If you had only been here......

John 11.1-45   NIV     courtesy of www.biblegateway.com
Part I
 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.”
 
 
****Let's start here.  All of this is intended to establish the relationship between Jesus and Lazarus and Mary and Martha.  They were intimate friends (Mary anoints Jesus in chapter 12.  Jesus loved them.  Although Lazarus is sick enough for Jesus to be sent for, Jesus insists that this illness will not end in death.  Rather it has something to do with God's glory in the Son.  (whatever that might mean.  Notice the disciples are not clear).  Whatever Jesus was trying to communicate, he felt comfortable staying where he was for two more days.  In an age before antibiotics, two days could easily be critical.
 
 
Part II
 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.”


****The disciples are sufficiently assured that Lazarus' illness will not be to death that their concern is the hostility which Jesus has already experienced in Judea.  Jesus' response is confusing, but I think points us to an interpretation that Jesus' hour has not yet come, meaning, as dangerous as it seems, Jesus will be safe.  Jesus needs to go to Lazarus to 'wake him up.'

Now, the disciples know that if Lazarus is simply asleep he will eventually wake up on his own.  Jesus has to tell them Lazarus is dead.  But is he?  Since we know the end of the story, isn't it true that Lazarus is simply sleeping - in some form of suspended time?  I am not arguing that Lazarus is breathing, but rather that Jesus is foreshadowing what is about to happen for Lazarus - he will come awake again.


Part III
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.”

****Notice we are told the relationship between Bethany and Jerusalem.  Bethany is close to Jerusalem, but not in the city itself.  Jesus will not die outside of Jerusalem.

Martha speaks as any of us who were crushed with grief would speak, "If you had been here....."  Many times a grieving relative will say, "if the ambulance had been quicker.."  "if only the doctor....."  "if we had recognized the symptoms...."  However, she leaves a door open for Jesus to change the reality she is forced to face.

Now the conversation turns toward an understanding of the resurrection:  on the last day?  right now?  Martha affirms faith in resurrection on the last day.  Jesus is trying to teach her that HE IS the resurrection.  Where Jesus is, the resurrection is possible.

Martha agrees with this in a towering confession of faith: " you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is come into the world."   I am not convinced, however, that Martha grasps what it means for Jesus to be the resurrection in the here and now.



Part IV
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?”


******Two things grab my attention in this portion of the story.  First, Mary echos Martha's grieving cry to Jesus (so there is not difference in their faith????) is accompanied by weeping, hers and the weeping of the mourners who had gathered.  You can almost feel the weight of grief in the story.  The weeping becomes an additional character/presence.

Second, Jesus wept.  Why?  First, some interpretations on a literal plane

#1  You and I have all wept at a story on TV or the movies.  We don't have to know the person who died; we recognize the power of the loss as portrayed and can share in the sadness.  Jesus not only know Lazarus as a friend, but finds himself a  part of a scene where many are weeping and the grief of all is front and center and perhaps he was moved as we often are.

#2  Jesus has great sorrow that he needed to allow Lazarus (and Mary and Martha) to go through this (in order to accomplish things that will glorify God).  It needed to be done, but he is coping with the great pain it is causing.

#3  Jesus weeps because he knows that will be calling Lazarus out of the tomb......only to have Lazarus die yet again at another time in another place.  Jesus weeps because he knows that Lazarus is in the better place, moving into a new life with God, and now he must come back.

If we look for theological interpretations, we might find reassurance in God's Son Jesus weeping with the sisters, grieving with them in the face of their enormous loss.  Jesus might be weeping at their poor understanding of the gift of life with God that Jesus offers to them.

Final note on this portion:  the witnesses bring up the healing of the man born blind.  That healing pointed to a power that exceeded anything anyone knew.  Never in the history of man has anyone healed a person born blind! (look back at that story).  What Jesus displayed there was the power evident at creation - to change what the great creator had created!  These witnesses were right to ask, 'Could someone who had that kind of power have kept Lazarus from dying?"  Yes, of course he could, but the witnesses didn't go far enough.  The authority Jesus has over creation goes beyond a pre-emptive healing, Jesus can actually bring back the breath of life in a man in the tomb 4 days.


Last portion tomorrow.  All of this back story does not explain the final scene with Lazarus walking out of the tomb.  However, it helps us to digest the implications of faith in this Jesus and what it might mean to be the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.