Our Gospel reading today relates the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead. Understandably, it is a very popular Biblical account and it has a wonderful and awesome message for Christians of today. Plus, it gives us an insight on just how God operates according to His timeline, rather than ours.
The story starts right off by telling us that Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha and a personal friend of Jesus, is very ill. So ill, in fact, that the sisters send immediately for Jesus to come. When Jesus gets the message He tells His disciples, “This illness will not end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Then a strange thing takes place. Instead of going to Lazarus right away, Jesus waits two days! There doesn’t appear to be any reason for the delay, Jesus just “remains in the place where He was.”
Has that ever happened to you? Some trial, tribulation or temptation comes your way, you pray for God to come and rescue you immediately, and for some reason, God delays. God delays and we don’t understand why.
So, after the two-day delay, Jesus tells His disciples that He is going back to Judea because, “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going to awaken him.” Now the disciples do not understand what Jesus is telling them about Lazarus so they say, “Master, if he is asleep, he will be saved.” But, although they were talking about regular sleep, Jesus was using “sleep” as an euphemism for “death”. So Jesus tells them plainly, “Lazarus has died. And I am glad for you that I was not there, that you may believe. Let us go to him.”
Now Scripture doesn’t tell us anything about the disciples’ response to learning that Jesus was actually talking about Lazarus being dead. But in all honesty, I have to admit that if I had been there, I most probably would have said something along the lines of: “Lazarus has died!” “What do you mean, Lazarus has died, Lord? You said just a short while ago that ‘this sickness will not end in death’ and now you are telling us that Lazarus has died? Why go back now, Lord? What good can we do for him now?”
Death to us appears to be so final. But is it so final to Jesus? It sure seemed final to the disciples. They remind Jesus (as if He could or would forget) that the Jews in Judea had very recently tried to stone Him to death. But that doesn’t seem to bother Jesus in the least and He says in effect, “I am going back there now.”
So Thomas says to the others, “Let us also go to die with Him.” People tend to think that Thomas has a very pessimistic outlook on life, but you know what? Thomas actually has the right idea here. We should go and die with Jesus. No, make that, we must go and die with Jesus:
Jesus returns to Judea and finds that Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. Martha and Mary each come to Jesus and express their grief and belief that had Jesus been there sooner, He could have prevented their brother’s death. When Martha expresses that belief to Jesus she adds, “Even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” To which Jesus replies, “Your brother will rise.” Martha misunderstands what Jesus is saying and says, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” It is then that Jesus makes the awesome statement, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Do you believe this?” Jesus asks Martha, “Do you believe this?” Jesus asks each and every one of us present here today, “Do you believe this?”
Martha acknowledges her belief in Jesus Christ as the long-awaited Messiah and soon after she, Mary, a crowd of Jewish mourners, the disciples and Jesus make their way to Lazarus’ tomb. It is at the tomb of Lazarus that we see a poignant example of how much Jesus Christ loves us. Standing at the tomb and seeing how deeply Martha, Mary and the others were grieving over their loss of Lazarus, Jesus feels their grief and their sorrow. Hence we have the shortest verse in the Bible, verse 35, that says simply, “Jesus wept.” Jesus wept. The Son of God wept. Jesus, who knew full well that in a minute He would be raising Lazarus from the dead, still wept. Why? Why did God cry? Jesus cried not only for Martha and Mary. Jesus cried not only for the crowd of mourners. Jesus cried not only for Lazarus. Jesus cried for them, for me, and for you.
But how little the Jews understood, or we understand. Some of the Jews said, “See how much He loved him.” But some of the others complained and said, “Could not the One Who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?” Jesus then tells them to remove the large stone that sealed the tomb. Martha reminds Jesus that Lazarus had been dead for four days and that there would be the horrible stench of death and decay if the tomb is opened. But Jesus tells her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone. Jesus raised His eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” After Jesus said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” The once-dead man came out, still bound hand and foot with the burial clothes, his face still wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose his bonds and set him free.”
Could Jesus have prevented Lazarus’ death? Absolutely! But God’s plan was different. The raising of Lazarus was a preview of things to come. It is because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that Lazarus was raised, and it is why we too shall die and live again. Oh, we may one day be headed for the grave, but praise the Lord, we will not stay there, because Jesus did not stay there! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, every person will also be raised, some to eternal life, and some to eternal judgment.
The choice is yours as to which everlasting destiny you will inherit. Jesus says, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life.” That is what separates Christianity from all other religions of the world.
Our Gospel reading today ends with these words, “Now many of the Jews who had come with Mary and seen what He (Jesus) had done began to believe in Him.” May their belief, their faith, be yours also. Amen!