In
John 11, Jesus is setting the stage for His own resurrection; either
you believe in His resurrection power or you don't...that's the way
it is. And that's what this chapter is all about...the true fact that
Jesus is the "resurrection and the life" (vs. 25).
Now,
resurrection can only take place where a death has occurred, and just
as would be the case in our day, the death of Lazarus brought only
helplessness and loss and grief, whereas on the other hand,
resurrection reminds us of hope and joy and eternal life! And so, in
this second passage from John 11 we find that Lazarus has died; then,
in vs. 16, Thomas offers that he and the other disciples should
accompany Jesus to Bethany, in order that they may die there too
(probably implying the risk of stoning by the Jews). Then, in vs. 21,
we have recorded, Martha's visit with Jesus on the road outside their
home. And just like us today, even in the presence of the Lord, the
only thing on her mind were the problems of life, death and loss.
Well we should know that physical death is a perfect picture of
spiritual death, come about as the wages of sin, the sentence of God
on Adam, as the father of the entire race of mankind. And you know,
our condition, as unsaved men and women is far worse than even the
doctors of divinity teach and preach, and yet, when any of us think
of the cure for eternal death, our thoughts go no deeper than the
need to teach or to preach, the gospel. But it is not, you see, what
we do, but what Jesus did; He bled and suffered and died and rose
again! Jesus bears the fruit of salvation in the life of the faithful
believer, and it will be Jesus Who bears us through to eternity
future. And this is what we have in view here in John Chapter
11...Jesus, Who gives life!
Well
Lazarus was as dead as dead can be; his body was already moulding in
the grave (vs. 39), and his family and friends were completely
helpless, other than to comfort one another in their loss. But you
know, the very end of ourselves is not a bad place to be, and often,
the sooner we get there, the better! The sooner we realize our
helplessness, the sooner God will be able to do for us; the sooner we
change from a state of self-sufficiency to a state of
God-sufficiency, where we begin to see and to experience the glory of
God (vs. 4).
Now,
in vs. 11 we read the statement of Jesus..."...our friend
Lazarus sleepeth", and there are several things we can suppose
that Jesus intended, by referring to "sleep", rather than
"death". First of all, sleep is a temporary state...a
welcome rest from the work and worry of the day, lasting maybe, from
a few minutes here and there, to a few hours. Secondly, sleep is
something we look forward-to, even to be thankful for; it's our
friend, and that's how we should look upon death as well, as
believers. Death has no sting; it opens the door to eternity-future;
we only lie down, to rise again. Which brings us to the third
aspect...sleep only serves to prepare us, refreshed and ready for a
new day...in the case of the believer, life in the very presence of
the Lord!
And
so Jesus says in the last phrase of vs. 11..."I go, that I may
awaken him". Even a mosquito can rouse us from sleep, but it
take Jesus' own resurrection power to conquer death! Of course, as we
see from vss. 12-14, the disciples misunderstood the truths of
scripture, or the things of the faith. So long as you continue to
keep company with Jesus, the foggy details will eventually be made
clear to you. In fact, He understands, and as we see in vs. 15, He is
prepared to be very patient with us, and to use some pretty
unorthodox means to help us come to the truth.
As
we read vs. 15, we have to ask why Jesus should be glad for the
disciples' sake. Well, He is glad that now they will be able to
witness for themselves, the greatest manifestation of His glory,
short of His own resurrection. We are completely baffled by the ways
and the will of God; so much so, that we refuse either to believe
it, or to receive it. This vs. just goes to show how the Lord
sometimes uses the circumstances of life to help us develop faith.
Those disciples were brought along gradually. Very unlike that
once-blind man of chapter 9, the disciples' eyes were opened slowly,
to see and to trust who Jesus was (see ch. 2.11). That's the way with
the development of faith, so don't get discouraged if you don't quite
get it. Even the first ones of the faith had to walk with Jesus in
order to learn (His ways) this Truth.
In
vs. 16 we read of "Doubting Thomas", as we sometimes call
him, who always seemed to look on the dark side...Lazarus is dead,
Jesus is going to die, and we're going to die too! Just goes to show
how difficult it is for a man to understand the great thoughts of
God. And how much unbelief there is, even in the hearts of believers!
But even at that, Thomas' heart was with His Lord.
If
you leave this study empty-handed, worrying about death and burial
instead of anticipating resurrection and life, then you've missed out
on a great truth...death means nothing to Jesus; burying means
nothing to Jesus! We talk about life and death, whereas Jesus talks
about death and life! Death is a dead issue for Him; resurrection is
a life issue, for us. The devil wants to sidetrack us with
"death-talk"; Jesus wants to keep us on track, with
"life-talk"! You know, we really do need to make huge
allowances for the difficult states of individual believers. Every
member of the Body of Christ is at a different level of development
and understanding, and yet, from a God's-eye-view, together, we all
look like a church, all having one Lord, and (hopefully) all sharing
the same love for one another.
Finally,
after four days of malingering in Jordan, Jesus travelled to Bethany,
which was situated near Jerusalem, and there, He found that many Jews
had gathered in order to be of some comfort to the sisters of
Lazarus...and pretty poor comfort at that, from what we read in vs.
33. At this point, their faith in the resurrection power was pretty
weak, so I don't know what effect they had on Mary and Martha, with
attitudes like that. Of course, Martha's faith was just as limited,
as we see from her response to Jesus, there in vs. 21. In vs. 23,
Jesus' first statement to her was..."Thy brother shall rise
again"! and she replies...(vs. 24). Jesus was offering her real
comfort, but "O we of little faith!" Here a little, there a
little.You know, faith comes out of discipline; light comes by
degrees. That's why Paul wrote to the Corinthians..."I could not
speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not meat; for you were
not able to bear it; neither yet are you able." It must be
disheartening to our Lord, to see our faltering steps. He knows that
we're, each one, a work in progress. And Martha, just like us,
misunderstood..."Of course, he'll rise again in the resurrection
of the last day." Look again at vs. 22, where she said to
Jesus..."Whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God..."! It just goes
to show that we all need to spend more time, like Mary, at the feet
of Jesus. Martha was still very much under the influence of Judaism,
just as we have our various "isms", today, which have
become such a threat to the present church...liberalism, modernism,
new ageism and easy believeism.
Remember
the woman at the well, back in chapter 4? She was a lot like Martha,
when she said..."I know that the Messiah cometh, which is called
Christ, and when he comes He will tell us all things". Oftimes
it's easier to believe in the "there and then" than it is
in the "here and now". It takes a lot more faith to believe
that Jesus intends to resurrect Lazarus today, rather than that
promised resurrection in a future day. As Jesus reminds her, just as
He did the woman at the well..."The hour cometh, and now
is..."; "I am the Resurrection and the Life...".
Notice how Jesus reels us in, little by little. First, He touches her
grief, then He gentles her into deeper faith; from grieving, to
believing! We should blush in shame! What He wanted Martha to grasp
was that all power comes from Him. We need to focus our attention on
Jesus, rather that the dead and buried. I suppose that Martha could
very well have prayed along with the grieving father in Mark
9.24..."Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief!"
Do
you know what Jesus wanted to do for Martha in that moment? First of
all, He wanted to strengthen her faith, just as He still wants to
strengthen our faith. She was on resurrection ground, not burial
ground, and in that moment, her faith was strengthened, as we see
from vs. 27. She had heard Jesus speaking, for perhaps the first
time. Jesus had taught these truths before, as we saw back in chapt.
5.25, where He stated..."...the hour is coming, and now is, when
the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear,
shall live." That was a different context, of course, but as
I've said, spiritual death and physical death, both, can only be
overcome by the authoritative work of God.
Secondly,
Jesus wanted Martha to see her faith in action. The world says,
seeing is believing, but Jesus says..."Believe, and you will
see!" Thirdly, Jesus wanted to prepare Martha for His own death
and resurrection. If she was grieving now, she needed a miracle of
grace to prepare her for the loss of her Lord, "the Christ",
"the Son of God" (vs. 27) that she had come to know and to
love and to depend so fully upon. God would not allow His body to
corrupt in the grave, and she needed to come to the truth pretty
quickly, that He was to have a new body, and that Lazarus would
eventually have a new resurrection body as well! "He that
believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live!"
"Believest
thou this?" Martha did, and her faith was about to be rewarded!
No comments:
Post a Comment