Or, There Is Hope for the Dead
Scripture: John 11:38-44
Date: April 14, 2013
Speaker: Sean Higgins
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What is the point of raising Lazarus from the dead? What does God want us to see? What does He want us to do? The easiest answer comes from Jesus. He told His disciples in verse 4: “[This illness]…is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Now again, immediately before commanding Lazarus to come out of the tomb, Jesus tells Martha and the crowd, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” The point of this story, of this sign, is that we would see the glory of God in His Son.
But is that it? Can we be more specific about how the glory is revealed or about the shape of glory shown? There are a couple clues to identifying the glory. First, Jesus told Martha that if she believed she would see glory. But that’s not how He said it in their earlier conversation. When they talked (verses 17-27) Jesus told her about resurrection. He told her not only that He would resurrect Lazarus but that He was the resurrection. So, wanted her (and us) to see glory that gives life to the dead.
Second, giving life to the dead corroborated that Jesus was on mission from His Father. The glory is Trinitarian glory, glory that relates to the purposes of the eternal God to give life. From the beginning of John’s gospel: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14).
When we see Jesus’ glory in this story, we see who He is. We see Him giving life to the dead because that is divine. That is divine because that’s God’s nature, and the Word in flesh is the resurrection and the life in bodily form. The glory of God in Christ is the hope for the dead. This is very good news. No cemetery is safe with Jesus around, no heart so cold that it is beyond His ability to bring it back into beating. He has the energy and, even more than that, He has the eagerness. Even when we resist, that’s okay, He doesn’t need our cooperation.
It’s four days after the initial message to Jesus. Martha and Mary sent word about Lazarus, all of whom Jesus loved, that their brother was sick. They wanted Jesus’ healing help but He stayed away until Lazarus was dead, really dead, four stinking body days dead. As Jesus approached Bethany, Martha came out to Him and expressed disappointment: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (verse 21). A little while later Mary came to Him with weeping despair: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (verse 32). Many in the crowd also doubted, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” (verse 37).
The lack of hope is profound. It means that they didn’t know Jesus, they didn’t know His glory. Though that insults Him, Jesus moves to strengthen their believing. There are three stages of glory in this paragraph.
He’s come to the right place and time for Him to show His glory and He prepares the stage. He meets resistance, though not from the dead man.
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. (John 11:38–41a, ESV)
Deeply moved is the same word found in verse 33. It expresses a strong indignant response rather than a soft compassionate one. He could be indignant (angered or upset) at death, at the sorrow and mess that death makes. He could also be indignant at the lack of trust, the questioning of His motives, His love, and His power.
It seems that the latter is the case. Some of the crowd questioned (verse 37), then or “therefore” Jesus was indignant. He is surrounded by a crowd that doesn’t get His nature and doubts His heart.
They had buried Lazarus in a tomb and the tomb was a cave, and a stone lay against it . Jesus, Martha and Mary, and the crowd of comforters arrived at the site outside the city. Caves were common places for burial and large boulders protected the bodies from animals. The boulders could not protect the bodies from decomposition.
The Jews didn’t embalm their dead like the Egyptians. Embalming involved removing the internal organs and soaking the body in a chemical mixture for 70 days (Lenski, 813), followed by tight wrapping to preserve the flesh. The Jews wrapped the bodies, sometimes adding spices for sake of temporarily counteracting the smell, but not always.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Here is His first command and the one most greatly resisted. No one was alarmed more than Martha. Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor for he has been dead four days.” The KJV incomparably translates, “By this time he stinketh.” She was right, but she was wrong.
We know who Martha is by now but John calls her the sister of the dead man . Along with Mary, no one would have been closer or cared more for Lazarus, and no one would have had more tender, raw feelings. Martha was the head of the family now that their brother was gone. This was worse than Jesus picking a scab, this was Jesus opening up a cave of worms. Smelling the stench would have been emotional, if not actually embarrassing. It wasn’t going to hurt Lazarus, it was going to hurt her. The odor of death was too much for Martha to bear so she resists by informing Jesus about what happens during decomposition of the dead and how long her brother had been dead. It’s ironic that Martha had a harder time obeying than Lazarus. She didn’t trust Jesus.
The root of the evil consists in measuring the infinite and incomprehensible power of God by the perception of her flesh. (Calvin, 443)
Jesus gently challenges her. She forgets her place and His purpose. Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God? At least by what John recorded of their earlier conversation, Jesus hadn’t said this to Martha, not word for word, but it was His point. He was resurrecting her hope, drawing out her belief in Him. This is why He came, why He came after her brother was dead. He came when healing was out of the question.
Apparently this persuaded Martha enough and she consented to what Jesus wanted. So they took away the stone .
The time had come but Jesus wanted to make clear who was involved in this miracle. He displays His power.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” (John 11:41–43, ESV)
[joke]Even though we all know that the only proper position to pray is with one’s head bowed and eyes closed[/joke], Jesus lifted up his eyes and prayed.
Interestingly, He makes no request in His prayer, He makes a statement. Actually, He starts with thanksgiving and then makes a statement for the sake of His audience. Father, I thank You that You have heard me . We don’t know; did He already ask for Lazarus’ life earlier? I don’t think so. I think it was a prayer that others would see His glory (as in John 17, especially verse 24). If He had to ask, as if He didn’t know, it wouldn’t be much different than the prophets. Instead, He asked that the Father would show glory.
Then Jesus said, I know that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me . Raising Lazarus was a Trinitarian work, Father and Son were involved. They were involved not only doing something in Lazarus’ heart, but also in the heart of those who witnessed it. He wanted them to know who He was, why He was there. He was God’s Son sent by His Father on a life giving mission. That’s who He is.
When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The loud voice wasn’t for Lazarus’ sake. He was still dead. It was for the sake of the crowd.
Whitacre (1999: 293) notes perceptively that “Jesus could have healed Lazarus when he was still sick with a word of command, even across the miles [cf. 4:46–54]. But now he utters a mightier word across a much greater distance—that between the living and the dead.” (Kostenberger, 345)
What was it like for those few moments after the command watching the mouth of the cave? How many thought Jesus must be crazy? How many expected anything to happen at all? No one went into the cave, including Jesus, so there was no trickery. Everything hung on Jesus’ word.
Jesus proves His glory. In many ways, nothing is surprising about this just as there is nothing surprising when a snowball hits at the bottom of the hill. But this snowball picks up some surprising things along the way.
The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:44, ESV)
One commentator said, “With a subject so tremendous to present [John] drops all attempts to make us feel its tremendousness” (Lenski, 818). Seriously, there is no “Behold!” No “Wow!” No exclamation of any kind.
John described Lazarus as The man who had died . Someone once remarked that had Jesus not specified, “Lazarus, come out” all the graves would have emptied. Lazarus was really dead, stinking dead, and the dead guy came out. That’s not overkill, that’s irony. Dead men don’t come or go anywhere. This dead man obeyed.
His hands and his feet were still bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth . Those were standard grave clothes, not as tight as mummification, but still restrictive.
The people appear to be in shock, at least the ones who hadn’t ran away. The crowd seems to be paralyzed so Jesus gave His third command in the passage. “Unbind him, and let him go.” By calling others to touch Lazarus they verified that Lazarus was not a ghost. This was no trick or vision. The dead man was resurrected to life and they unwrap glory.
On one hand, the reaction of Lazarus is miraculous. Jesus did not need Lazarus’ help. Which, by the way, perfectly illustrates that Jesus needs no help with men who are spiritually dead, either. He does not cooperate with the dead. He calls them to life and that call is effectual. His word resurrects. His word creates life and it does so all by its own power.
As amazing as that is, is it not surprising that John leaves us hanging like this? He gives us no words from Lazarus, no response from Martha or Mary at all. There is no statement of marveling or glorifying God, which was the point according to Jesus. The next section says some believed, but many went and tattled to the Pharisees who plotted to kill Jesus.
How do we see the glory of God the Father through His Son? We see glory in His:
Glory is spectacular, but it is also applicable. Glory leads to exaltation and encouragement. Glory works for our life, not our death. Glory works that we will believe, that we would hope in the resurrection and the life Himself, Jesus. Glory changes things, glory intercepts stink, glory reverses the irreversible, and glory starts with our hearts.
We resist glory as if we needed to inform Him how bad it is. We object. We are embarrassed. We are disappointed with His timing. We limit Him with our low level imaginations. We insult Him by forgetting who He is and how He loves to love His people: by resurrection. If He lets your tomb get stinky, trust Him. He loves us and He loves for us to see His glory.