My thoughts on Lazarus

This semester I have been reading through the book of John with a group of friends from CO.  Over the past week, we have covered John 11, which is the story of Lazarus.  I really enjoyed studying this and thought I would share a couple of my thoughts on it.  This is going to be a long post though so hang tight! :P

Obviously, the best way for you to understand anything I am about to talk about, you should read the story first.  Even if you've read it 20,000 times in the past, it really never hurts to refresh, so click here to see the passage before you continue reading this post.

Okay, so many of us have heard this story over and over and over again growing up.  The thing is that I feel that because it has been told so many times we often overlook some great things that we can relate to in our personal lives.

One of the things I found interesting I found in the very first verse.  In the ESV, the translation says:

(1)"Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha." 

I believe even just this verse shows that Lazarus was chosen intentionally.  He was that certain man, the man that was used by God for Jesus to fulfill the last prophecy that signified He was the Messiah.  Most would not want to have to die for this, but looking back on his story, I have to think that Lazarus viewed it as a priviledge (in hindsight, since he didn’t know he would be raised by Jesus).

Okay, here is one of the greatest verses in this passage:

(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.”

How about that!  The choosing of the man was not only intentional, but his trial was intentional as well.  Many times I have a difficult time understanding this.  When I face a situation that I don’t understand, I think it is usually natural for us to say, “Okay God, seriously, why in the world do I need to deal with this right now? Why would this possibly be good for me?”  I think that the thing that we have to keep in mind is that it is not about us.  God doesn’t allow us to stay in our comfort zone and live an easy life, because if that was what was promised through faith in Him, that would be the only reason a lot of people choose to believe in Christ.  And really, what kind of faith would that be?!  We come to love and know God through our trials.  If by believing in Christ we were promised an easy life, why would many of us ever want to come to know God personally?  I hope this makes some sense.  I just feel that God would never want Christians to experience life without extremely difficult trials, not only because it develops our character, but because it forces us to surrender the things outside of our control and say, “Alright, I’m done.  I can’t deal with this on my own anymore.  You promised to love me and take care of me, so I’ll trust that this is for my own good.”

God doesn’t always just put us through these trials for our sake, but for the sake of those around us.  I find that some of the people I admire and respect the most are those that have walked through difficulties with humility and faith.  Watching them handle their trials through prayer and trust in God is sometimes just as much of a spiritual encouragement to those around you than it is to you.  You might not always understand how you grew during this time, but consider that maybe your faith through that trial gave hope to those around you as well, especially those that don’t know the love of Christ personally.

Okay, moving on…

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.”

So, Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, on his deathbed, yet He didn’t rush to the bedside of this man.  As a matter of fact, Jesus decided to stay where he was for two more days.  This doesn’t make much sense until you read the rest of the story, but imagine how crazy this was to the disciples.  They had just heard that this man was about to die, but Jesus is like, “Oh I think I’m gonna hang out here for a couple more days.  You know, just take my time.”  Doesn’t appear to be much urgency on the part of Jesus.

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.”

I think this verse reveals part of why Jesus waited two days to go to Lazarus.  Jesus had faced a ton of opposition from the Jews, especially when He performed miracles.  The first thing that crossed my mind when I read this was that Jesus wanted to make absolutely sure that Lazarus was dead, and that He was not there when Lazarus died.  If Jesus was there when Lazarus died, I think that people might have thought his death was a hoax, something staged to make it appear that Jesus had raised a man from “the dead” who was never really dead. By the time He made it to the tomb of Lazarus, Lazarus had been dead and buried for four days, leaving no doubt that Lazarus was dead.

I could seriously go on and on about different things I’ve found in this passage, but I will share one more, which was my favorite observation.

 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?”

So wait, Jesus loved this man…but allowed him to die? How is this even right??  Even the Jews questioned Him by claiming that because He loved Lazarus, He could have prevented him from dying (but, then again, the Jews weren’t exactly people who believed in Christ throughout the Gospel).  Jesus allowed Lazarus to die because He loved him.  Do you think that Lazarus, a man who knew Jesus, would have objected to dying if he knew that Jesus would use his death to bring glory to God? Obviously we can’t interview Lazarus to ask him, but I believe he wouldn’t have.

Something incredibly beautiful to me is that Jesus wept over the death of his friend.  Jesus does not take delight in seeing His children go through pain.  He did not like seeing Mary and Martha grieve over the death of their brother.  In fact, Jesus grieved along with them.  I think it is also important to note that grief here does not indicate a lack of faith; Jesus was mourning the sorrow that had resulted from the suffering that had been experienced by the death of Lazarus.  However, because He knew that this would strengthen their faith, He still allowed it to happen.

I read this and ask myself, “Katlyn, if God says, ‘I’m going to put you through this trial.  You’re going to grieve and you’re going to mourn.  You’re going to feel alone and like no one understands you.  But in the end, you will come out of this trial knowing me and understanding my faithfulness and mercy more than you could ever have without it happening.’  Would I still be willing to go through it?” Yes.  Every time. Yes.  The funny thing is that the trials are going to come whether I say yes or not, but my perspective of how I am going to face these trials will ultimately determine how I emerge from them.  Will I come out of them glorifying God for sanctifying me through these trials, or will I come out upset and angry that I was the one chosen to deal with that particular situation?

A verse that was cross-referenced to this as well was found in Romans 6:

(4) We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Each of us has to die.  Not only physically, but as Christians we are called to die spiritually.  However, the beautiful thing is that this is not a permanent death.  We have to die to ourselves so that Christ can be glorified through giving us a new life in Him.  So just like I believe Lazarus would have done (had he known the future outcome of his death), I will continue to pray that God helps me to die to my human flesh so that I can glorify Him through my actions, my words, and my faith.