Today, we begin Passiontide. In the coming days, we turn our attention upon the suffering – that is what, in this context, the word ‘passion’ means – the sufferings of Christ – remembering them and what God achieved through them.
John 11 shares the amazing sign of Lazarus’ resurrection. Yet it also points us very strongly to this passion of our Lord: death, grief, resurrection.
Firstly, there is the threat of death that Thomas mentions – that people seek to take Jesus life, (v8 & 11).
Jesus by raising Lazarus caused the final agreement of the plot to kill him, a plot that would bring about eternal life.
Secondly there is the deep grief of Martha and Mary. So vividly described.
This time of the church year invites us to grieve as well – to consider how this wonderful person who showed authority over sickness, death, nature and sin, how this man who loved all, how this man could be killed on a cross?
But perhaps when we watch our social media, news, or read any part of history, we can understand how in fact it was possible…
Finally there is Lazarus in a tomb. Days after death.
A stone rolled away. A dead man raised to life. Resurrection!
As we read it on this day, it is not only a great sign but also another pointer to what will come. Jesus in a tomb, a stone that needs to be rolled away …
Jesus said in John 10: “The reason the Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.”
He has authority not only to lay down his life – as he will on Good Friday – but to take it up again – as he will on Easter Day. Jesus remained in control, there was a purpose, a plan, which was that he would clear the way that all could come to him, and discover and receive eternal life.
Being with Jesus.
In our passage, we learn more about it means to be with Jesus –spending time with him and being in a relationship with him.
Being with Jesus – Assurance as we face death 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.’’ John 11:26 When death is faced – and death is something many people fear – Jesus gives the assurance, that our loved one, or ourselves – will rise to life, after death, when he returns. It gives us hope and assurance for our loved ones who have died believing in the Lord.
Jesus said: ‘The one who believes in me, will live even though they die.
When my grandmother died, we were in Friesland. I remember going out for a walk in Gorredijk. My wandering took me into an area with an old factory. And it struck me – that old factory, people, would bike past and say – ‘’nothing to see here, all has ended’’.
And yet I saw a ‘’for sale sign’’ – it made me think – here was an owner who, maybe you could say wanted to get it off his or her hands.
Or maybe he was an owner who said – there is more to see here than you think – there is potential, a future – there is hope.
And it hit me – and I felt the Lord’s comfort – that some would go to my grandmother’s funeral and say – good life, nothing more to see, a person who will be missed, a body that will decay.
But the Christian hope – and my grandmother was a Christian – says – despite what you see, there is a future, despite what you think there is hope – why – because of Jesus and because he said: 25 “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.’’
Being with Jesus – Life, now!
Jesus offers life in this life. He said ‘I am the resurrection and the life… whoever lives by
believing in me will never die.’ The believer in Jesus is already living – those who believe in him possess eternal life here and now and it continues on beyond and through death.
We enjoy eternal life now – a continuing possession which can’t be taken away. There is the promise of the recovery of life after death of the body.
Belief in Jesus is about life – and life is the gift of Jesus offered to us.
I am the resurrection and the life … do you believe this? he asks Martha.
Martha says: I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world. Martha says the words, that John the writer says, his whole book is about: John 20:31
‘’These are written that you – the reader, the listener – that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’ To have life – now – is about belief and trust in Jesus – he is God’s Promised King, the Son of
God, who died, buried and rose again. Do you believe this, he says. This a personal choice and a personal decision. I cannot and no one can make you believe,
but each of you must decide, in order to have life.
Being with Jesus – Honesty.
Yet to have the assurance beyond death, having life now through Jesus, it does not take away questions and struggles.
In John, there are questions in the suffering. Jesus – has an incredible ministry of healing – John has shared about a paralyzed man being healed and a blind man seeing. Jesus hears that Lazarus is ill. The message is clearly an invite – we’d call that prayer today – to do something, to intervene.
Jesus says God will be glorified. Yet he stays where he is, for two days.
Distance was not a problem for Jesus. In John 4 – a royal official comes to him and asked him to heal his son who is close to death. Jesus says – ‘Go, your son will live’ – and the man took Jesus at his word, left and when he got home the son was healed.
Jesus could have done the same about Lazarus.
This is even harder because Jesus acts when a royal official asks, a man he probably never had met before. We read ‘Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus.’
But no response from Jesus. Silence. The crowds say later, when Jesus is walking to the tomb and he weeps, ‘See how he loved him.’ Jesus’ love is not in doubt.
But then the crowds say the question in our mind when prayers are not being answered – now or in the past – ‘could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man from dying.’
We think – can not the one who acted in the past – the past of the bible, maybe our own past has some amazing interventions of the Lord – act now?
Jesus gives no reasons when he arrives, to Martha and Mary.
Martha says ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died…’ Mary says the same words later.
You can imagine – like we do with the death of a loved one – we talk about every detail, we remember good things, we see the care given, and we see the lack of care. They had both come to the same conclusion. ‘’If you had been here, my brother would not have died.’’ Maybe you could say they are disappointed with Jesus. And maybe that is a word, some of us need to say today – I am disappointed with you Jesus. I prayed. I hoped and it didn’t happen. Maybe for some people we need to say it because it is the word in our heart. He knows it is there.
And I think if you cannot find a place for it, you need to bring it.
Jesus wants to meet you in that place of pain and suffering.
You need to bring it, or it may eat at your faith.
Martha goes out to Jesus and tells him.
Mary goes to Jesus and tells him, once she knows he has arrived.
In the Apple TV series Invasion, there is a point where survivors entered a church. They are initially rejected but the minister steps in, and pointing to the words of Jesus, they are welcomed into the group. He is a man seeking to live a life of faith in a collapsing world.
However at the beginning of events, the survivors thought it was a terrorism event and soon it would all be over. Then they learn, the nation is being invaded. People are in shock. One of the ladies asks the Minister if he would pray. He begins by saying – do you remember what I said a few weeks ago about prayer – and a church member says – it was about prayer being like a conversation. The minister said – I liked that idea, simple, clear. But it only works if someone – God – is listening. And he walks out, refusing to pray.
Everything had been building up for this young minister. And this was the final snap.
He could not find a place. And he would not go to Jesus with it. He walks out.
He walked out.
But Mary and Martha walked to Jesus.
Being with Jesus – He Cares.
Jesus loved Mary and Martha enough to let them say it. He loves us the same.
Jesus did not rebuke them for saying it to him. He accepts these words of challenge and pain and disappointment. The psalms have some pretty direct language to God, honest words. It says I can express similar pain, confusion, disappointment to him.
He cares at the pain we face or have endured.
His weeps tears at the pain of Mary and all who grieved. His loving heart is to us in our suffering.
We see v33 – “he was deeply moved’’ The Greek is ‘en-brimo’ which is used to describe horses, snorting in the nostrils. When it is used elsewhere, in NT, it is about anger, indignation, someone being rebuked.
Who or what is Jesus angry at?
It is not at their grief.
It is not, I believe, because that they do not expect God to do a miracle.
I’d suggest, he is angry at how this world is – angry at the sickness and death – that causes so much pain to ones he loves.
Angry, perhaps at the one from whom it came, the devil, the one whose power, he came to destroy, as Hebrews 2 says.
John began his gospel: Through him all things were made, without him nothing has been made that was made.’ Jesus – God among us – the Word made Flesh – knew what this world was meant to be – no dementia, no violence, no evil. His anger was because this was not how it was meant to be.
This world and our sufferings matter to him, John is telling us.
Being with Jesus – During Holy Week.
Jesus says – ‘Father I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me.’
Yet not all Jesus prayers were answered as he hoped.
On Maundy Thursday he prays for the unity of the church, in John 17.
Yet that prayer – by the Lord – is still being worked out – it has not been answered yet…
In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays ‘Abba Father, Everything is possible for you, take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’ He is honest about what he is feeling and thinking.
On the Cross, he prays –‘my God my God why have you forsaken me.’ Heaven is silent. There is no voice from heaven like on the mount of transfiguration, no dove from heaven like at his baptism. It was silent, like the silence Mary and Martha received.
Then Holy Saturday, when disciples are fearful, confused, heartbroken, thinking it has all ended, because the Christ was crucified. There was no intervention by God – no angel sent, no vision, that it is all okay, no explanation of what God was working out.
Then Easter Sunday. Resurrection.
The stone rolled away. The tomb is empty. The grave clothes taken off.
For some, only at the end of that glorious Easter day, after walking away on a road, or gathering in an upper room, do they know it is okay. They learned that in all that crushing, pressing, even when they could not see it, God was working. It was something which they would spend the rest of their lives talking about.
Conclusion.
John 11 – we learn about being with Jesus
Being with Jesus – Assurance in the face of death
Being with Jesus – Life Now
Being with Jesus – Honesty.
Being with Jesus – He cares.
In Holy Week let us be with Jesus.
Shall we pray.
