Lazarus
32Therefore when Mary came to where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you would have been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” 33When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping who came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 34and said, “Where have you laid him?” They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept. 36The Jews therefore said, “See how much affection he had for him!” 37Some of them said, “Couldn’t this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have also kept this man from dying?” 38Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see God’s glory?” 41So they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, “Father, I thank you that you listened to me. 42I know that you always listen to me, but because of the multitude standing around I said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”
We know that when winter passes and spring comes, new shoots bud on dry branches and fresh green breaks through the frozen ground. We know that the sprouts will appear next year as well, probably because the order of nature has never once betrayed our trust. The world God created turns in its cycles according to the order he has set. God’s unchanging law is what has given us this confidence.
It is a matter of great importance for a person to be trusted by God the way nature is. Whether between parents and children, pastor and congregation, or neighbor and neighbor, being trusted shows that you have been the same toward them all along. We must live a life that does not waver if we are to be trusted this way, since those who act lightly as they please and feel no great guilt over breaking God’s law will not, in the end, be trusted.
Yet as God has kept his promises without change from the creation of the world until now, people have, on the contrary, stopped fearing him. Even in human relationships, when we deal with someone fickle and moody, we stay tense and careful. But with someone who always treats others with the same steady heart, people are grateful and kind at first, and then, as time goes by, we see them begin to take that person for granted and treat them carelessly. Such people are foolish, and they have no future.
In the same way, as God always dealt with people with the same unchanging character, they forgot to be thankful and stopped revering him. They began to treat him not as the God to be feared but as a God shut up in heaven. But God is not one who is shut up in heaven. He hears, feels, and helps with everything you are thinking, saying, and doing right now. If you serve God as one who helps only when you want him to, he would be no different from the idols the people of the world believe in.
Because people wanted to see the invisible God, churches and pastors are working to make him a visible God. They preach that if you think positively, good things will happen, and they teach that if you set goals and run hard toward them, God will surely fulfill your dreams and vision. Taught that they must have dreams and vision, everyone now clings to God, trying to raise their own worth so as to achieve grand dreams.
Friends, I hope you will not misunderstand what I am saying. We must live with a positive outlook if we are to see God’s guidance in a brighter light and grow. It is also true that when we have dreams and vision, make plans, and pray, we can understand God’s heart more deeply. But if people’s desires are only for themselves, with nothing to do with Jesus Christ, then however hard they work, something is wrong.
The end of our road is not this world but entry into the Kingdom of God. That is why we must have a positive outlook that sees the world rightly through God’s word, and we must have dreams and vision for God’s Kingdom. If we say we should have dreams because Joseph dreamed and his dream came true, we must also teach that, to fulfill that dream, Joseph first took his seat in the place of death and first had to bear the suffering he endured in prison. However positive a person’s outlook, if it is not for the sake of faith, they will merely be recognized as someone of good character, and it will have nothing to do with God; this we need to understand. Dreams and visions that use God to raise our own worth in the world are all like rubbish. When we work with dreams and vision for God, rather than using God for our own dreams and vision, he will bless our faith.
Only when we bring God into our lives, so that he takes an interest in them, can we hold greater dreams and keep a positive outlook in any trouble or hardship. Yet many in the church mistake him for a God they meet only during worship at church, or one they seek out only when a hard problem arises. Only when we welcome God as the one who rejoices with us and wrestles with us, in joy and in sorrow, at every time and in every place, does life become rich and do we gain strength.
Where is your God right now? Is he one who cannot move from his heavenly throne and comes only when you call? Or is he the Father who hears even your groaning, cares for you, and helps you?
Jesus said that because God is greater than all, no one can snatch his children out of the Father’s hand. The “no one” Jesus spoke of includes the powers of the world, wealth, death, and even Satan. Satan tried to imprison Lazarus, a child of God, in death, but Jesus, the Lord of life, performed the miracle of rescuing him out of death.
John 11:15
15I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him.”
When Jesus heard that Lazarus had fallen mortally ill, he deliberately stayed two more days by the Jordan, and only after making sure Lazarus was completely dead did he set out for Bethany. He waited until Lazarus died to make known that not only Lazarus but every person is dead, unable to throw off death. By raising Lazarus, who was wholly dead, he meant to teach his disciples that he himself is the Lord of life. We must understand that Jesus thinks differently from people. If we want a God who comes to help like a servant whenever we suffer, we will be like the sick man at the pool of Bethesda: we will meet Jesus, the Lord of life, and still stubbornly insist on getting into the pool.
What I want to say to you is this: do not believe in Jesus Christ for the sake of your own needs; believe in him and receive him as the Lord of life. Jesus waited until Lazarus died because, through what happened to Lazarus, he had to teach his disciples that he is the Lord of life. If you do not believe that Jesus is the Lord of life, God will wait until you die, as Lazarus did.
When I was being trained in the faith, I too stayed up all night praying for God to send someone to help me every time a problem arose, and I fasted for money. But when I went through suffering no one could possibly resolve, I realized what luxurious and foolish prayers they were, those prayers for money and for people to be sent. It was because I had discovered myself still standing at the center of every problem, giving God orders and simply throwing a tantrum for him to solve my problems. Without giving up my own righteousness or my pride, I was insisting that God move as I commanded. Of course, we should pray for help in solving our problems, but first we must understand God’s will: what he would have me give thanks for through this, and what he wants me to learn.
If we fail to see the God who leads us in the way of wisdom, insist that he answer according to our plans, and try only to solve what is happening before our eyes, we will never grasp the great and vast plan of the Lord. It grieves me to see people who are so busy complaining when things do not go their way that they lose sight of the Lord going ahead of them. If you throw away the idea that everything must go according to your plan and live in obedience on the path God leads you, you will receive amazing grace. Children who acknowledge that their parents always judge rightly do not insist on their own way. Once you believe that God always leads you on the right path, then even when you meet hardship, you will not lose heart, betray him, or grow greedy. If you stand in the center of suffering with God in this frame of mind, Jesus Christ looks larger than the problem; because of that, doubt and anxiety fade away, and you can live a far wiser and freer life.
John 11:25-26
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. 26Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Although Jesus had plainly said that her brother would rise again, Martha could not let go of her own belief that he would rise not now but on some later day, and so she did not truly understand what Jesus said. This is what we are like: trapped within the limits of the world and of our own nature, we cannot believe the words of the Lord, the resurrection and the life, even with him standing before us. Breaking through Martha’s thinking was that hard: Jesus said he would raise Lazarus now, and she understood him to mean the last day.
I wonder whether you have ever had an experience like this. A book clearly says that a certain object is shaped like a triangle, but if every such object you have ever seen has been square, you read the word “triangle” and still go on reading “square” to the very end. When we hear the truth while bound by the world’s common sense and knowledge, the word, however right, cannot change our minds; in the end, then, the truth only drifts about on the surface of our hearts.
Martha and Mary had heard much of Jesus’ teaching and had seen his miracles with their own eyes, yet they could not get past the limits they had set for themselves. What is more, they were full of resentment that Jesus had come late, and because of that they rejected his word. They had rejoiced greatly at the miracles of the widow’s son and the synagogue ruler’s daughter being raised, trusting and relying on the Lord; but once it became their own trouble, the death of their own brother, that faith changed: gratitude turned to bitterness, and praise to complaint and discontent.
Do you see now just how much trust in God the human heart can hold? Whatever the problem, if it is someone else’s, we can be generous about it, pray for them in faith, and offer them counsel. But when it becomes our own problem, the very way we look at it changes. I, who urged others to rely on God when the trouble was theirs, do not want to hear the same words from someone else. When we hear the very rebuke we once gave to someone who blamed God, asking why they could not trust him, we feel judged, we take offense, and our hearts harden. This is the evil nature of humankind, full of sin.
When Jesus asked where they had laid Lazarus, the Jews, instead of answering, complained: why had he not come sooner and saved him? Had they believed that Jesus was the Messiah, they would have said they were grateful he had come even now; but because they did not believe, they poured out their unbelief without restraint, saying that since he had come after Lazarus died, he could never bring him back to life. Such behavior is the sin of mocking Jesus Christ.
Looking at the conduct of the Jews, of Mary, and of Martha, do you think they truly believed in Jesus? They believed in a God they had locked up inside their own thinking. They could not entrust things to him, because they thought that what they could not do, God could never do either, and that suffering they could not overcome, God could not resolve.
Who is the God you believe in? Do you truly believe he created this universe with a single word, formed man from the dust, and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils? If you have that faith, why are you living in agreement beside those who say Jesus can never raise the dead? With your lips you confess the living God, so why do you not believe that he raises the dead and that he will bring dead problems back to life and answer you? Why do you not put to death your own thoughts, righteousness, and pride, and draw near to God? Knowing that Jesus gives life only when human righteousness dies, why do you go on struggling in a world that is vanity of vanities? The kingdom where we can live forever only by dying is the Kingdom of Christ.
When Jesus told them to take away the stone from the tomb, Martha complained again, saying that he had been dead four days and there would be a stench. Martha was convinced that even Jesus, who could work miracles, would never be able to raise her dead brother. She was committing the grave sin of doubting: however much he was the Messiah, how could he raise a man already dead and stinking? Can you imagine how dismayed Jesus must have been as he watched her complain, not knowing that Lazarus, rotting, foul, and shut up in the tomb, was a picture of Martha herself?
We too, before we met Jesus Christ, had not received forgiveness of sins, so we were imprisoned in death, our whole bodies bound with cords of sin, living as Satan commanded. This is no different at all from Lazarus, shut in the tomb with his whole body bound. Friends, breathing does not mean you are alive.
Martha did not like it that Jesus, who had not come before her brother died, was now telling them to open the tomb. If at that moment, though she could not understand Jesus at all by her own reasoning, she had obeyed in the faith that there must be some deep purpose of God in it, her wonder and joy when Lazarus came back to life would have been doubled.
Jesus saw life in Lazarus as he lay in the tomb. To people’s eyes he was a dead man, already stinking, but by raising him Jesus showed what it means to be saved. Like Lazarus, we are all dead before the Lord, unable to do anything. That is why Jesus said to leave the dead to bury their own dead, and to follow him.
What, then, can people who are dead like this do for God? Before anything else, what comes first is to meet Jesus Christ and receive life. However much the dead may sing praises to God, he will not listen, and however long they pray, there will be no answer. Those who have heard Jesus’ word, believed, and come to life are the living who see the glory of God; they are the saints who give glory to God.
After having the stone taken away, Jesus prayed to God: “Father, I thank you that you listened to me. I know that you always listen to me.” We need to listen closely to this prayer, for to give thanks that God hears not only now but always is a confession that only firm, unshakable faith can make. If we, like Jesus, are sure that God always hears our prayers, then there is nothing to fear and nothing to lose heart over, and whatever problem we face, we will trust that God will work.
Jesus made every problem an occasion to show how precious life is to God and that life is in God’s hands. In the same way, Jesus Christ wants all of us to live unshaken, standing on absolute faith in God. If we look at the problems we face in life without forgetting that we will meet the Lord when he returns on the last day, and that those who have not received Jesus Christ will stand before the judgment seat, we will seek God’s will rather than complain. If we rely on Jesus Christ, who tells us to walk the way of truth even when the narrow road is hard, we can keep far from sin.
John 11:44
44He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”
When Jesus, the Lord of resurrection and life, called to Lazarus, held captive by death, to come out, the dead man, bound hand and foot with wrappings, walked out. This is the moment life meets death. Just as Lazarus came out of the tomb bound, his face covered with a cloth, so the people living in the world, because they have not received Jesus Christ, are spiritually in darkness, give off the stench of death, and cannot enjoy freedom. However much they walk about, talk, and hold the world’s power and wealth, human beings, as God sees them, are dead and without life, just like Lazarus.
Because the dead cannot meet God, Jesus is the one who put on human flesh and came to this earth to give life to the dead. If Jesus had not canceled our debt of sin on the cross, people would have lived on as the dead, like Lazarus. Even if people who are dead and stinking hang jewels on their bodies, dress in splendid clothes, and come before God to praise, pray, and give offerings, God does not accept them, because he is the God of the living. The very first thing those who worship God must do is come to life through the blood of Jesus.
Just as Lazarus, having heard Jesus’ word and come out of the tomb, was unbound and walked about freely, we too, through the blood of the Lord, must be loosed from the death that binds us in sin and, in the truth, give glory to God by faith. To people living without knowing what sin is, God gave the law, and through that law he made them realize that they are sinners whose only end is death.
God gave the law so that we would recognize our sin, yet foolish people now stake their lives on keeping the law and take that to be faith. But salvation is received by grace, not by the works of keeping the law. By the works of the law we can never escape death; the harder we try to keep the law, the more our sin is exposed, and since we cannot deal with that sin, we go down the road of death. For sinners floundering in sin, the righteous Son of God fulfilled the law and overcame death on their behalf.
If Jesus had not borne the cross and overcome death, we would have remained forever like Lazarus, stinking in the tomb. May you live as those whose flesh has died on the cross and whose spirit is alive. When you hold the faith that you are dead and cannot leave the tomb unless Jesus Christ gives you life, you will receive the blessing of “Free him, and let him go.”
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom we can enter only when all our human righteousness has died. Lazarus, who could not throw off the yoke of death, found freedom when he met Jesus, the Lord of life. Heaven is not a kingdom we can reach by human devotion and merit; it is a kingdom we can enter wholly and only by the grace of God.
Dear saints! I hope that the body of sin in you will die on the cross of the Lord. If you cast off all human righteousness, greed, and lust and are born again, you can live as those who never die. If you live before God as those made alive through Jesus Christ, the darkness will retreat, and your spiritual life will be filled to overflowing in the light of the Holy Spirit.
As we go through life, we must think carefully about our priorities and train ourselves to put away the lusts of human nature. When you always praise God with thanksgiving, repent day by day, and offer him your hearts, you will experience the work of God, who acts above the world.
God always protects those who shine with the light of Jesus Christ; he helps them with the hosts of heaven and writes their names in the book of life. May you be his precious people in the kingdom where we live by dying, receiving the blessing of new life as Lazarus did, and faithfully fulfilling the calling Jesus Christ has given you by the power he supplies.