One of the oldest and most universal of all questions is the one of
Job, "If a man die shall he live again?" In the ancient world almost
everyone believed that death was a gateway into another world, and
so they buried their dead with food and tools to be used when they
arrived. This is obviously foolish to those of us today, but there are
many who also feel that the whole idea of eternal life is a foolish
superstition. They think it is only the hope of the weak and is mere
wishful thinking. But they are doing wishful thinking when they
hope that there is no life beyond and no penalty for sinful living.
Leslie Weatherhead points out that when the skeptic gives
medicine to his sick child he hopes it will work and restore the child
to health. He would be angry if you told him that was only wishful
thinking, and was a sign of his weakness. He would say that he was
not so simple as to believe that his hope could make the child well.
He was putting his trust in the medicine and not just in his own
wishes. There is nothing wrong with wishful thinking and hoping
when there is good reason for it. The skeptic would show you it is
only common sense to hope for what you love when there is good
evidence to do so. He would point out that this same disease was
cured in others and so there is evidence for his hope. This
reasoning applies perfectly to those who have hope for life after
death.
We have a basis for our hope, and we also have case histories in
which the dead have been brought back to life. There was the
daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain, and then Lazarus
the brother of Mary and Martha. We want to look more deeply into
this last case for it reveals a great deal about the attitude of Jesus
toward death. We want to look at three responses of Christ in the
presence of death here. The first response was that of
I. HIS TROUBLED SPIRIT. v. 33
The Berkley Version has it, "Deeply indignant in spirit."
Martha had been first to go and meet Jesus, but Mary did not come
until Jesus sent for her. We do not know why, but she was likely
deeply hurt by the delay of Jesus, and she was not sure of herself,
and so she did not go to Him. But when Jesus called for her she
came and fell at His feet, and threw her tears of grief and doubt she
said, "Lord if you would have been here my brother would have
died." The Jews that were with Mary in the house followed her and
they were weeping, and the word means they were wailing.
Jesus responded with a troubled spirit. The meaning of this
response has been variously interpreted. There are those who feel
that Jesus was angry at the power of death because it caused such
grief to those He loved. This makes sense, but I feel that the
emotion of Christ here is like that He expressed on another occasion.
When Jesus came near to Jerusalem on the day of His
triumphal entry He beheld the city and wept over it. Why? It was
because the people were blind and knew not the day of their
visitation. The day of peace had come, but they would reject the
Messiah and their city would be destroyed. Jesus wept because of
their blindness, which was causing them to lose God's best. In
anger He entered the temple and expelled the moneychangers who
made the house of God a den of thieves. This is the emotion I think
Jesus felt as He looked upon these wailing Jews. Here He was as
the Lord of life and death in their very presence, but they were
blind and mourned as those who had no hope. Jesus was troubled
in seeing people live in the dark when the light is all around them.
We do not have near the love and compassion of Christ, but
have you not felt sometimes that you would like to take people who
are ruining their lives and just shake some sense into them? You
are indignant and troubled that they can be so blind. They cling to
hell and lose heaven for a straw. One of the most frustrating
experiences of Jesus was that of seeing the blindness and the little
faith of those whom He loved. Jesus was troubled and indignant
because they acted as if the grave was the end. Those who believe
that are dead already, for if death is the end, then life has no
meaning. Paul made it clear that if in this life only we have hope,
we are of all men most miserable. These people were wailing
without hope, and Jesus is mourning for them and not for Lazarus.
They are dead in a far deeper sense than Lazarus is. The deadness
of the spirit that blinds to the truth of God is far more dangerous
and sad than the death of the body. This first response of Christ
teaches us that hopeless grief has no place in the life of a believer.
Next we see-
II. HIS TEARFUL EYES. v. 35
This verse is far more than just the shortest verse in the Bible.
It is also one of the most sublime, for it reveals to us the true
sympathy of the Savior. Jesus was indignant at their unbelief, but
He was also sympathetic with their grief. Jesus was not wailing as
they were, but had silent tears rolling down his face. He could not
hold back the tears of compassion. The first part of the account
makes us wonder if Jesus had any sympathy at all for Mary and
Martha. They had been so good to Him in giving Him a place to eat
and sleep. He had been there often, but now when He is most
needed He has stayed away.
Mary and Martha are deeply worried because of the illness of
Lazarus. They are wondering why he is so ill when Jesus was not
there. They knew He could raise him up and heal him as He had so
many others. They sent a message to Jesus telling Him that the one
He loved was so sick. As soon as Jesus received this message He did
not borrow an Arabian horse and race to Bethany as fast as He
could. Instead, we read in verse 5 these words: "Yet when He
heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more
days." Is this a misprint? It seems that Jesus stayed away just
when He was most needed. Then to make things even worse we
read in verses 14 and 15, "So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is
dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may
believe..." It is no wonder that they felt Jesus had lost His
compassion for them.
The tears of verse 35, however, wash all the doubts away. Jesus
had been so calm about it before because He knew His delay would
be for the greatest glory. He was going to perform the greatest
miracle of His life up to that point. The other two He raised from
the dead had died so short a time before that there may have been
some doubt as to the reality of their death. But He delayed to come
to Lazarus until his body was in a state of decay so that all could
know for sure that he was truly dead. The Jews felt that after 4
days there is no hope for the spirit to enter the body again, and so
there was purpose in the delay of Christ.
Now Jesus stands in the presence of grief and He sheds tears of
sympathy. He knew He was going to raise Lazarus, and He knew
joy would soon be in their hearts, but He shed these tears of
sympathy because He was a man of sympathy. The tears of Jesus
indicate that there is such a thing as a good cry. Jesus was not
sentimental, nor would He approve of indulging tear-jerking
stories, but Jesus was realistic. He would not approve of hopeless
grief, but He did recognize the place of honest grief, even in those
who are believers. Someone said, "Tears are liquid emotions
pressed from the heart." Here was Mary weeping because her
brother was now separated from here, and that separation brought
sorrow. Jesus said with His tears that He approved of that kind of
sorrow. There is a valid place for tears in the Christian life. We
need never fear nor be ashamed of the tears of the hopeful. Christ
has been our example, and He was touched by our feelings. We
need to learn to be sympathetic with the tears of others, even when
we know the problem is only temporary. Next we consider-
III. HIS TRIUMPHANT VOICE. v. 43
Jesus revealed His sovereignty over death by a shout. In His
conversation with Martha Jesus made a claim that no one else has
ever made. He said in verses 25-26, "I am the resurrection and the
life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and
whoever lives and believes in me will never die." Then He asked
Martha, "Do you believe this?" How could He expect Martha to
believe such a thing when Lazarus had died and was now decaying?
She just could not come out and say she believed it. She just said
that she knew in the last day he would live again. Jesus is trying to
teach her that He is the Lord of the present and not just of the
future. Jesus said that He was the life, and not that He would be.
Jesus is trying to tell her that her brother is not dead. He is
trying to tell her that He is right now the resurrection and the life.
He proved it by talking to Lazarus and calling him back into his
body. Who can speak to the dead? Jesus can, for He knows they
are yet living and that it is only the body that is dead. Jesus is
saying that the Christian never dies even though his body does.
This means that the body is not you. There is something more basic
that is the real you, and that is the soul. The poet wrote,
Life is real and life is earnest,
And the grave is not its goal.
From thus thou art to dust returnest
Was not spoken of the soul.
The body is an instrument through which the soul makes its
self-known. Unbelieving materialists say that the soul is dependent
on the body, and so when the body dies the soul does too. The
Christian who believes in Christ can see what they cannot see.
Take the prism for example. It separates the colors of light, but
when you take it away and the instrument is gone no one believes
that the colors no longer exist. The spiritual world goes on and the
unseen is just as real even when the physical means to make it
visible is gone. When the body is gone the unseen soul continues,
and it is under the Lordship of Christ. Jesus is Lord of all the
living, and that includes those who have left their bodies. One day
they will all hear the trumpet voice of the Son of God and they will
be raised in the final resurrection. The raising of Lazarus is Jesus
proving that He is the Lord of life and death.
