John 11.1-45 (NRSV)

The Death of Lazarus

11Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. ³So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ ⁴But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ ⁵Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, ⁶after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ ⁸The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ ⁹Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ ¹¹After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ ¹²The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ ¹³Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. ¹⁴Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ ¹⁶Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ ²³Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ ²⁴Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ ²⁵Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ²⁷She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

Jesus Weeps

28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ ²⁹And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³²When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ ³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ ³⁵Jesus began to weep. ³⁶So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ ³⁷But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Jesus Raises Lazarus to Life

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ ⁴³When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

The Plot to Kill Jesus

45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

I acknowledge my indebtedness to the commentators that has helped my understanding of the passage, most notably: Marsh, Suggit, Ryle.

My text is written in John 11:25-26:

²⁵Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

As always, John’s writing is rich in symbolism – even the name Lazarus means God helps! When Jesus received the message that Lazarus was ill, his reply seemed enigmatic and John expects us – his readers - to exercise our judgement when he gives Jesus’ reply: “This illness does not lead to death ...” (Marsh) i.e. the life of Lazarus was not in danger. But then Lazarus died! So what was Jesus saying? Characteristic in John’s writing is the use of language that has a double meaning and so we can assume that Jesus is saying “... the illness and the coarse it will run will not take Lazarus out of the sphere of life which comes and flows from Jesus Christ.” (Marsh) In other words, it will not result in the real death of Lazarus, because God is going to use it to make manifest the victory the father will gain over death through the death of Jesus, His Son.

The disciples were concerned that they should not return to Judea because it was too dangerous. They thought that Lazarus was not really that ill interpreting what Jesus had said in verse 4 literally – that he was not going to die. Jesus replies by using symbolic language of light and darkness – the light of the day enables one to walk in safety. Marsh explains: “... to be with Jesus is to be in a place where danger can do no ultimate harm.” Jesus then brings the conversation back to Lazarus and says that he has fallen asleep.

The disciples still did not understand. Why should they risk their lives going to Judea if all that was needed was for someone to wake Lazarus up? Marsh explains: “The sleep with which Jesus is about to deal is more than sleep within life, it is the sleep from life, the sleep of death. Only Christ can awaken men from that.” So Jesus shocks them by speaking plainly that Lazarus was in fact dead.

Because Lazaus had died, the family had started with the appropriate measures of preparation and finally burial. The news came that Jesus was near and Martha went out to meet him. When she met him she expressed deep regret. Marsh suggests that she represents those who can only see death in purely human terms: once it has happened there is nothing that can be done about it because it is so final. This was the plain and simple teaching of human experience.  But Martha also shows a sense of openness: she knows Jesus had a special relationship with God the Father so nothing was really completely impossible. She had witnessed some of the miracles and so had ‘... a ray of impossible hope.’ (Marsh) The reply that Jesus gave her ‘... is the whole of the answer to dying man. “Your brother will rise again – death is not the end.” (Marsh) And there is more: specific people individual persons who have died will rise again. To begin with Martha still does not quite get it and thinks Jesus is just referring to a general resurrection. Jesus replies in what many consider to be the greatest saying in the Bible: “’²⁵Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.’”

This is wonderful good news: If a believer in Christ suffers physical death, which is the removal from society of the lovers of Christ from this life, this is all that has happened. They have not died the real death because they cannot escape from the life that is life indeed – which is to know God and the Son whom he sent into the world. This is a statement about Jesus himself ‘... as the real life of all whom he sent into the world.’ (Marsh)  Martha, in this encounter, has been prepared for a right understanding of the last and greatest sign – the death and resurrection of Christ himself.

When Mary reached Jesus, she repeated the words her sister had used. And she prostrated herself before him but like her sister, she was not sure what Jesus could or would do in their present situation.

None of this reads like myth or allegory “... but like an actual transcript of something that once happened to real men and women, as the Word-made-flesh moved in the deepest understanding and sympathy among them.” (Marsh) Jesus wept!

Jesus was ‘greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. Jesus was distraught because he had lost a much loved friend and is moved deeply by the distress of the man’s relatives and friends. What we see here is love in its purest form – he wept because he could do nothing else – self-control and putting on a brave face was both impossible and inappropriate. The Jews who had followed Mary state most appropriately – “See how he loved him ...” This is what Jesus and God is all about – the purest love that identifies with our every experience and lives with us and in us and through us. The shortest verse and one of the most beautiful: “Jesus began to weep.”

Jesus takes full command because He alone can give life. Jesus said: “Take away the stone.” Martha is still unprepared for what is about to happen because she knows of the state the body would have been in: ‘...Martha said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’”

Jesus began his prayer for Lazarus with thanksgiving. He lifted up his eyes and acknowledged that he was not doing anything alone ‘... but that the Father was complicit in it ...’ (Marsh) The word thanksgiving – is the same word used when Jesus fed the 5000 – eucharistein – and is also used with special reference to the death of Jesus in John 6 where the implication is that life comes to those who eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. Jesus is in effect thanking the Father that on the previous occasion – the feeding of the 5000 - there had been ‘... effective complicity of Father and Son ...’ (Marsh) and a sign had resulted that for those who could see with the eyes of faith were enabled to see more than just food for the body, but also food for the soul.

Prayer is always followed by action – Jesus cried out with a loud voice: “Lazarus come out.”

What happened next was a miracle within a miracle: Lazarus is able to obey the command even though he was a dead man! It seems, on the surface at least, that what Jesus did here was restore Lazarus to the life he had had before – and part of this is true. But this is only possible because Lazarus also has the life of Christ and the joyous thing is that it is this life that we too have. To stress, John teaches us that we have two lives: (i) this earthly life and (ii) the life that Christ gives. These two lives cannot be separated but we must distinguish between them ‘... to avoid presenting Jesus as the miracle worker par excellence ...’ (Marsh) He is much more – He is God Himself.

Suggit makes the most important point – in my view – as we read the Gospel today, and that is that “Lazarus can be seen as a type of Christian disciples, and what happened to him is the experience of every Christian.”

Like Lazarus:

·         Disciples are loved by the Lord – agapetoi - (1 John 4:11);

·         We are called by name (11:43);

·         When we hear Christ’s voice we listen and obey (10:3-5);

·         We are handed over to the care of the Christian community when we have found life in Christ;

·         We share in the Supper with Jesus and the disciples (12:2);

·         We are called to be witnesses to Jesus.

Chapter 11 – our Gospel reading – reflects the experience of every Christian who has been raised to new life – Christ’s life – by faith. Later, Lazarus was threatened to death by the High Priest because being alive was a testimony to Jesus and the crowds came to see him (12:9-11) but no threat of loss of mortal life could have any effect on him.

Suggit believes that John intended both Chapters 9 and 11 to remind readers of the Gospel of their own experience of their lives as Christians. So, like the man’s blindness and Lazarus’ death were both for the glory of God (9:3 and 11:4). The light that the blind man had been given lead to new life for him and was in fulfilment of the promise of 8:12 -  ... I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of Christ ... This fulfils the prophecy of Psalm 36:9 – For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light ... Suggit explains: “Jesus is shown not only as the giver of light, but as the light itself and the giver of life.”

The gift of life that Jesus gives is not just physical life, nor a mere continuation of earlier mortal life. Life becomes a symbol representing life in its fullness; life of a new quality, what existentialists would refer to as ‘authentic being’. According to John, this was an historical event – but one that symbolically revealed the real person and work of Jesus as the Son of God. It is the claim of the fourth Gospel that true life can be found only by abiding in Christ, since he is the life.

This authentic life is received by faith when a person in obedience to God’s word becomes a Christian as symbolised in Baptism – we die to the old self and rise anew. So life (in this sense) involves death – dying to the old ways – and most especially the death of Jesus on the Cross that makes all this possible. Suggit continues: “The account of Lazarus, therefore is also the story of Jesus going to face death in order to conquer death.” (CH Dodd, 1954:367)

I close with some final observations. It is interesting to note that being a Christian does not mean that we are freed from illness, suffering and even death. Lazarus is described in verse 3 as ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ Sickness and suffering are part of human experience. It is not a sign that God is displeased with us and when we endure it we grow through it. J C Ryle suggests that these difficult times ‘... draw our affections away from this world and direct them to things above ...’ and they remind us that we are not going to live this mortal life forever. It is also true that Jesus is with us in these dark times. We need to be faithful in our prayers as we come to Jesus with those known and loved by us – and our Lord – with the same words: ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ We need, like Mary and Martha to do everything we can and then we too can come to our Lord with the words: ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ And when Jesus hears our news he feels for us – because he has experienced it all before. His response to the news of the death of Lazarus was that he wept. When he hears of our suffering and that of those we love, He reaches out to us, touches us and blesses us and those whom we bring to him.

We also need to realise – difficult though this can be – that Jesus knows what is best for us. He delayed for two days and it seemed to make no sense – but in the end it was to mean the richest and greatest blessings for all.  True, the ways of Jesus can seem mysterious, and this is revealed also in the seeming nonsense of him returning to Bethany when he knew a hostile reception awaited him. But he knew what was needed and what was best. Life and be troubling and even perplexing to us; often we struggle to see the point and perhaps cannot see the point or purpose; the path that we are forced to take removes all choice from us. God’s grace and love in Christ can be all we need. Paul writing to the Corinthians speaks of never being tested beyond our ability to endure because the Holy Spirit enables us to find the way through and out of the difficulty.

Notice also how God blesses kindness. Those Jewish friends who came to comfort the family of Lazarus were privileged to witness the greatest demonstration of the power and the love of God in seeing Lazarus rising from the grave. This must surely have resulted in their coming to faith and finding true life for themselves. J C Ryle puts it well where he writes: “... one secret of being miserable is to live only for ourselves; one secret of being happy, is to try to make others happy, and do a little good in the world ...” At our major Founder’s Day service a few years ago, Professor Ralph Waller put it this way: “Everything you do for yourself will be forgotten; that which you do for others will be remembered.”

Prayer always involves action. Jesus ordered: “Remove the stone ...” He could have moved it miraculously, but he wants us to realise our responsibility. Jesus expects us to do whatever we can and ‘... in the trying, Christ will meet us and grant us His blessing ...’ (Ryle) All this because the love of God is most manifest in the life, death and Resurrection of the man of history – Jesus of Nazareth who is alive and lives with us in the power of the Holy Spirit. John puts it this way:

²⁵Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

Amen.