will also live with him’..."

Jesus is victory over death. Jesus is eternal life. When the people asked Jesus for bread, Jesus said, “I am the Bread…”! When the people were looking for guidance through the darkness, Jesus said, “I am the Light of the world”! Our positive, fulfilling, and ongoing experience of life depends not on accepting a doctrine, or adhering to a particular religious form, but trusting in a Person! It is through a relationship with Jesus that we enter “eternal life”.

We will surely die physically; but because we “believe” in Jesus, and have already ‘died to sin’ and begun to live “life eternal”, death will simply be a passing from one dimension to another. We will pass from the limits of our humanity, to the unabashed and pure worship of God for all time.

In conclusion, one question is: ‘how much of this unashamed and pure worship of God can we experience in the here and now’? Will we be able to receive the full measure of God’s love that is being offered to us, freely and confidently express our commitment and worship, and take our unreserved faith out in the highways and byways of community life? Another question to ponder is: ‘whether or not we really know Jesus’? We can far more easily know things about Jesus; but do we know Jesus personally? Do we encounter Jesus every day?