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"God cannot do anything for you apart or separate from faith. Faith is God's source of power."
-- Kenneth Copeland
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News: Another Look at John 11
Posted on Friday, February 27 @ 13:28:40 PST by Virgil |
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apollos submitted: "We are often told the raising of Lazarus from the dead is a story of Christ's compassion and humanity. Is that really the case? My recent study has caused me to see it in a much different light which I share here. I propose that what we really see is Christ's utter frustration with the inability of His audience to understand His message is spiritual, not physical.
Let's take another look together.
There is no question but what Mary, Martha and Lazarus were special friends to Jesus. John tells us so in this chapter. The problem is how we have allowed that fact to distort the real significance of the events which unfold here. To set the context we need to back up to Chapter 10.
There we read Jesus' proclamation to the Jews, "I and the Father are one." Having lived with the great "shemah" ("Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!" Deut. 6:4), this was the last straw. They picked up stones and were ready to kill Him but He eluded them. Together with the disciples, He traveled "beyond the Jordan" to the place where John had first preached the imminence of the kingdom, and to the place where Christ was anointed and began His ministry.
It is now near the end of Christ's earthly work and He has returned to the very place where it began. The story has come full cirle and those who were with Him affirmed everything John the Baptist said about Him was true. John 10 closes with the observation "And many believed in Him there."
He eluded those who would have taken his life prematurely, but He is about to initiate the events which He will now use to willingly lay it down. This sets the stage for John 11 and should not be missed.
As they waited beyond the Jordan, a message came telling them Lazarus was sick. Jesus' response is most notable, "This sickness is not unto death." How could Jesus make such a statement knowing that Lazarus would in fact die? Some attempt to explain this by saying He knows Lazarus will be raised. However, that ignores the clear proclamation Jesus makes.
May I suggest Jesus has the bigger picture in view as He makes this statement? He is intimately aware of the time at hand and that Lazarus' resurrection will lead to His sacrifice atoning for the sins of the world. It is in this sense that the sickness of Lazarus is "not unto death." It will instead bring life - real Life - not just for Lazarus but for all who believe in Christ. That is the reason He concluded the statement with "that the Son of God may be glorified by it."
Let's move on to develop this theme in the story.
While some might have thought Jesus would heal Lazarus from afar or immediately begin the trip to Bethany, He waited two more days before telling the disciples they are headed back to Judea again. They reminded Him the Jews still wanted to kill Him but He was not to be deterred.
Jesus told them Lazarus was asleep. Not understanding what He meant, they saw that
as a sign he would recover. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead." They must have wondered why He delayed when Lazarus was sick, but after his death was ready to return. Thomas probably spoke for them all when he rejoined, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him."
This is no idle word. The seriousness of the moment was apparent to them all. Christ was most aware of what was about to transpire. To understand the significance of the rest of the story we need to pause and briefly recall the story of the centurion in Luke 7.
Jesus had visited Capernaum but after He left, some Jewish elders sent word telling Him the centurion's servant was ill. It was because of this man they enjoyed such favorable treatment from Rome and they wanted to do him a favor. Jesus headed back and was almost there when the centurion's servants met Him with a message from their superior, "Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I, too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes; and to another, 'Come!' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it."
Do you remember Christ's response? "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." With this fact in mind we are prepared to understand Christ's grief in John 11.
As they approached Bethany, Martha met them on the road and lamented that if Christ had just been there Lazarus would not have died. No centurion's faith here! Her challenge of the Father's sovereign will takes things a step farther when she suggests "Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You."
Rather than accept that Christ knew the situation and was addressing it as He saw the Father's will, she thinks Jesus works of His on accord and if He will just ask the Father, the Father will give Him anything He wants. She is focused on her needs, not the Father's glory.
To be sure, Jesus knew Lazarus would be physically raised shortly, but is that what He means when He tells her Lazarus will rise again. I don't think so. I propose he was reminding her Lazarus would not miss out on the life to come. The language "rise again" is a reference to the standing which is about to be restored through His sacrifice. Martha's reply suggests she understood Him this way. She confirmed her belief Lazarus would stand in the resurrection (i.e. repeat standing) but she was not concerned about the spiritual right now. Again, she was clearly focused on the physical. At Lazarus' death, Mary and Martha had become a household of two women in a patriarchal society and that had far-reaching implications for them. They want him back.
Christ responded to Martha with an incredible parallelism, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die...." In a parallelism the opening statement is further explained by placing the subsequent clauses "parallel" under the initial headings. For the sake of comparison we slightly adjust the way things are stated. Resurrection pertains to those who believe, then die physically. Christ says they shall live. Life, on the other hand, pertains to those who believe and live. Christ says they shall never die.
Remember, at the time Christ said this, there were two categories of believers: 1) those who had died (or would die) prior to His atoning sacrifice and the coming consummation of the kingdom, and 2) those believers who would "not taste death" until they saw Him coming in glory. While everyone would get resurrection in the sense of standing, the resurrection in view here is what the righteous dead would receive. Those living at the consummation would get "life in [their] mortal bodies as Paul says in Romans 8:11.
By all means note Paul does not say they will receive life in their dead bodies. Mortal means liable to die, or able to die, not dead! Paul agrees with Jesus, those who were alive and remained until the consummation would receive real life while yet in their mortal bodies and would never die. The life and death in view is spiritual, not physical. Otherwise, some of those first century believers would still be with us today.
Notice too that Jesus' response silenced Martha's complaint! Real life was not a matter of the flesh, but knowing Him. Lazarus was physically dead but as a believer he was about to receive life in the grave - real life. It was the life Paul longed for and yet he was content to delay his departure as long as God chose to use him in the proclamation of the gospel. Paul refers to this when he observed that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8).
Martha returned to town and privately told Mary Jesus had come. When Mary left the house, the mourners with her assumed she was going to weep at the tomb but instead she went to Jesus and repeated her sister's lament. Doesn't this surprise you? It should! We are familiar with Christ's previous stay with this family and how Martha busied herself in the kitchen while Mary learned at Jesus' feet. For her to confront Christ about not coming to heal Lazarus is most surprising. She should have known better. More than that, she was aware of the danger His presence in Judea represented to Him, but she was focused on her physical needs and not the big picture.
Their focus should have been on what was about to unfold in the life of their Master, not only for Lazarus, but for the two of them and all the world as well. His focus was on the spiritual, not the physical and their fuss over the death of Lazarus added insult to injury. Christ had said the whole incident was meant for glory to God, but He wasn't referring to the resurrection of Lazarus from the grave.
We've spent some time setting the context for the story. It is the end of Christ's ministry. The purpose of raising Lazarus is not to grant some special favor on the two sisters but to convict them of their unbelief (remember the centurion), and to set in motion the events which will lead to His own death.
Let's go back to the text.
When Jesus saw Mary and the mourners, we read His reaction in verse 33, "he groaned in the spirit," and "was troubled..." (KJV). The popular view says His compassion for their loss caused His distress and seeing the tomb caused Him to lose it and weep. Though many commentators share this view, others do not, and for reasons you
should find interesting.
Spend some time with the words in verse 33 and look up "groaned" and "troubled." Here's what you'll find. "Groaned" is from Strong's number 1690: embrimaomai (em-brim-ah'-om-ahee) which means to snort with anger, to have indignation on, murmur against etc. At its root, it has the idea of snorting in disgust! This is not a word of compassion!
Neither is "troubled!" It comes from Strong's number 5015. tarasso (tar-as'-so) meaning agitated. One commentator attempting to soften the impact of this verse suggested that Jesus is angry at Satan for taking Lazarus but the text is clearly wanting of any such suggestion. God took Lazarus to create the occasion whereby the earthly
ministry of Christ would come to an end so that His life would shortly come to be manifest in them all.
It wasn't what they were looking for, but it was what He had come to Judea to bring "at just the right time." Nevertheless, He did physically raise Lazarus and the picture would almost comical if it were not so tragic.
What is it that binds Lazarus? Right, grave clothes. What is the status of those bindings? Right, they are unclean, and according to Leviticus 22 anyone who touched such things became unclean. Have you ever thought of this picture in those terms? Here is resurrected Lazarus bound by that which was unclean and he is resurrected defiled!
To further understand the tragic nature of his resurrection consider where he was prior to Christ calling him from the grave. He had been in Abraham's Bosom awaiting the resurrection of righteousness which would have soon delivered him from death and hades. Now he is forced to return to the world unclean and await redemption with the living, and he begins his resurrected life defiled. Can you see just how tragic this picture is from Christ's perspective?
The Jews who were mourning witnessed Christ weeping and commented how much He must have loved Lazarus. We need to understand that many of these were probably paid mourners and some may not have even known the deceased. That they recognize His grief as genuine is of great significance. Make no mistake, Christ loved Lazarus and his sisters, but He was not weeping over the death of His friend, but their unbelief. He was weeping because of their focus on the physical at the very time He was about to deal with the spiritual.
Finally, consider this. What do we know about anyone in scripture who was physically raised from the dead? Very little. Matthew 27 tells us that many of the righteous dead were resurrected following Christ's resurrection and went into Jerusalem and were seen by many. Where are their stories? Don't you know if that happened today Paul Crouch would have them on satellite for worldwide viewing and making a big deal of their resurrection? What do the gospel writers have to say? Nothing!
If the physical resurrection was so important, why is nothing made of it? It was only a sign of Christ's power over sin and death and that purpose was served completely by the time the consummation came in A.D. 70.
What does scripture tell us about Lazarus after he was raised? Only John 12 mentions him again and we don't hear a word from him. We only learn that the Jews want to kill him too because so many are believing because of his resurrection. Lazarus has become a target for death because of his physical resurrection. Can we imagine for a moment having been in Abraham's Bosom and hearing the words "come forth?" Can we say that would have really excited us? I don't think so. Lazarus was obedient to the will of the Father, but his physical resurrection looks a lot different from his perspective.
The scripture only makes a big deal of of one physical resurrection and that was of Him who said, "I AM the resurrection and the life...." While many believed, the masses did not and were destroyed. Jesus challenged Martha with, "Do you believe this?" What about us? Do we believe Jesus did what He came to do?
If we believe we have life and will never die, then our lives testify His work has been completed. How is it then so many who claim life eternal deny the consummation of the ages which has given us that life in His name?
May Christ not be found weeping over our ignorance and unbelief.
Jim
www.eschatology101.com"
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Average Score: 5
Votes: 1
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Re: Another Look at John 11... Time and Space (Score: 1)
 by chrisliv on Saturday, February 28 @ 00:20:43 PST
(User Info | Send a Message) | Yeah,
Your article touched on an important theme.
Martha was a linear-thinker, and didn't understand that she was in the presence of the Lord of Life, and that He, even while accepting the limitations of a true human being, was able to do things beyond a linear-time-sequence, like raise Lazarus, physically, for demonstration purposes as a clue to His own upcoming resurrection.
But they were clueless.
The centurion, on the other hand, was NOT a spacially-limited thinker. He recognized Christ's authority and apparently sensed that His abilities were unbounded by spacial distance. It's clear that this particular centurion was a friend to the Jewish nation, and had more than a passing knowledge of the God of Israel.
So, the faith of the centurion was a shame to the Jews.
Much like Martha, I think futurists and preterist can both get too caught-up in linear-thinking.
Preterists are linear in a way that causes them to want to limit God the Holy Spirit from interacting with believers in a personal and supernatural way, and there are other things they say that God no longer ordains beyond 70 AD.
And, we know how linear futurists are in their thinking about The State of Israel, The Second Coming, The Tribulation, The "666" Boogyman, and The 1000 Year Reign of Christ. All things that are out there, in the future... waiting to happen... So, those futurist church goers are often told to follow Caesar and the State until Jesus comes back, and then Peace on Earth will be possible.
Personally, I think God doesn't interact very much with humanity in a generous way, at least not in North America. Not that He doesn't want, but because, like Martha, most state-incorporated church goers don't think He's supposed to at this time in Life, because they're told not to.
Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone
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- by Sam on Monday, March 01 @ 05:41:26 PST
- by chrisliv on Monday, March 01 @ 09:32:29 PST
Re: Another Look at John 11 (Score: 1)
 by Imjustanant on Saturday, February 28 @ 14:42:53 PST
(User Info | Send a Message) | "The Jews who were mourning witnessed Christ weeping and commented how much He must have loved Lazarus...That they recognize His grief as genuine is of great significance. Make no mistake, Christ loved Lazarus and his sisters, but He was not weeping over the death of His friend, but their unbelief. He was weeping because of their focus on the physical at the very time He was about to deal with the spiritual."
Thanks, Jim.
The Lord opened my eyes wider through your article.
The beauty and tragedy pulled me to tears. Lazarus, got a bum rap having to come back to this sin sickened world. In my selfishness, I'd have begged not to return. |
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- by Apollos on Sunday, February 29 @ 05:38:34 PST
Re: Another Look at John 11 (Score: 1)
by FollowJesus on Sunday, February 29 @ 06:19:50 PST
(User Info | Send a Message) | | I agree 100% with your understanding of this story retold in the Gospel! Of course Jesus was trying to show the Spiritual Resurrection! The death clothe over Lazarus shows us the death clothe we are all shrouded in until Christ "unveils" our eyes and gives us the New Life and Sight INTO HIMSELF, and His Truth by His Spirit that leads us into all of HIMSELF as our heaven and new earth (flesh and life on earth)! We cannot understand these Scriptures by the old mind/old life of the flesh, but when we read scripture we must "see" by His Spirit that "speaks" of His Life and Truth. Don't know if I am able to express this well, but I am so very glad to see that others (yourself) have read and seen the Scripture story as Spirit and Life...for The LORD GOD of Hosts HAS TO BE WORSHIPPED In Spirit and In Truth for HE IS!!! Hallelujah! :) |
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Re: Another Look at John 11... The Upside (Score: 1)
by chrisliv on Thursday, March 04 @ 09:24:02 PST
(User Info | Send a Message) | Well,
On the upside, the raising of Lazarus sure rocked the foundations of Jerusalem. And that was undoubtly Jesus' primary intention.
Peace,
Christian |
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- by Apollos on Friday, March 05 @ 05:31:29 PST
- by chrisliv on Friday, March 05 @ 11:32:29 PST
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