John 11:1-44
Jesus loves me -- this I know
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
They are weak but he is strong.
We come this weekend to an astonishing story of a man named Lazarus being raised from the dead after he had been in a tomb for four days. So, you may be a bit surprised at me starting the sermon with "Jesus loves me." You might think, "Surely this is a story not about the love of Jesus but about the power of Jesus." But, look again at the story:
V. 3: The sisters sent word to Jesus about their sick brother saying, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
V. 5: "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus..."
V. 33: "When Jesus saw Mary weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit..."
V. 36: The observers saw Jesus weeping and said, "See, how he loved him."
So, I know John 11 is usually used at Easter to talk about Jesus' power – power even over death. But, in the personal conversations found in the story, there is another issue running through almost every word in John's account, i.e., "How could a person who had so much power and who loved this family so much still ignore their pain and then let Lazarus die – when he could have gone and healed him?" Did you notice the repeated, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died (vv. 21, 32) and the question in v. 37, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"
This is what we will think about today. It poses a question that surely has haunted everyone who has ever considered the Christian faith – a question that continues even after we place our trust in Jesus. When things happen that bring about suffering, we ask, "Why does a God who is so powerful and supposedly so loving allow the very ones he loves to suffer?
I want us to learn two lessons about the love of Jesus – two lessons that are too rarely thought about and that show us that Jesus' love is different from the world's definition of love.
Lesson 1: The Wisdom of Jesus' Love
Did you notice the strange way the story opens? Lazarus is sick. His sisters send word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." But in verse 5, when Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, we read he stayed where He was two more days. Now, that really is peculiar, isn't it?
I can imagine some people being so busy with things going on that they have no time to visit a sick friend. But surely not Jesus! And, the text literally says, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days." This is confusing. The Bible is teaching that love is what motivated Jesus to wait and to let Lazarus die and the sisters suffer.
There can only be one reason: Jesus had some purpose in mind in this matter that went far beyond simply seeing Lazarus recover. If Jesus had only been interested in seeing Lazarus get well, he would have gone immediately to heal him. No, Jesus delays because he loved Lazarus too much to step in too soon.
I've been thinking about how some people say that people of faith should view suffering. Here is one who loves Jesus. He is sick. He is dying. What's wrong? Has he committed some sin? Doesn't he have enough faith to be healed? I hear a lot of things these days:
1) God is teaching you a lesson. There must be something displeasing to God or this wouldn't happen.
2) This is just a matter of the mind so sing, quiet psalms and ignore the diagnosis.
3) Sickness is never a part of God's plan so it must be from Satan. "Believe fervently enough and you'll be healed."
But, it's clear that the Bible is teaching us something very different. This story lets us know unmistakably that people who genuinely love Christ and are loved by Him go through indescribably great trials and that in those situations; Christ does not always step in to heal. No, sometimes it seems as if He deliberately deserts us as we cry to Him at the very hour of our need.
The key to understanding begins in v. 4: Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." I think a better translation of what Jesus said is this: "The purpose of this sickness is not death but for the sake of God's glory." What Jesus is saying is that the purpose of his waiting would be to reveal something greater in God's plan than preventing Lazarus' death would have been. Jesus did not rush to Bethany because he loved them. And, the story points this out in a shorter-term way – and points to a longer-term way.
The More Immediate Point: Jesus would show he is the Lord over death.
You see, Lazarus did die and, in that way, the sickness did end in a physical death. By intentionally waiting two days before traveling, it seems as if Jesus wanted to make very sure that the sickness ended in death. So, one point that is being driven home is that for a Christian that end is not really the end. Jesus will demonstrate that there is nothing in this world beyond his control. We must know this if we will trust him.
Death is the greatest enemy in this world but, because of this Jesus, even death is never a shameful defeat or a final ending. And that's why the "valley of the shadow of death," is not something we Christians run away from, that we fear like many in the world would do.
The More Complex Point: Jesus has loving purposes that go beyond our limited perspectives.
It's more than just that death is not the end of things for Christians. That's true but the Bible is saying something more about the love of Jesus than that. We need to listen carefully here because countless people have times when we think, "If God really loved me then my sickness – my job loss – my singleness... would be taken away." Then we go to church and the pastor uses something that feels like a cliché: "God has a loving purpose in trouble." But, I want you to know that this "cliché" is true and that it is the only sufficient answer to the suffering we experience in this world.
The Bible declares that God is involved in history and that his purposes are loving. From our limited human perspective, we will never be able to see all that God has in mind. What I'm saying is that the purposes that God has in allowing suffering like this death of Lazarus are very complex. What happens to us does not just have one or two purposes but countless ones that God weaves together. All of them are interwoven in such a way that they demonstrate God's "glory": his power, his love, his wisdom... Most of us know the most famous verse about this, Romans 8:28: We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him... That's a mind-boggling assertion when you think about it. All things being worked together in the entire universe – that takes quite a project manager. But, that's what God does in his wisdom. He works all things together out of his love – for the good...
So, in v. 4, we see that this incident is to reveal something about the greatness – the glory -- of God. What is it that is to be revealed? I say it will eventually reveal many, many things about God that could not have been known if Jesus had rushed to solve the problem. Sometimes we get to see a little bit of this in our own lives – but I'm quite sure we never see all that God is doing.
One purpose is easy to see in the Lazarus story because Lazarus is brought back to life. That part of God's glory will be revealed. Jesus will show his incredible power to bring back to life a man who had been dead for 4 days. That's a big part of it. In a few days, the world will see a little bit of Jesus' wisdom in waiting. It will lead pastors in the 21st Century to preach sermons declaring at funerals that we have hope even when a loved one dies.
We see that bit of God's purpose for allowing suffering and death in this particular story – but that's not all that Jesus has in mind by waiting to go to Bethany and allowing Lazarus to die and his sisters to mourn! Of the many things that God is working together, one more piece is revealed in John's Gospel. Read on and you will see that this is the very miracle that motivated Jesus' enemies to put him to death. The religious leaders would think, "When Rome hears of this resurrection of a man dead for four days, they will come and destroy our whole nation (v. 48)!" As the high priest Caiaphas said in 11:50, "It is better that this one man die than that the whole nation perish." This is the miracle gave the religious leaders the courage to move against Jesus. And, as we now know, it is that death of Jesus that was necessary for us all to live.
Think of it: Jesus' purpose was not only to raise Lazarus from being physically dead – because Lazarus would soon die again. Jesus waits in John 11 because he knows his waiting will lead to his own death -- to the death that will bring eternal life to these siblings and eventually to us. I contend that this is always the case when we suffer. What God asks us to do is to trust his wisdom.
It's like a parent who tells a child, "Trust me. I've lived a long time and I know that the decision I've made doesn't make life easy for you – but I still am making this decision because I believe it is wise – and loving." Then, if you understand that: Take that reality to an infinite level and that's what we believe about the loving purposes of God.
So, unimaginable trouble happens in the world. "Where is God?" we ask. Maybe it's easy to see some of God's wisdom in recent days in the Chilean miners after they are rescued. But, it's not easy to see right now in the cholera outbreak among people already nearly at the end of their hope in Haiti. So, we are forced to ask if we will trust God. In John 11, people were asked if they would trust that God is at work even when a death like this one to Lazarus happens that we know Jesus could have prevented? Or, would they insist that their own wisdom was to be preferred? When things happen that we think make no sense, we must ask, "Is my wisdom in saying, 'Suffering is pointless' true or is God's wisdom that declares that no suffering in pointless?
When trouble comes, we see whether we truly have our faith in God. When trouble comes, we can go in one of three directions: 1) try to regain control somehow; 2) give up; 3) turn to God.
My point: Suffering comes into our lives and will never leave us where we were before. We will be more human or less. More trusting of God or less. I believe that everyone who goes to church has some kind of burden – big or small. That trouble has the potential to take us all the way to greatness. I declare to you – troubles are opportunities for growth. They always force us to ask which way we will turn. Do you see it? We all do battle with God at times. "My will or his? My "wisdom" or his?
What I mean by the wisdom of Jesus' love is that Jesus was wise enough to wait so that the path to the cross would be made open. He was wise enough to refrain from alleviating the temporary suffering so that a way to abundant life might be made available. He was wise and loving enough to allow for a physical death to make eternal life available for the world. You and I would have found it hard to see that if we had been in Martha and Mary's shoes.
And, we must learn what Mary and Martha learned: They called for Jesus, the one who loved them. They had to pray – and then they had to wait and trust his wisdom and love. The basis of their prayer and trust is the wise love of Jesus – not their own worthiness. They did not say, "We're good people, Jesus. We've done a lot for you Jesus so you have to do what we ask." No, they prayed: "Jesus, the one you love is sick." This is what leads us to prayer. This is what gives confidence to prayer. This is what enables us to wait until God makes his glory known.
The wisdom of Jesus' love: When we believe that Jesus loves us, is wise enough to know what the best thing for us is in every situation, and that he is has the power to do anything – anything -- then we can pray diligently, trust confidently, wait expectantly, and obey fully – until in God's time, we see his glory.
The Empathy of Jesus' love — He weeps.
I've been told my whole life that v. 35 is the shortest verse in the Bible. Maybe it is. And it is profound. Jesus wept. Why did he weep? V. 35 flows from v. 33 when Jesus saw Mary weeping. Her tears deeply "moved Jesus in his spirit and he was troubled." That phrase is one that usually referred to a horse that bucks and snorts when something crosses its path that shouldn't be there. The lesson is that Jesus felt that this death and the sorrow that people he loved was not the way life is ultimately supposed to be. Think of the tension of this: Jesus waited because he loved these three. He knew that the loving thing for him to do was to wait. But, his waiting is the very thing that was causing so much pain. He doesn't say, "Ha! They're going to see something fantastic in just a few moments so they should just grin and bear it!" No, he weeps in the midst of their pain. He weeps that there is death in this world for those he loves. It's clear that Jesus' heart is so fully bound up with their hearts that he feels their pain.
A pastor friend once told me that when you have children, a chain is attached to your heart. You're never free again after you have a child. He said, "You'll never be a free spirit again. When your child fails, you ache. When your child makes a bad decision, you hurt. When your child is in pain, you can hardly bear it. When your child dies, you weep." A good parent is never fully happy when a child is wayward or miserable. There is incredible joy and fulfillment in parenting – but there is a link of one heart to another.
So, why is Jesus weeping here instead of gloating? "Wait 'til they see my next miracle!" No, he feels the grief and pain even while he knows that an enormous victory will happen in a very short time. He still weeps when he sees the sisters' pain. That's how bound up the heart of Jesus is with our own. Jesus binds up his heart with the hearts of his people. We are specks in history – this is the Maker of all and the Lord of history. But, when we hurt, we cause weeping in the heart of the king of the universe.
No other religion believes this. Other religions have God being so remote or so distant and so powerful that he feels no pain. Many Christians have found it hard to accept this. Ancient Greek theologians taught about the "impassability" of God. They said God surely does not suffer. "If God suffers," they argued, "then he is vulnerable." But, I am convinced they were wrong.
Here we see the weeping Jesus. The weeping savior. We only weep over what is of great value to us. Here is Jesus weeping over the pain of those he loves. He loved them too much not to step in too soon – but he still wept because he knew his waiting would cause them pain. The most loving thing for Jesus to do was to allow the shorter-term suffering so that eternal suffering could be destroyed. But still, he wept when he saw those he loved suffering. And, he still does.
And don't miss this. When we see Jesus weeping with us in our pain, we must know that weeping with us is not all he does. Jesus does not merely weep about our pain and then leave helplessly. He stays involved. In his time, he will take away the pain and the tears. In his time, he told Lazarus to come out of the grave -- and Lazarus came! This is our hope. This is the promise we hold to. We will someday see the fullness of the love and power and wisdom of Jesus.
To know him – what do we learn of Jesus this week from John 11? We learn about the wisdom and the empathy of his love. That love of Jesus combined with his power should send us from this place knowing that we can wait and trust and obey even when we cannot see what God is doing. We know that even when things seem to be the worst, there is always hope – for the pain is not outside the wise love and infinite power of our Lord.
So that we can make him known – We will never have the full wisdom of Jesus. But as we grow, we learn that there are times that we must wait if people we love are walking through times of uncertainty and pain. We are not to bail the one we love out of every problem the moment they demand it. But, if we must wait, we must also learn to weep with those we love – even if their own foolishness has caused the pain. We will weep when people we love suffer. We will weep just as Jesus weeps for us.
Do you ever weep as you walk into a room when you know there is suffering and pain? A follower of Jesus must be the kind of person to whom suffering people can show their scars and wounds and know their honesty will be met with gentleness – never passing over sin but never, never, never treating them rudely. And, always offering the forgiveness and mercy and hope of this suffering Christ.
To sum it up: We must learn to trust Jesus' loving wisdom enough to wait in the presence of uncertainty and pain. As we wait, we remember that Jesus is crying with us because he knows there is a greater purpose that he dare not interrupt. And in the midst of the tears, we hold on to the certain hope that at the end of the pain, there will be life. Jesus will not leave us where we are.
I think about Lazarus sometimes. In V. 44, Lazarus had to put his grave clothes back on. You see, Christ left His grave clothes in the tomb when he was resurrected for He was not so much coming back from the dead as He was passing through death to a new quality of life. But Lazarus was drawn back out through the same entrance he went in. Lazarus had been raised but only one day to die again like anybody else. In his return, Martha and Mary were no doubt thrilled to have him back. But I wonder whether Lazarus was as thrilled. I wonder whether he was so glad about re entering the land of the living or I wonder whether now he knew that this would better be called the land of the dying.
When our powerful and loving Savior waits in the midst of our sorrow, he is doing it so that we will live – not just a few days or years. But forever. He declared: I do what I do so that "whoever lives and believes in me will never die!" So, if you are in a time of suffering, I must ask you the same question Jesus asked of Martha: Do you believe this? Will you trust his love?
Greg Waybright • Copyright 2010, Lake Avenue Church