Lazarus Raised

Lazarus Raised
John 11:17-20

17 Then [oun] when Jesus [Iesous] came [erchomai] , he found [heurisko] that he [autos] had [echo] lain in [en] the grave [mnemeion] four [tessares] days [hemera] already [ede] .
18 Now [de] Bethany [Bethania] was [en] nigh [eggus] unto Jerusalem [Hierosoluma] , about [hos] fifteen [dekapente] furlongs [stadion] off [apo] :
19 And [kai] many [polus] of [ek] the Jews [Ioudaios] came [erchomai] to [pros] Martha [Martha] and [kai] Mary [Maria] [peri] , to [hina] comfort [paramutheomai] them [autos] concerning [peri] their [autos] brother [adelphos] .
20 Then [oun] Martha [Martha] , as soon as [hos] she heard [akouo] that [hoti] Jesus [Iesous] was coming [erchomai] , went and met [hupantao] him [autos] : but [de] Mary [Maria] sat [kathezomai] still in [en] the house [oikos] . KJV-Interlinear

17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. 20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him; but Mary still sat in the house. NASB

In the outer regions Jesus healed numerous peoples with such repetition, that by now His miracles were probably old news for most folks. But when near Jerusalem, His miracles took on a much higher level of drama. He healed one that had been diseased thirty-eight years, another that had been blind from his birth, and was now about to raise one that had been dead four days.

Who could not hear of or even dismiss this kind of news, yet even within two miles of Jerusalem, the drama unfolds right beneath the noses of those who regard themselves as spiritual experts, and spiritual leaders.

Lazarus has been dead for four days now. He has been laid to rest in the tomb and the usual and expected decay would have normally already begun. This is a situation in which mankind, even in our current day of vast technology, cannot change. Once a person has died, there is nothing further that we can do for them.

Their body, soul, and spirit (if they are saved), all break apart. The body decays and is discarded as useless waste. Their soul (if an unbeliever) goes to Torments and there awaits the last judgment - the Great White Throne. And if the person was a believer in Christ, then the soul along with the spirit go to Paradise. This is the destination of believers prior to the Church Age. In our age, upon our death, our soul and spirit go to heaven - 'face to face with the Lord.'

One of the several tremendous events which took place during those three days when Christ was in the grave, was the Great Procession or parade if you will, when Christ led all who resided in the underworld compartment called Paradise (one of four compartments in the underworld), to a New Paradise in heaven. That underworld compartment (Paradise) is now vacant, never to be used again..

Many people new Lazarus and were there at his home to console Mary and Martha. As we will see in the next few verses, knowledge of the resurrection is common and well understood. When Martha heard of Christ's approach, she rushed out to meet Him. Mary remained in the house.

Two attitudes are prevalent here. Martha is unhappy that Jesus did not arrive earlier to save her brother, but she is still happy to see the Lord. Mary is unhappy that Jesus did not save her brother, and she is going to pout in the house for a little while longer.

Again who is this Jesus anyway? Just a carpenters son with a gifted talent? No. He is God

One person runs out to meet Jesus, the other stays home. Both are upset with His not being there sooner, but then Christ does not have to be present in order to heal someone. There are two wills of purpose here - that of God and that of these women. They wanted their brother cured obviously, and that is not unreasonable, but then they cannot blame God for what happens in this life. We are not here in this world, to be here forever, especially in these physical bodies. They are temporary at best.

Any loss we might perceive is not loss to God, because He controls history and everything in it. We just have to come to an understanding of that principle of doctrine. God has complete control over everything in our lives, and He is capable of bringing us to a wonderful conclusion in our life here on earth regardless of how we might mess our life up, what with our bad attitude and such. We only make ourselves miserable when we fight Gods will.

So we can sit at home and pout about how life is really bad for us. We can run to Bible study and still complain how bad life is for us. How God doesn't like us, nobody likes us, we might as well eat some worms.

Or, we can just hold our tongue, go to Bible study, listen, learn, apply what we learn to our daily life, and repeat it all day after day after day in our life, and grow up spiritually slowly, and persist to maturity and the winner circle, and ..... God will bring a great life to us both now and in eternity.

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