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Life Comes Through the Power and the Glory of God

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

On the way to the tomb, the Scriptures say that Jesus wept. What does this mean to say that Jesus was crying? Based on my study, I believe there a several layers to this. The first one, of course, is Jesus’ compassion. He loved Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. He feels the loss and the grief because he is human and because he cares.

Theologians suggest that he may also have felt anger. It’s an anger toward the hideousness and finality of death. The Greek word used here also carries the meaning of great agitation. It’s the kind of tumult on a person’s insides when they give stern warnings or harsh rebukes. Jesus was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. He sees the level of destruction and separation death brings. It is opposed to everything he and his Father stand for.

At the tomb of Lazarus, we have Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, the source of life and the hope of resurrection standing face to face, in direct confrontation with death, the thief and the enemy of life, repulsive and disgusting.

He tells the people standing near to move the stone covering the entrance of the tomb, he prays, and then he calls Lazarus’ name. To everyone’s absolute astonishments and joy, Lazarus walks out of the grave. Hallelujah.

The book of John is written to encourage readers to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Seven signs, or miracles are recorded for this reason.

1. Water to wine 2:1-10
2. Healing the nobleman’s son 4:46-54
3. Healing the paralytic 5:1-9
4. Feeding the five thousand 6:1-14
5. Walking on water 6:15-21
6. Restoring sight to the blind man 9:1-10:21
7. Raising of Lazarus

The Messiah is the anointed figure of salvation. He was God’s choice, appointed to accomplish a redemptive purpose. Jesus saw his role as Messiah to be one of obedience, suffering, and death. In verse 25, Jesus makes an “I am” statement. It echoes God’s revelation to Moses at the burning bush when God reveals his character as a worker of mighty acts of redemption.

“I am who I am,” God said to Moses. John picks up on the theme coming through Jesus’ teachings and records more “I am” statements Jesus makes as he works doing what he sees his father doing:

1. I am the Bread of Life. 6:35
2. I am the Light of the World 8:12
3. I am the Door of the Sheep 10:7
4. I am the Good Shepherd 10:11
5. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life 14:6
6. I am the Vine 15:1
7. I am the Resurrection and the Life 11:25

Jesus will raise believers from death on the last day. People who believe in him will never die. Not even death can break their relationship with God.

The Invitation

This story in John 11 is such a mix of the victorious, stunning power of God that produces joy and high hopes with grief, sorrow, and helplessness. Relying on Ole Hallesby again, I will offer his definition of prayer. To pray is to let Jesus into our needs. To pray is to give him permission to employ His powers in the alleviation of our distress. To pray is to let Jesus glorify his name in the midst of our needs.

Hallesby says that helplessness is actually the best place to start. God recognizes requests born from helplessness as prayer. Helplessness and prayer are inseparable. Only those who are helpless can truly pray.

This story is bittersweet since it has a strong thread of sorrow running through it. Our lives work like this too. Joy and grief are sometimes so closely intertwined that we can hardly tell one from the other.

In his book Sacred Sorrow, Michael Card suggests that lament is a way of talking with God. It creates the right mood for asking the questions that rattle our faith. “God, where are you? God, if you love me, then why?” We can hear those heart-rending complaints in the statement Mary and Martha both said to Jesus when he finally arrived. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Their response captures the bittersweet of the moment. The words carry a reproach for his absence while also recognizing that Jesus’ presence would have changed the outcome.

Every lament in the Bible is made because God’s loving-kindness to that person has somehow been violated. The one who laments is giving voice, sometimes even accusing God of not acting according to his character.

Are there places in your life where you are asking, “God, where are you? If you love me, then why?” Are there places where God doesn’t seem to be acting true to his nature?

This was the perplexity Mary and Martha faced during Jesus’ delay. “If you had been here,” they lament, and they say it right to his face.

Michael Card explores the experiences of Job to learn about lament. He notes that without the pain, Job might have never realized neither the depth nor the dimension of loving God for himself and not simply as the source for all his blessings. Job was the sort of man who would not let go of God.

Through his wife telling him to curse God and die. Through his friends giving unhelpful advice and telling him he was deserving of punishment. Through the agonizing silence of God. Job refused to let go. He held on to the memory, the truth, of the hesed, the loving-kindness of God.

Lament expresses one of the most intimate moments of faith. It’s the moment where we embrace our helplessness, and it’s the moment where we most honestly worship God. After he received wave after wave of terrible news, the Bible says Job tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell to the ground in worship.

And after Lazarus’ sister Mary had watched him suffer with illness, die, and then get placed in the tomb, she got up and went out to where Jesus was. Then she fell at his feet and worshiped him with the most sincere expression of lament and helplessness. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

As you consider your own life and those places where you are asking God “Where are you? If you love me, then why?” allow Job and Mary to be encouragements to you in the bittersweet of lament. Hang onto God and don’t forget his loving-kindness. Bring your helplessness to him in expressions of worship. Make that personal decision to believe. His presence will change the outcome. His power will fundamentally change the trajectory of your life. His glory will draw you into a relationship where there is no end to his loving-kindness.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s son may be glorified through it.” John 11:1, 3-4

“The one you love is sick.” Have you ever had to be the communicator of those words? Have you ever been the one to receive word that a loved one is sick? Jesus received that message about Lazarus, so he knows what that feels like.

When a loved one is sick, we jump to immediate action by traveling to be at their side. Or we send cards, order flowers, and visit their room in the hospital. We might think of ways we can show support to the family. Our response is one of compassion and of love.

When Jesus received word of his friend’s sickness, his response was one of love as well, but it didn’t look like the immediate show of concern. His response to Lazarus’ sickness was delay. Jesus chose to wait and initially to do nothing to offer comfort and support.

Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, told Jesus about Lazarus because they wanted him to come and heal their brother. They knew he was capable of restoring Lazarus to health. Since they were close friends with Jesus and knew him well, they had full confidence that he would offer them help.

He does, but not in the way or at the time they expected. I can imagine the worry the sisters felt as they watched Lazarus decline. Hour after hour, with their eye on the road, they looked for Jesus, waiting on him, helpless and scared until that final moment when Lazarus breathes his last breath.

Jesus never came. Now he was too late to effect any healing on Lazarus’ behalf. The sisters moved forward with their preparations for burial and laid their beloved brother in the tomb.

This is the scene unfolding in Bethany. But let’s switch the point of view over to Jesus.

Life Comes Through Unexpected or Confusing Avenues

Prior to this story, Jesus had been in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication. Then he left town to go to the place at the Jordan River where John had baptized him. John had already been killed by this time, so Jesus may have gone there to remember, but also to talk about the kingdom. John chapter 10 notes in that place many believed in Jesus.

When Jesus received news of Lazarus, he proclaimed the glory of God. Verse four says, “When Jesus heard this, he said, ‘This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.’” And then he stayed where he was for two more days.

The disciples would have known and loved Lazarus, too, so when Jesus apparently does nothing to change the situation, they may have felt confused and frustrated, wanting to start on their way to Bethany, impatient with Jesus.

Jewish culture believed that at the time of death, the spirit of the deceased person hovered around the body in the hope of a resuscitation. After the third day, when the skin on the face began to change color, the soul departed permanently. The person was then pronounced well and truly dead.

Jesus’ intentional delay provided enough time for Lazarus’ body to die and his soul to fully leave it. Then he made the trip to Bethany.

In his classic book on prayer, Ole Hallesby comments on the mysteries of God’s ways. He says that Jesus’ strange and often incomprehensible way of dealing with us is prompted by his love, which is so great the He not only desires to give us what we ask for, but much more.

The sisters sent Jesus their message. They shared their painful concern with him, and then heard nothing from him and saw nothing of him. It would have been easy for them to draw the conclusion that Jesus didn’t even receive their message. Or if he did, he chose not to read it, in essence, ignoring their request of him.

But that isn’t how Jesus was seeing this situation. He’d received their message and decided from the first moment to intervene. Ole Hallesby notes that if Jesus gave us the things we prayed for immediately, He would not succeed in giving us what He had appointed for us.

For Mary and Martha, Jesus knew that by responding to Lazarus’ death in this way, He could manifest more of His power, more of the glory of God. In that way, Mary and Martha would receive not only what they asked for, the restoration of their brother to health, but their faith and trust in Jesus would also be strengthened and deepened.

Life Comes Through Belief

When Jesus determined the time was right to go to Lazarus, he informed the disciples. They don’t understand Jesus’ wish to return to Jerusalem or his perspective on death. Jesus said to them he is glad he wasn’t there so that they may believe. Three different times Jesus prompts people to believe.

The first time happens here with the disciples. They are the ones he is training to spread the gospel so their first-hand witness of his power and glory was crucial to the establishment of the Christian faith.

The second reference to belief is with Martha. After the message of Lazarus’ sickness took one day to reach Jesus, then he waited two days, and then the journey to Bethany took one more day, a total of four days passed before the sisters get any response.

Martha went out to meet him before he had yet entered the village. In the course of their conversation, Jesus says that whomever believes in him will live even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in him will never die.” Then he prompts Martha with the question, “Do you believe this?”

She answers, “Yes.”

The third reference to belief is about the people with Mary and Martha who had come to share in their grief. In his prayer to his father, Jesus asks that they may believe that the Father sent him. Verse 45 says many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

Belief is what carries us. Each one of us much decide to depend on Jesus to save us personally. By doing this we move from being an interested observer of the facts of salvation and the teachings of the Bible to being someone who enters into a new relationship with Jesus Christ as a living person.

This is what Jesus was encouraging from each group in this story. From the disciples, from the sisters, and from the Jewish neighbors, Jesus draws this decision to move from fascinated bystander to committed relationship.

Mary and Martha already had a friendship with Jesus, and Martha articulated some pretty sound theology out on the road. But were they prepared for the show of God’s glory in their family and in their lives? Would they welcome the fundamental change in their hearts and life trajectory that a decision to believe in him would bring?

Do we welcome it? The question, “do you believe this?” that Jesus asked of Martha still waits for an answer from each one of us today. “I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus says. “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”