Have you ever discovered, in your own life, that sometimes God’s love and God’s timing are difficult to understand and accept? Has there been a recent event in your life that doesn’t seem to fit with your understanding of God’s love? Are you still trying to make sense of it?
In this passage of Scripture, John 11:1-16, which deals with the sickness and death of a close friend by the name of Lazarus, Jesus’ love and His timing were difficult to understand and accept. Jesus is about to receive a message. Let’s see how He responds, and let’s put ourselves in the situation, as if we were members of the family of Lazarus, or as if we were Jesus’ disciples, trying to figure out what is going on and trying to make sense of it.
I. THE SICKNESS OF LAZARUS (verses 1-2)
Life is filled with surprises, isn’t it? Do you like surprises? What about unpleasant surprises? That’s another story, isn’t it? The eleventh chapter of John’s Gospel begins with an unpleasant surprise. Verses 1-2 describe the situation in these words: “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.”
The apostle John is the only gospel writer who mentions this event. He goes into considerable detail to make sure his readers know who he is talking about. The name Lazarus is a form of the name Eleazar. Martha appears to be the oldest, based upon her responsibilities in the family. John uses an event that happens in the future to describe Mary. The apostle John wrote this gospel several years after the death of Christ and he wanted to make sure his readers knew which Mary he was talking about in this verse. There are several Marys who are mentioned in the New Testament scriptures.
II. THE MESSAGE (verse 3)
At that point in time, Jesus and His disciples were still on the other side of the Jordan River in the land of Perea where John the Baptist had been baptizing. Martha and Mary must have known this because they sent Him a message. Verse 3 says, “The sisters therefore sent to Him, saying, ‘Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.’ ” The person who brought this news to Jesus must have been quoting the words that Mary and Martha asked him to say. The words “he whom You love” are filled with meaning and emotion. They aren’t implying that Jesus loved Lazarus more than others. I think they are focusing on the fact that Jesus’ love for them is so much greater than their love for Him, that they feel so undeserving but so enthralled by His love. Like the apostle John, who referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, whenever they thought of Jesus or thought of themselves, they were reminded of, and amazed at, His love for them.
Hymn writer Philip Bliss, finished singing the hymn, “Oh, How I Love Jesus”, when he said to himself, “Those words are true. Yet I feel guilty for having sung so much about my poor love for Christ and so little about His endless love for me.” As a result, he wrote a song that is well known today. Here is the first stanza:
“I am so glad that our Father in heaven
Tells of His love in the Book He has given,
Wonderful things in the Bible I see —
This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me.”
IV. JESUS’ REPLY (verse 4)
Having considered the love of Jesus, how did Jesus respond to this bearer of sad news? Did He stop what He was doing, accompany the person, and perform a healing miracle? That’s what He usually did, but not in this case. Instead, He gives some words of assurance for this messenger to take back to Mary and Martha. In verse 4 Jesus said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” After spending the night with Jesus and His disciples, the messenger must have left the next morning reassured by that good news, and Jesus’s disciples must have been glad that there was nothing to be concerned about. Everything was going to turn out alright. That’s going to be true, but not in the sense that Jesus’ hearers understood it. Not at all!
V. LOVE AND DELAY (verses 5-6)
Verse 5 describes Jesus’ love, not only for Lazarus but for Martha and Mary as well. The apostle John wants to make it clear to his readers that all three of them were equally the objects of Jesus’ love. Then, in verse 6, Jesus does something that seems to contradict that love. Verse 6 reads, “When therefore He [Jesus] heard that he [Lazarus] was sick, He stayed then two days longer in the place where He was.” That doesn’t sound very loving, does it? You would think that Jesus would have accompanied the messenger back to Bethany and healed Lazarus. Why the delay?
If we look through the gospels, we find that Jesus was not a “creature of habit” when it came to performing miracles. He didn’t perform any two miracles exactly the same way. Some of His miracles were done in very unusual and unexpected ways. You might draw the conclusion that Jesus was a non-conformist who did things His own way, but that’s not a valid conclusion. Jesus conformed to the will of His Heavenly Father, and when asked or challenged, He gave the credit to His Father. In John 5:30, Jesus said, “I can do nothing on My own initiative. . . . I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” In John 14:10, Jesus will be making a similar statement when He says, “but the Father dwelling in Me does His works.” Jesus was on the Father’s timetable and acted according to the will and power of the Father, and for the glory of His Father.
VI. THE TIME FOR ACTION (verses 7-10)
After two days of rest and relaxation, Jesus gives the exhortation, “Let us go to Judea again.” Those words must have startled His disciples. They just fled from there to save their lives and now Jesus wants to go back again? What’s going on? To get the full picture, let’s imagine what has been happening in Bethany during this period of time. The messenger returned to Bethany the following evening only to learn that Lazarus had died while he was on his way to deliver the message to Jesus. The messenger was alone; Jesus wasn’t with him. Let’s try to imagine the conversation between them.
“Where is Jesus?”
“He’s still in Bathabara.”
“Is He coming?”
“I don’t think so. He said, ‘This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it’.”
Can you imagine the shock when Mary and Martha heard those words? Lazarus was already dead. They already had the funeral service for him and had laid him in the family tomb. Yet Jesus had not come, and His words to them didn’t make any sense. They must have been devastated and wondered whether He was going to come at all. There may have been a sense of abandonment in their hearts.
In spite of the shock and confusion this delay has caused in the minds of Martha, Mary, and Jesus’ disciples, Jesus had an important and necessary reason for the delay. The climate in that region was very hot and only the rich could afford to embalm a dead family member. It was a process that took months to accomplish. The rest of the people endeavored to bury the body the same day or early the next day. They also didn’t have the diagnostic equipment we have today to confirm that a person was truly dead. As a result, there were cases where the “dead” person came out of his swoon or coma and came back to life. In order to explain this phenomenon and keep it from happening again, the leaders came up with an explanation. One popular opinion was that the spirit of the person hovered over the body until decay began to take place and then left.
That may seem to give a reason for the delay but I don’t think that reason aligns with the character of the Lord Jesus. He was not one who would hurt His friends in order to bring more glory to Himself at their expense. Jesus also does not confirm that view. Remember, Jesus was not all-knowing, and His will was to bring glory to the Father as the Father revealed His will to His Son. There were things that Jesus knew and there were things that Jesus didn’t know until the Father revealed them. For example, Jesus probably knew about this “swoon theory” that I just mentioned. He knew that any resurrection miracle would be questioned if the person hadn’t been dead for at least three days. However, Jesus may not have known that Lazarus was already dead. One thing we do know is that Jesus always did the will of the Father as the Father revealed it to Him, and until then, He waited. For Him, it wasn’t a delay but an act of loving obedience to His Father.
With that information in mind, Jesus may have said those words: “Let’s go to Judea again” immediately after the Father had told Him that Lazarus was dead and that it was time to return to the home of Martha and Mary. Those words of Jesus in verse 7 were not the words that Jesus’ disciples wanted to hear. It sounded like a death sentence and they were not ready to die. They encourage Jesus to reconsider His plans, saying, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?” I see an exaggeration and an implication in their response. First, they make it sound like this attempted stoning happened just a couple of minutes ago instead of a couple of days ago. They seem to be saying, “Don’t you think you should give this a little more thought rather than react upon the first impulse?” Secondly, they are giving Jesus a hint about their response to the idea. When they said, “are You going there again”, they seem to be implying, “You’re on your own this time!” It sounds like a stand-off, doesn’t it? Jesus is ready to go and they are giving Him reasons to stay. He doesn’t get angry with them because of their fears but uses this opportunity to build faith and trust in Him and His words. His disciples are focusing their thoughts upon the situation rather than upon their Messiah.
Jesus begins by giving them a lesson on how to tell time. Can you remember learning how to tell time as a child? I was a little slow to catch on at first. Most of the clocks are digital now, but I grew up back in the day when all the clocks had an hour hand and a minute hand, and some of them even had a second hand.
In verse 9, Jesus answers their question with a question of His own, saying, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him.” Jesus uses a form of telling time that was common to the Jews of that day by stating that there are twelve hours of daylight and implying that there are twelve hours of the night. If you’re going to take a walk, it is better to do it during the day. They didn’t have street lights as we have today, so when the sun went down, it was really dark. There was more that Jesus was trying to communicate to them but they missed it. He told His disciples, in chapter 8, that He was the light of the world. He had also mentioned that His hour had not yet come. There was still work that the Father wanted Him to do. Until then, they were safe with Him. As King David said, in Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?”
VII. THE NEED FOR EXPLANATIONS (verses 11-15)
That answer received no response from Jesus’ disciples. Their thoughts are still focused on what He is about to do, rather than on who He is and what He is able to do. Jesus is trying to build faith and trust in Him as their Messiah and He is not about to give up yet. In verse 11, Jesus gives them an explanation when He says, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, that I may awaken him out of sleep.”
The response of His disciples seems to be appropriate. Verse 12 reads, “The disciples therefore said to Him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ ” I wonder if their response to Jesus was one of relief rather than rejoicing. In order to avoid the risks of going to Bethany, they are trying to convince Jesus that there is no longer a need to make the trip. “Let Lazarus sleep undisturbed. The sleep will heal his sickness.” Jesus’ disciples are still in protection-mode and have misunderstood His words. Over 35 times in the Old Testament scriptures, the phrase “slept with his fathers” is used when referring to the death of someone. The disciples of Jesus missed that association because none of them asked Jesus for clarification.
It’s time to head for Bethany so Jesus tells His disciples clearly and plainly what has happened to Lazarus. In verses 14 and 15, Jesus said, “Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I wasn’t there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.” Jesus could have been there sooner. He could have brought Lazarus back from the dead without going there in person. But Jesus is glad at that moment, knowing that what His disciples are about to experience is going to stretch and deepen their faith in Him.
VIII. THE RESPONSE OF THOMAS (verse 16)
Jesus may be rejoicing at that moment but His disciples aren’t sharing the enjoyment along with Him. They see this trip back to Bethany as a death sentence for all of them. However, one voice responds loudly enough for all to hear. It’s the voice of the apostle Thomas. Verse 16 says, “Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go that we may die with Him.’ “
The apostle Thomas is my namesake and most people refer to him as “doubting Thomas” because of his reluctance to believe that Christ had risen from the dead (John 20:24-29). I’ve been called “doubting Thomas” many times in my life, but I would like you to think of the apostle Thomas as he is described here in verse 16. His words are an expression of two of his character qualities: loyalty and pessimism. He was a loyal follower of Christ who was willing to face death along with Him. Thomas also encouraged the other disciples to do the same thing. As we’ll see in the next passage of scripture, the other disciples followed his advice.
CONCLUSION:
This passage of Scripture points out that life isn’t just a series of events. It is also a process. There are issues to deal with, challenges to accept, responses to make, and things to learn. God has designed the circumstances in our lives so that we might mature physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. God orders those circumstances so that we might respond to Him by faith, trust, and obedience as He enables us and empowers us. Jesus was going through a process also. In verses 7-10, we learned that Jesus did not allow danger to keep Him from doing what He knew was the Father’s will for His life at that moment. He was also willing to wait until the time was right.
It’s not always easy to wait, is it? G. Campbell Morgan made the following statement. “Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting on God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given.”
If you are not yet a committed follower of Jesus Christ and a true child of God, now is not the time to delay. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “. . . Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation.” In these dark and perilous times, remember and respond to the words of Jesus who said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).
CONSTRUCTION SITE: COMPLETED