Lazarus Raised

Lazarus Raised
John 11:33-37

33 When [hos] Jesus [Iesous] therefore [oun] saw [eido] her [autos] weeping [klaio] , and [kai] the Jews [Ioudaios] also weeping [klaio] which came [sunerchomai] with her [autos] , he groaned [embrimaomai] in the spirit [pneuma] , and [kai] was troubled [tarasso] [heautou] ,
34 And [kai] said [epo] , Where [pou] have ye laid [tithemi] him [autos] ? They said [lego] unto him [autos] , Lord [kurios] , come [erchomai] and [kai] see [eido] .
35 Jesus [Iesous] wept [dakruo] .
36 Then [oun] said [lego] the Jews [Ioudaios] , Behold [ide] how [pos] he loved [phileo] him [autos] !
37 And [de] some [tis] of [ek] them [autos] said [epo] , Could [dunamai] not [ou] this man [houtos] , which [ho] opened [anoigo] the eyes [ophthalmos] of the blind [tuphlos] , have caused [poieo] that [hina] even [kai] this man [houtos] should [apothnesko] not [me] have died [apothnesko] ? KJV-Interlinear

33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her, also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled, 34 and said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to Him, 'Lord, come and see.' 35 Jesus wept. 36 And so the Jews were saying, 'Behold how He loved him!' 37 But some of them said, 'Could not this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have kept this man also from dying?' NASB

Now we get to the crux of the matter. We skimmed through several verses laying groundwork for this passage. Lets review briefly (very briefly). We have the apostles who did not want to return to Judea. They are expecting to get stoned (with rocks not drugs) to death at any moment now, but as Thomas said sort of dramatically and in so many words, 'Well, we'll all just go back to Judea and die together.'

In Bethany we find Martha upset but not too upset, that Jesus did not return sooner. Mary is upset and did not want to go out to greet Him immediately, but she did go when summoned. Mary still complained a little. There is the crowd which has a couple of elements of emotional folks within it. There are first those folks who seem very sympathetic when they see Jesus cry tears - assuming that He is crying over Lazarus. And there is the second group who wonder about the tears and His reputation of being able to save Lazarus. Peek at verse 36 and 37 in our study today.

One more thing. Jesus had a brief discussion with Martha. Do you recall what it was?

Jn. 11:25 Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? '

The crying mentioned in verse 33, are loud and noisy expressions of emotion. We are now four days after the death of Lazarus and after he has been laid inside the tomb. Not too many folks can cry for four days straight, especially in a loud and very emotional fashion. The tears are of two types here. There are the sincere tears of loss and grief - Mary, and there are the hypocritical and courtesy tears of professional mourners. Those who mean well, and I do not mean hired mourners, but folks that come over to share in the grief through their courtesy and in being polite they cry. It is the thing to do at a funeral.

Now there are the tears of Jesus, but His tears follow His anger of indignation. 'He was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled.' His trouble relates back to the conversation He had with Martha. 'Do you believe this?' Is the question asked when He stated His identity and purpose. 'Yes,' She replies. We all reply this of course.

We all know, that is, if you have believed in Christ, that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior, the Son of God. But, those words seem to just be mimicked from empty space. They do not seem to come from a solid foundation of understanding and faith.

People looked to Jesus for what He could do for them - miracles now. They looked to His reputation and wondered why not now?. They looked to His ability and wondered, why not sooner. They looked really not to Christ, but to their own inward desires. They are all crying as though it was the end of the world and there was no God. They were crying out of courtesy and were not really into the loss of Lazarus. People die everyday. This one just happens to be somewhat close to home. These attitudes vary, and even with the apostles, who did not want to come to Bethany. What was the point. They throw rocks at you, there, ya know!

The word for troubled means: to snort with anger; to have indignation on, i.e. (transitively) to blame, (intransitively) to sigh with chagrin, (specially) to sternly enjoin: straitly charge, groan, murmur against. Strongs.

Jesus was disgusted at the entire display of everyone, and He was moved to tears. His tear were not loud and public tears, but quiet and inward tears. He was moved from within His being (true and proper feelings), and not from the outward expressions of emotions (emotions without thought) as was everyone else.

If everyone were truly understanding of Bible doctrine, then they would know that Lazarus was now in Paradise. A place of no more tears, no more pain, no more death, etc., etc., etc. Lazarus was in a great place, but people were sorrowful that He was not still here with them. And if you stand back and think about it a bit, that kind of thinking is a little selfish. Here Lazarus' life has run its course in this world. The world can be viewed as a rotten slime pit. Lazarus has an opportunity to go to Disneyland (you can substitute your dream vacation destination) for an all expense paid trip forever, and his friends don't want him to take the trip, but remain with them in the slim pit.

Losing loved ones is difficult. I presume that we have all lost someone very close to us, during our lives. Grief is normal. But there is a time to grieve and a time to recover and move on with life. We fall back on the doctrine we know. Our loved ones are in heaven and in a better, a far better, place. It is good that God took them home and now they can relax in perfect happiness. My dad left us long ago. I presume that he is on the back nine of the best golf course in existence. Probably doesn't have to wait in any lines either. My mother likewise is probably socializing to her hearts content with all the saints of past generations.

We all miss our loved ones of course, but we will see them again one day, and our meeting will far better than anything we can imagine.

But for now, we all have to look into that mirror and ask the question, 'Do we have a clue about life or are we just inching along in the fog, clueless?'

Jesus was disgusted, that all of these folks had the information available to them (the scriptures) and throughout their lives. Some of them knew the scriptures, some were not even interested. 'Could not this man, who opened the eyes of him who was blind, have kept this man also from dying?' Cheap little self righteous comments. But then, folks who are long on arrogance and short on spiritual understanding, can come up with lots of cheap one line comments. A form of self righteous judging.

Jesus Christ, the God of the universe is standing right there before them. Actually He is standing right before our eyes as well - the scriptures. And they do not see the realities of life. They will mourn for four days straight, but will not study their scriptures even for a few minutes a day. Which is of greater importance?

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