Here are some notes from John 11
- v. 39, Jesus said “Take away the stone”
– Moving a tombstone would have made a person unclean by the Mishna
standards. there were Jewish leaders around that taught that very
thing, so Jesus is immediately flying in their face.
– Jesus was not concerned with the complicated religion of
figuring out what made a person clean or unclean. To the
Jewish leaders, He was about to cause a really big problem.
Not only from the shock of raising someone from the dead, but
I’m sure there would be debate about whether or not Lazarus
was unclean or not, since he had touched a dead body – HIS
OWN!
– Just like healing on the Sabbath to mess these guys up, Jesus
hands them another conundrum of their law-making. Whoever
touched the tombstone, unwrapped Lazarus, or entered the tomb
would have been unclean and in need to special offerings to
be clean and able to enter the fellowship again.
– OF COURSE I’m talking like a silly person. Who would worry
about such rules and laws when man had just been raised from
the dead after 4 days?! (see v. 48 and 53)
– The Father calls us back to the reality of life. Jesus walks us
through the transition from life under the Law to life in the
Spirit, because the Law was powerless to change us on the inside.
If Jesus had just come and died and not shown us how to live the
Spirit life, we would have just manufactured new laws and
considered ourselves righteous by following those new laws. That
is exactly what happens today in churches that focus more on
shoulds and compelling people with urges to do things rather than
the life of Christ. I have seen the work of the Spirit of Grace
in my own life, in that when I keep score, I sneak and sin
against God in my heart much more than when I turn the scoreboard
off and simply spend my life in Christ.
- v. 40 “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the
glory of God?”
– Martha must finally believe here, because she sees it. I don’t
think Jesus is saying that He would only raise Lazarus if Martha
believed. I think He’s talking about the difference between the
Pharisees’ reaction and the sisters’ reaction. Everyday, amazing
things happen and tons of people lose out by attributing the
event to chance or fate or luck. The GLORY of GOD is in giving
Him credit for every good and perfect gift.
– That’s not to say God is going to do a bunch of stuff without us
and the glory of God is only seen in whether He gets credit or
not. The ULTIMATE GLORY of GOD is in granting the requests and
coming to the help of those in greatest need. Just as the essence
of being high and exalted is compassion and mercy, the Ultimate
Glory of God is shown when He helps and is believed in by people
who are surrounded by every reason in the world to stop believing
in Him.
– My Strong’s dictionary says glory is doxa (do/xa) which means
“glory (as very apparent)” I wonder what that means?! flip that
around . “
– “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the
very apparent, the clearly visible, understood, and
obviousness of God?”
– If you will believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then you
will see the fullness of God.
John 11.21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
John 11.32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
John 11.37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
It is amazing to me how sovereign Jesus is. I mean sovereign as in unaffected by outside forces. At the same time, he is weeping and sobbing over Lazarus. Three times here His identity and ability is insulted, but he never rebukes, speaks defensively, gets his feelings hurt, nothing.
Usually when I try to toughen up and not be affected by others, I just get mean. That makes me appreciate Jesus all the more. He rests in His Father’s power and love, and knows who He is and what He can do. He is so obeying the Father that He doesn’t even stick up for Himself or try to justify Himself before them.
v. 28 Jesus calls for Mary to come from the place of mourning to where He is. He knows that he couldn’t talk to her in that setting-esp. with professional mourners there. A lot of times God has something to tell us about a situation, but as long as we’re surrounded by people that don’t listen to Him, or in a place that keeps the situation out of His control, (as in not the place He wants to work, no place is OUT of His control) He will call us out and move us geographically to show us more of Himself.
v.33, 35 Jesus is moved and weeps and mourns right along with them. Sometimes this is a stumbling block because why would Jesus cry if He knows that He is about to raise Lazarus from the dead? I can think of several reasons why He would cry that are all in keeping with His character
А the obvious: that He loved Lazarus and was sad that he had died. I don’t think Jesus knew the whole future-He just knew what the Father told Him, so He may NOT know He’s about to raise Him or He’s sad because He knows how Lazarus must have suffered before he eventually died
Б He cried because He was so sad for the pain that Mary and Martha had gone through. He loved them a lot and to see them in such pain as to say “If you would have been here, Jesus!” would break His heart too.
В He wanted to care and identify with them. Even though He knew Lazarus would be alive in the next 30 minutes, He didn’t want to be harsh and show joy while Mary is falling at His feet weeping. If you’ve ever been on either side of a conversation where one person had great zeal/passion/emotion about something, and the other person didn’t go there with you, you can really feel like a fool. Jesus didn’t make Mary or Martha feel like a fool for weeping. He wept right along with them, then went to the tomb and turned their mourning into dancing and probably danced right along with them
Г Last for me, but I’m sure there are more, is that Jesus was weeping over all death. The sadness that Man had turned against the Father and brought death upon Himself for all generations would also tear Jesus up. Eventually Jesus would painfully give His own life in order to reverse the effects of The Fall of Man, one of which was death. So the process of death, the effects, and the eventual healing/beating/swallowing up of death would all make Jesus weep too.
Every one of these angles tells us something amazing about God. He IS sympathetic and caring to us. He takes our lives seriously and watches and involves Himself in them.
v.34 “where have you laid him?” Jesus wants to go to the place where He is going to work. He could have easily raised Lazarus from the dead from the other side of the Jordan, but I think Jesus’ presence with M&M and the Jewish leaders is important to Him. Also, because Lazarus comes out at Jesus’ command, there is no question that Lazarus came out because of Jesus. There are many times that I see something happen that is a real lifesaver, and I know people were praying for it, and I just wonder if I shouldn’t have prayed for it out loud so that onlookers could hear and know that this thing happened because God intervened. I’m still learning about that.
God wants to show Himself. He wants to show that things don’t ‘just happen’ but that He has a hand in the events of Man. He wants to show off the power and authority of The Son, and in the midst of all of that, He wants to do it in our proximity, not from some lofty high place far away. God wants to be there as we mourn, carry us through it (or just walk through with us) and then show His power and glory to rule every aspect of the entire world.
When Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus, He showed us that He was completely human, as human as we are.
I don’t really know how to elaborate on that. Just that all by itself blows me away.
27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Martha didn’t understand what the Messiah could or would do when He came into the world, and was looking forward to something other than what Jesus was currently doing.
I don’t want to be that guy. I want to see what Messiah is doing right now. I want to see that He is CURRENTLY in the world, active, working, changing, moving.
A lot of times when we do something fun with our kids, like go to Gattitown (last night for my grandma’s 90th) we get home and they say, “What are we going to do fun?” instead of “Thanks, Daddy!”
I don’t want to be that guy. I want to see the current activity of the Spirit and the Sovereign Lord and instead of saying, “What are you going to do to help me here?!” say, “Thanks Lord, You’re awesome!”
