The Miracle at Bethany, John 11

The raising of Lazarus is the climactic miracle or sign in John’s Gospel.  In all, there are seven signs in John and each one serves to emphasize a particular aspect of Jesus’ authority.  This is the big one; it demonstrates His power over man’s most dreaded enemy:  death.

There is a three-fold significance to this miracle:

• It points to Jesus Christ as the Son of God.  Earlier Jesus demonstrated that He was the “bread of life” when He fed the people.  He revealed Himself as the “light of the world” when He healed the man born blind.  With this miracle, Jesus shows that He is “the resurrection and the life.”
• It revealed Jesus to be the Messiah, who would die for His people in fulfillment of prophecy.
• It led to the formal decision to put Jesus to death.

There is another aspect to this incident, and it is one that we may apply to our lives.

“Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”  (verse  40)

There is no more difficult time to muster belief in Christ than during this kind of tragic situation.  But our belief in Christ is not to be dictated by circumstances that come in and out of our lives.  Our belief is supposed to be constant, and if it was, we would see God’s glory manifested continually.

1.  The death of Lazarus, 11:1—16

As the story begins, we are introduced to the main characters; the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus.  They were residents of Bethany and personal friends of Jesus’, who visited them likely on many occasions in the past.

Lazarus, not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, is a passive but primary figure in this chapter.  His name is actually an abbreviation of Eleazar, which means “he whom God helped.”

Verse 3 suggests that Jesus was far more than just an acquaintance with this family.  When Lazarus fell ill, the first person the family sent for was Jesus.  That the illness was serious is evident since they were asking Jesus to return to the very part of the country where there was now a “price on His head.”  The way Mary and Martha broke the news to Jesus implied that if Jesus loved Lazarus, then He would return.

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.”  (verse 4)

This verse sounds optimistic, depending on who’s hearing it.  To Mary and Martha, and probably to the disciples as well, Jesus surely meant to reassure them:  the sickness is not serious enough to kill your brother.  But to Jesus, the verses meant the death of Lazarus was a temporary death because He already knew what He would do.  Furthermore, the whole incident had but one purpose:  to glorify Christ.

Verses 4 and 5 cause problems to some readers because Jesus’ reaction seems not to match up to His feelings—

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

If He loved this family so much, why they delay?  Westcott shed some light on Jesus’ reasons:

Because the Lord loved the family He went at the exact moment when His visit would be most fruitful and not just when He was invited.

What looked like a cold and cruel delay was really the most powerful, most effective, and most tender way to show concern for the spiritual well-being of Mary, Martha, and the disciples.  On previous occasions, Jesus acted quite differently; in the case of Jairus’ daughter, He acted immediately (Luke 8:41—42, 49—56), and in the case of the son of the widow of Nain whom Jesus raised, our Lord met the funeral procession on the way to the cemetery (Luke 7:11—16)!  But here, death was touching the very people He was closest to while on Earth, but they needed to learn a deep spiritual lesson, not a sentimental one.

Finally, after the two days were over, and Lazarus was dead, the time was right for Jesus and His disciples to go to Judea.  This prompted concern in the disciples, who, based on what Jesus had said two days ago, thought that by now surely Lazarus was well on the road to recovery and, they knew that Jesus would be walking into certain danger if He went.

Verses 9—14 really show why Jesus came into the world and serve to set the theme for the whole chapter.  The death of Lazarus illustrates the great cosmic struggle between light and dark, good and evil, life and death.  This struggle, which has been going on since time immemorial, is difficult for people to grasp, so our Lord helps us by showing us this cosmic struggle, which affects all humanity, within one particular family.

What’s more, these verses also show another dimension to Christ’s ministry on Earth and also shed some more light on the disciples—

• Verse 9:  This verse may have been a quotation of a sort of proverb popular during Jesus’ time, reminiscent of John 9:4.  Jesus was simply telling His disciples that He had a limited amount time left to fulfill His obligation to do the work assigned Him by His Father.
• Verses 10, 11:  Jesus was well aware that His friend Lazarus was now dead; His disciples were clueless.  What is significant is the way Jesus broke the news to His disciples.  He was very matter-of-fact with them; He did not embellish the news with sentimentality.
• Verses 12—15:  The disciples completely misunderstood and misinterpreted what Jesus had said; a very common occurrence to this day.  Believers are always misunderstanding and misinterpreting the Word of God and basing their thoughts and actions on error.  But Jesus set them straight.

Verse 16, though, is a curiosity—

Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

This is the first appearance in this Gospel of Thomas.  Though some take Thomas’ meaning to be “let us die with Lazarus,” it is more likely, given the context and the danger, Thomas was speaking to the rest of the disciples, saying, “let us go and die with Christ.”  Always Mr. Negative, it seems Thomas expected the worst if they all went to Judea.  We may make fun of Thomas, but we can’t fault his loyalty to His Lord!   Thomas seemed to have an unwavering, unlimited supply of loyalty, but at the same time, not a great deal of faith.  Again, Westcott observed:

He [Thomas] will die for the love which he has, but he will not affect the faith which he has not.

2.  The arrival of Jesus, 11:17—37

The trip from Perea to Bethany took about two days, and when Jesus and the disciples finally arrived at the outskirts of Bethany in Judea, He “found” (probably inquired and found out) that His friend had been dead for days and was in the tomb by now.

The two sisters responded to the coming of Jesus at this instance in pretty much the same way they responded in the past.  Martha was the “mouthpiece,” the one who took the lead and hurried out to meet Jesus; Mary on the other hand remained at home.

Verse 21 shows the depth of faith Martha had in Jesus—

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Though surely disappointed, her faith was not shaken.  The exchange between Jesus and Martha and His dealings with the family in this matter are a lesson in what faith is all about.  Faith has many components, and for faith to be effective it must be complete.  L.H. Marshal has compared faith to gunpowder, which is made up of carbon, sulfur, and saltpeter, and each ingredient must be present in the mixture before there can be an explosion.  And so, real faith must have all of its components working at the same time:  trust, belief, emotion, and intellect.  If any one component of faith is missing, then that faith is incomplete and therefore ineffective.  This entire incident was designed by Jesus to teach Martha’s family this.

In the simplest possible terms, Jesus blurted out to Martha what was about to happen, but her response, like that of the disciples, showed that she did not grasp the simplicity of Jesus statement—

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”   Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  (verses 23, 24)

And herein lay the great cosmic struggle:  knowing that Christ has mastery over everything, even life itself, yet when confronted with the reality of death, our emotions take over and an objective truth becomes a subjective one.  This was Martha’s conundrum; her faith was strong until it was put to the test; the death of her brother caused her emotions to take over and now all hope rested, not on the real possibility of a present intervention by God, but on a nebulous, far future promise of a general resurrection.   It took virtually no faith to believe this; the general resurrection was a key tenet in Judaism, a doctrine vehemently taught and defended by the Pharisees, of all people.  When push came to shove, Martha fell back into old, comfortable teachings.

Jesus seized on this and uttered one of the greatest truths of Scripture:

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  (verses 25, 26)

If we analyze precisely what Jesus told Martha, the sheer simplicity of it knocks us over.  First, she references the “resurrection.”  Jesus informs her that HE is, in fact, the resurrection.  In other words, He is LIFE.  Then He says this:

He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.

Is Jesus talking about the dead saints in general?  No.  Who has just died?  Lazarus!  Lazarus was a believer, and therefore, Jesus said Lazarus will live.   Then Jesus said,

Whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Specifically, Jesus is referring to Martha, who also was a believer.  She will never die; that is, she will live on and on in the spirit because of her faith in Christ.   In effect, Jesus said, “I will raise your brother to physical life because of his faith in me and you will never die spiritually  because of your faith in me.”  In two verses, we see Jesus in total command of life; physical and spiritual; they are His give.

Now, apparently Martha understood what Jesus was trying to say.

So far, we see Jesus’ divine side in action:  the Son of God, operating above the circumstances; very calm and cool and He is seen in complete control of the situation.  However, this all changed when Mary showed up, in an emotional dither.

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.”  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

“Where have you laid him?” he asked.   “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept. (verses 32—35)

When Mary appeared, crushed and broken hearted, we see Jesus’ humanity coming to the surface; He too was moved with the deepest of emotions.   His feelings are described by three words or phrases:  “deeply moved,” “troubled,” and “wept.”  These three emotional responses tell us a lot about Jesus—

• “Deeply moved.”  The Greek word is enebrimesato, meaning “to snort like a horse,” and usually suggests anger.  But with whom was Jesus angry?   Was he angry with the sisters?  This can’t be; there was a relationship that existed between them that ran deep.  In all likelihood Jesus was angered at death, and what death does to the human body and what it does to human relationships.  Jesus saw how the death of their brother broke Mary and Martha’s hearts and crushed their spirits, and because this was how they felt, this was how He felt.  And this made Jesus very angry.
• “Troubled.”  In Greek, etaraxen denotes agitation, confusion or disorganization.  As the word is used here, it shows Jesus was agitated by the situation.  This agitation, brought on by the death of close friend, caused waves of emotion to well up within Jesus, and in that moment when Jesus reacted like any other man would react to the death of a loved one, He cried.  What a contrast to the Jesus we saw just a couple of verses back!  But this is Jesus we serve; all God and all man at the same time; touched by what touches us; moved by what moves us.

3.  The raising of Lazarus, 11:38—44

When everybody (Jesus, Mary, Martha, the disciples, other Jews) arrived at the tomb, it was a typical Palestinian tomb:

It had no door; in front of the opening there ran a groove and in the groove there was set a great stone like a great cartwheel, and the stone was rolled across the entrance so that the cave completely sealed.  (Strachan)

The repetition of the phrase “deeply moved” shows that He was still under great emotional strain and tension.  Jesus was now faced with a monumental task:  fulfill the prediction, raise Lazarus from the dead and give the glory to God.   He had just challenged Martha’s faith, and now Jesus was facing a challenge of His own!  But He wasn’t going to face it alone; note what He said—

“Take away the stone,” he said.  (verse 39)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus said that?  Why would the Creator of heaven and earth need somebody to move a boulder?   It was a challenge to Martha’s imperfect faith, for it was she who responded—

“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.”  (verse 39)

Of course, she was absolutely right!  Facing a truth of life, she forgot about the One who is Life!  This singular moment was the acid test of her faith.  This whole story, apart from the glorification of God, is all about this one exchange between a woman and her Savior.  Jesus didn’t need anybody to move that stone, but Martha needed to learn about faith.  What would she do?  She trusted Jesus; she believed in Jesus; she loved Jesus; would she be loyal to Jesus and obey Him when it seemed ridiculous to do so?

We all know the story, and naturally Martha obeyed.  Jesus addressed the dead man and told Lazarus to “Come out” of the tomb.  That phrase, “come out,” or “come forth” is really a directional command, as though Jesus is telling him, “Come this way.”

Here we have a demonstration of the authority of the Son of God, which harkens back to a John 5:28—

Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice.

The raising of this one man was sort of preview of the coming attraction!  Lazarus, raised from death to life, called out from gloom into joy, from the darkness of a tomb into the light of day.  You would think that everybody there would have been astonished and overcome with the presence of God.  Some, in fact, came to have faith in Jesus because of this miracle, although it’s hard to understand why everybody there didn’t come to have in Jesus after witnessing a resurrection!

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him.  (verse 45)

But the religious leaders acted predictably.  This miracle put Jesus on a collision course with His destiny.

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.  “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”   (verses 47—50)

(c)  2010 WitzEnd

An old, dilapidated church

I came across this very telling article about how best selling author Anne Rice has left her church.  First, let me say that I had no idea she was in a church to begin with, judging by the books she writes.   Be that as it may, the article points up a disturbing trend within the American Christian church:

Rice is merely one of millions of Americans who have opted out of organized religion in recent years, making the unaffiliated category of faith the fastest-growing “religion” in America, according to a 2008 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The article goes on to say how various age groups are more or less committed to their church. Now, depending on your level of faith and your own personal commitment to Christ, this article will either bother you a great deal, or you will react like me:  big deal.   I am not surprised by the fact that so many people are leaving the church nor am I overly concerned about it. Let me explain why by going back to the article:

American Christianity is not well, and there’s evidence to indicate that its condition is more critical than most realize — or at least want to admit.

Pollsters — most notably evangelical George Barna — have reported repeatedly that they can find little measurable difference between the moral behavior of churchgoers and the rest of American society.

And therein lies the rub.  Perhaps all these people leaving the church shouldn’t have been part of it to begin with.  You say, “Mike, how can you say such a thing?  Shouldn’t the church welcome all people?”  Well, actually no, at least not if you want to be a Biblical church.  The church of Jesus Christ is most assuredly not supposed to be “inclusive.”  It was designed by it’s Founder to be the most exclusive organization in the world.

It’s not that the church shouldn’t welcome believers of all races or be accessible to people with disabilities; that’s not at all what I mean when I write that the church should not be “inclusive.”   What I mean is simply this:  The church is not a home for unrepentant sinners.  It is, of course a home for sinners saved by grace, but it is not for those who refuse to change their sinful lifestyles to fit the admonitions of Scripture.

Eventually unrepentant members of the church will have to either change or leave; they should be asked to leave, like the immoral brother of 1 Corinthians 5, or they will leave on their own.  And let’s face it, most people find it easier to just leave than to change their lives and live according to the teachings of Christ.  After all, it was Jesus who told the man healed of blindness:

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”  (John 5:14)

Over the years I cannot tell you have many people have joined the churches I had pastored and am pastoring,  confessing Christ all over the place, only to just fade away after a few weeks or months.  I have come to expect no less;  who wouldn’t want to be a part of a loving, caring, and accepting group?  Who wouldn’t want the joy and peace and encouragement one finds only in a church?   The trouble is, wanting what the church offers is not enough.  There is a price to pay for such blessings.  And in my estimation (and that of our Lord’s) most of the members of most of our churches are unwilling to pay that price.  The current defection from church bears this out.

Christian activist Ronald J. Sider writes in his book, “The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience”: “By their daily activity, most ‘Christians’ regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is their Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate their allegiance to money, sex, and personal self-fulfillment.”

What do we do with such people?  What do we tell them?  It may be politically incorrect, but I like the old timey phrase:

Shape up or ship out!

If you’ve been sitting in a pew in my church, then you have heard the Gospel week after week after week.  If you refuse to repent and change, here’s your hat and there’s the door.

So, I am not at all concerned about people like that leaving the church. My concern is for those who attend faithfully week after week.

Link to the article here:  L.A. TIMES Opinion

1 Kings 18:41—46

Elijah is a classic example of a man who knew how to pray.  In fact, many centuries before James wrote about prayer in his letter, we find its fulfillment in the prophet Elijah!  The prayers of a righteous man are prayers that are heard and answered by God.  James gives Elijah as his prime example of a righteous man—

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.  (James 5:17, 18)

The fire had fallen upon the prophet’s sacrifice at his request.  The people who had witnessed this astounding miracle were convinced that Yahweh was indeed God, and as if to prove their faith to Elijah, they renounced Baal and slayed the idolatrous priests of that detestable false god.  But Elijah was not finished!  The best was yet to come.

Elijah made it crystal clear that the devastating drought and famine were sent by God and not by Baal.  The people had to be made to understand that it was God, not Baal, who was in control and it would be God, not Baal, who would end the drought.  The Israelites were about to learn that God is not only in control of the human realm but also the realm of nature.

The whole purpose of the prolonged drought and the resultant famine was to show to the people of Israel that Baal was a complete fraud; a fabrication of man’s twisted imagination.  The people had looked to Baal as the god of storms and rain.  They believed that during the long, hot, dry days of summer Baal was either asleep or away traveling.  When the autumn rains came in October, the people viewed Baal as awake and active once again.  The people had absolutely no concept of a sovereign God who ruled over His creation.

It was back in 17:1 that Elijah told King Ahab that the drought had come in defiance of Baal—

“As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

The longer the drought dragged on, the more obvious it would become that Baal was not the great god his followers thought him to be; but that Yahweh was the only Great God.

As we look at Elijah’s prayer, there are a number interesting points worth pondering:

1.  Elijah prayed in faith, verse 41

And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”

What exactly was it that Elijah heard?  Nobody else seemed to hear the rain nor did they see it.  The fact is, there was yet no indication that so much as a drop of rain was going to fall on any part of Israel!  One commentator put it this way:

The sound may have been that of the assuring promise of God ringing in his soul.

That makes sense, as faith comes by that kind of hearing.  Elijah was operating under the promise of God; he heard the rain before it came.  This reminds us of that classic definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1—

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

This is the secret of powerful prayer:  praying in faith, believing in the answer beforehand.  Elijah knew God would come through for him because he knew God’s promise.  If believers knew the Word of God as well as Elijah did, how powerful would prayers be?  We would be unstoppable!

2.  Elijah prayed humbly, verse 42

So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

Elijah was bold before people, yet humble before God.  Such should be the case with all true believers.  We ought to come boldly before God, but in a spirit of humility.  This is something that many believers today don’t quite understand.  They seem to think coming boldly before God means that they are free to order the Almighty around!  Just listening to how some evangelists, preachers and teachers pray one wonders to whom they are praying!   We can all take a lesson from the posture of the prophet:  pray humbly before God.

3.  Elijah prayed persistently, verse 43

“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said.  Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”

While Elijah buried his head between his knees in reverence before God, he sent his servant to the mountain’s peak to herald the coming of the rains.  The servant, though, quickly returned a number of times with a bad report:  no rain in sight.  Elijah heard the sound of a deluge, yet his servant saw nothing.  If you are expecting other people to see what your faith has convinced you of, forget it!   Nobody can see with their eyes what can only be perceived by faith.

But the prophet would not be discouraged or dissuaded; he kept on praying and he kept on expecting his bewildered servant to come back with good news.  Elijah had the Word of God’s promise, and he kept on believing as he kept on praying even though it looked for all the world like he was wasting his time and making a fool out of his poor servant.  This reminds us of Jacob who would not let go of the angel of the Lord until he received a blessing—

Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”  But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  (Genesis 32:26)

Jacob hung on and was blessed, and Elijah persisted until his faith became reality.  Elijah walked by faith, and sometimes walking by faith means walking alone.

4.  Elijah prayed definitely

There was never any doubt as to what Elijah wanted:  he wanted rain, and that was exactly what he prayed for.  As one scholar quipped,

This mighty man of God seemed never to have more than one arrow in his quiver at a time.

He focused on exactly what he wanted; he was not distracted by many other things.  Prayers that move God are prayers that are definite.  David put it like this in Psalm 5:3—

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

The phrase “lay my requests” comes from a Hebrew phrase that means literally “to set in order an arrow in the bow.”  It means to take careful aim so that the arrow will hit its mark.  Is that how you pray?  Do pray to “hit the target?”   Do you concentrate for all your worth?  Do focus on what you need to the exclusion of all else?  Or are your prayers strangled to death by the many needs that float in and out of your mind that you mention but never really expect to have met?  If you pray like that, stop!  Stop wasting your time and God’s.

Practically speaking, this is the great benefit of a prayer list.  Most of us have a hard time concentrating for more than a few minutes on anything.  A list can be very helpful in bringing our thoughts into captivity.  A general prayer is generally useless.

How can you be 100% sure that your prayer will be answered?  A general rule of thumb is this:  prayers that get God’s attention and prayers that get answered are prayers based on some promise of God in His Word.  If your prayer life is a hit-and-miss thing, maybe what you need to do is crack open your Bible and get to know what you should be praying for.

5.  Elijah prayed successfully, verses 44, 45

The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’”  Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.

As soon as a teeny tiny dark cloud appeared on the horizon, Elijah grabbed hold of it and claimed it as the answer.  He did not hesitate; he did not wait until the cloud got a little bit bigger; he sent word immediately to Ahab that he should get going before he got stopped by the coming rain.

Don’t ever fail to notice the small cloud after you have prayed.  Never forget the words of another prophet—

Who despises the day of small things? (Zechariah 4:10a)

How easy it would have been to miss that small cloud.  The servant was supposed to be looking for rain, not a cloud!  But Elijah knew from a small cloud comes a big rain.  The few loaves and fish were more enough to feet thousands of on a hillside.  Elijah asked, and he believed that he would receive.  Our Lord made this point—

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  (Mark 11:24)

Notice the past tense:  we are to believe that we have received the answer, and when we do that, it becomes ours.   To what end?  Does God answer our prayers simply because we believe?  Or simply because we have tons of faith?  Not according to John 14:13—

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.

When a prayer you prayed is answered, it is so that God may receive the glory and sinners take notice of Him.   As we read about how God answered Elijah’s prayer, let’s remember that the prophet already had the promise; he hadn’t invented the need, presented it to God, and then hoped God would make it rain.  Elijah knew God would bring the rain as soon as he asked because He knew what God’s Word was on that subject.

Modern Christians really short change themselves because of their lack of knowledge concerning the privileges that are theirs based solely on the merits of Christ.  How many of us are living way below the place God intends for us to be because we don’t know what we should pray for or how we should pray?  If we would commit to become “people of the Book,” faithfully studying the Scriptures, we might be very surprised at how different out lives might look.

(c)  2010 WitzEnd