Introduction:
When I was in 6th grade all of my friends were getting girlfriends and I wanted to have one too. The only problem was that all the girls I liked already had a boyfriend. There was one girl that ran around in the same group as I did and her name was Tina. I remember Tina very well, she wasn’t overly pretty but she wasn’t really ugly either and I was desperate for a girlfriend so I asked her if she would be mine. She said yes and I was really excited even though I didn’t really know what to do next. I knew that boyfriends and girlfriends hung out and talked on the phone so that is what we did. I remember one of the first few nights we were going out we were talking on the phone and she said, “I love you.” What? How in the world can she say she loves me, I don’t even know what that is. It made me feel a little weird that she had said that but we said goodbye and hung up the phone. I was thinking that this girl really liked me but I just liked her a little, I mean, she was just someone I picked because no one else was available. I went to school the next day feeling a little strange about our conversation the night before and not really sure I wanted a girlfriend anymore…that is when it happened. We were talking with our friends at recess and one of them asked, “Are you two going out?” She looked right at them, then at me, then back at them and said, “No, we are just friends.” What?! I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, what do you mean we are just friends. I didn’t say anything and they all walked off, obviously satisfied with her answer. When they left she said, “We can just tell people we are friends but we are really going out.” My heart was broken. The girl who I didn’t even like that much had just completely devastated me as a 12 year old little boy. I thought we were truly boyfriend and girlfriend, apparently she had thought that also at one point, but she had moved away from that thinking back into the “friend mode.”
I want to talk to you today about a scenario very much like this that happened to Jesus.
Body:
The text for what I want to talk about today comes from John 11.28-37 (NIV)–
28And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. "The Teacher is here," she said, "and is asking for you." 29When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34"Where have you laid him?" he asked.
"Come and see, Lord," they replied.
35Jesus wept.
36Then 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?"
Let’s set the story here. Jesus had just gone through the ordeal of healing the man who had been born blind. There were the accusations about him working on the Sabbath and the blind man and his parent’s encounters with the Pharisees. This all led to Jesus discourse on the good shepherd and his sheep. Through all of this, the Pharisees continue to hate Jesus more and more and are seeking to arrest him. Jesus even had some of “the Jews” try to stone him. It is right after this that Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick and going to die. Rather than go immediately to Bethany, where Lazarus was from, he said that he would go later. When he was questioned by his disciples he explained, “And for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him” (John 11.14). While they were on their way to Bethany, Martha had heard that Jesus was coming so she went out to meet them. After she had spoken with Jesus she went to get Mary and that is where we pick up on the story.
I. Jesus calls to us
a. He called Mary – Martha told Mary that Jesus was outside and asking for her. In his asking for her, he uses the same Greek verb, Phoneo, which he used earlier in John when he was talking about the Good Shepherd and his sheep. “And he calls his sheep by name and leads them out” (10.3). Mary also hears him this way “And they will hear my voice” (10.16). Essentially, Jesus is using the same terminology to call Mary as when he is the Good Shepherd calling his sheep (Moloney 329). Isn’t this awesome! When we are God’s sheep, he calls us to him. God will never lead us astray and we must learn to trust him like the sheep trust the shepherd and follow his commands.
II. We approach Jesus – Mary does exactly that here, she hears his voice and she goes to him.
a. Mary got up quickly and ran to him. - Verse 29 says that when Mary heard that Jesus was calling her she “got up quickly” and went to him. We cannot stay stagnant when Jesus calls and just sit there; we have to move towards him. We have to approach Jesus and I like how Mary did it here…she went quickly. That reminds me of my little girl, Morgan, when I get home at the end of the day. We don’t get to see each other all day. She must know about what time I get home because every time I open the door I hear the pitter patter of a little one year old’s feet running towards me. I love that! She is excited to see me and she runs to greet me. I can imagine that Jesus would feel the same way about us when we are anxious to greet him.
b. How do we approach Jesus?
c. Now I need to mention here that “the Jews” were with her helping her mourn. When she got up to go meet Jesus, they all assumed that she was going to the tomb to mourn there. “The Jews” were focused on Lazarus and earthly things and, at least for the moment, Mary is focusing on Jesus (Moloney 329). This is just like the world, isn’t it? The world just doesn’t understand Christians. They are focused on the things that they can see, hear, touch and feel and completely neglect the world of the spiritual where we as Christians should exist.
III. We encounter Jesus
a. Mary fell at his feet - When Mary gets to Jesus it says that she “fell at his feet.” I was interested to learn that the word used for “fell” here, pipto, literally means that she threw herself down at his feet. This typically is a sign of worship and devotion (Friberg, 313).
b. She recognized him - She recognized Jesus for who he is, somebody worthy of adoration and worship, and as such she addressed him appropriately.
c. Mary even goes on to make a statement of faith.
i. She said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11.32). In this statement she was acknowledging that Jesus alone had the power to save her brother from death.
d. When you encounter Jesus, how do you act? How do you address him? I imagine there were a lot of us here during the worship time today that imagined ourselves falling at Jesus feet and worshiping him, longing for an encounter like Mary had here. We recognize the presence of Jesus and long to be in it and we make statements similar to Mary’s that we know he is the Christ and we want him to be Lord of our lives.
IV. The world is a distraction – It would be prudent to point out that “the Jews” who were comforting her have temporarily disappeared from the story. It is likely that when Mary left so quickly to go to Jesus that she was able to get some time alone with him away from them (Morris 554).
a. The Jews caught up to her and started wailing – “The Jews” weren’t far behind, though, and enter the scene with force here. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (John 11.33). This is where the scripture gets interesting. The kind of weeping that it is speaking about is what was customary for the time and that is a loud wailing and crying to mourn for the deceased.
b. Mary became distracted and withdrew to join them. Mary had just had a magnificent encounter with Jesus where she recognizes who he is and that he could save her brother. Why, then, is she wailing again with “the Jews?” Can you imagine the commotion that must have been going on now that “the Jews” have arrived back in the story? There was an entire chorus of people wailing loudly over the loss of Lazarus. Jesus reaction is surprising. The NIV translates this a little more politely than what seems to have been intended. In speaking of him being “moved in spirit” and “troubled” it is really trying to say that he was perturbed and agitated. Jesus got angry with them for their lack of faith (Bultmann, 406).
c. Do we fall into disbelief?
V. Let’s look for a minute at what is going on so far. Mary was mourning over her loss of Lazarus with the Jews when Jesus calls for her and she immediately goes to him. When she meets him she has what appears to be an incredible moment of faith, worship, and recognition in Jesus. As soon as “the Jews” enter back into the picture, however, she seems to fall right in to unbelief with them. How frustrating for Jesus! I am sure he is pretty upset right now; we know that he was perturbed and agitated by all the wailing going on. Jesus asks them to tell him where they have buried Lazarus and they invite him to “come and see.”
VI. I wonder if Jesus, in realizing that Mary had taken a step back into unbelief, was asking this question just as one last effort to get her to come back? If she truly had faith in him she could have said, “Lord, you don’t even need to go to where he is. Just say the word and my brother will be raised from the dead.” Rather than say that, though, they invited him to come and see. It was like Jesus was in the light and they were in the darkness and they were inviting Jesus to come join them in the darkness, from life to death. They had already drawn Mary into the darkness with them so now they invited Jesus to join them as well (Lightfoot, 223).
VII. Jesus Wept – This is where the shortest, but one of the most profound verses in the Bible is found. John 3.35 says, “Jesus wept.” Jesus was moved to tears. The weeping that Jesus does here is different than what was mentioned in reference to Mary and “the Jews” weeping for Lazarus. The particular word used here, dakryo, simply means that he shed tears (Moloney, 331).
a. Jesus had high hopes for Mary, but she stepped back. Jesus’ emotion here is not mourning for Lazarus, it is because Mary had come towards him then taken a step back. This emotion must have been the culmination of a long, arduous journey for Jesus. This was to be the last of his public ministry and I am sure he was tired of fighting. We talked before about the things that he had just come through, fighting with the Pharisees because he healed a blind man on the Sabbath and “the Jews” wanting to stone him. I imagine that Jesus was hoping for a better outcome from the situation he now finds himself in. What started out as a significant confession and encounter with Mary has now gone completely wrong. Mary came toward Jesus and was doing everything right…that is until “the Jews” showed up. From the beginning they have shown that they do not understand Jesus and cannot see past the physical realm. “The Jews” have drawn Mary from a significant confession in the power of Jesus to disbelief.
b. Do we make Jesus weep?
VIII. The world still doesn’t understand Jesus. - 36Then 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?"
a. They thought he was crying because he was so moved with compassion.
b. They asked why he hadn’t saved him if he could heal a blind man. They didn’t realize that Jesus could/would raise him from the dead.
IX. What are our distractions? Do we come to believe in Jesus then slip away? Does he call you over and over again and you greet him the same way but then the distractions of the world cause you to fall back into unbelief?
Conclusion:
The question I want to ask today is where are you in this story? Have you made a confession in Jesus but drawn back? Did you use to do everything right but have been distracted by something that has taken you away from God? Remember the story I was telling you about Tina? For a few days Tina and I were fine, she had made a confession that I was her boyfriend; she even made a commitment to me when she said she loved me. Somewhere, something went wrong. I don’t know if she was influenced by her peers and decided she wanted to rescind our relationship, but the fact remains that she withdrew from me. I can never tell you how hurt I was as a 12 year old little boy who thought he had a girlfriend. My prayer is that I will never make God feel that way. When we come to Jesus and enter into a relationship with him and everything seems to be going all right, what in the world might possess us to turn our backs on him and return to the world?
What are the things in the world that distracts you? We need to take a lesson from Mary. In the beginning, her relationship with Jesus was just fine but in the end her problem was in the company that she was keeping. The people around her distracted her when they started wailing again and that is when she slipped back into their world.
Today I want you to identify your distractions and rid yourselves of them. Don’t be like Tina or Mary who seemed to be doing all the right things but let themselves be turned away. Instead, take a stand for Jesus and turn your backs on the distractions.
Bibliography:
Bultmann, Rudolf. The Gospel of John: A Commentary. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1971.
Friberg, Timothy ; Friberg, Barbara ; Miller, Neva F.: Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Books, 2000 (Baker's Greek New Testament Library 4).
Lightfoot, Robert H. St. John's Gospel: A Commentary. London, England: Oxford University Press, 1960.
Marshall, I. Howard. The Epistles of John. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1978.
Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to John: The English Text with Introduction and Notes. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971.
Newman, Barclay Moon: Concise Greek-English Dictionary of the New Testament. Stuttgart, Germany : Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft; United Bible Societies, 1993.
