Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live; and every one who lives and believes into Me shall by no means die forever. Do you believe this?
John 11:25-26
The shortest verse in the bible is John 11:35, which simply says, “Jesus wept”. Now with a superficial understanding of chapter 11, the book of John, and even the character of our Lord we might quickly assign His weeping to sadness at the death of Lazarus. This is an easy bridge to build since many of us who have lost a loved one feel this same type of sadness at their death. However, if we are willing take one step forward at understanding the context of this verse while simultaneously taking a giant step back out of our subjectivity, then two things could happen. Firstly, we begin to realize that we can no longer project our own feeling on the Lord; forcing Him into our view of life, death and the feelings associated with it. Lastly, a new definition, new vision and even new experience of resurrection comes into view. We begin to see the reality of resurrection; that resurrection isn’t a thing or even inevitably an event; but a person!
Throughout the gospels there are many times the bible uses the expression, “moved with compassion”. One example, and one of my personal favorites, is found in Luke where the Lord is coming to a city called Nain. As soon as He enters through the gate of the city, He runs into a funeral procession for a young man who had recently died. He was the only son of a woman, who had already lost her husband, meaning she was also a widow. It was at the moment “when the Lord saw her” that He was moved with compassion and I can’t begin to summon a visualization of the fissured heart displayed in her face, in her eyes. While I too have some familiarity with loss, it fails in comparison to this type of experience. Either way, it was not only able to be seen, but commiserated and experienced by the man of sorrows to a degree that with two actions and ten words He comforted the woman, stopped the funeral, and raised the young man from the dead (Luke 7:11-17)! How easy then when speaking about someone, even a family, that the Lord knew and loved, to overlay and assign this similar feeling to His weeping?
Unfortunately, we do this all too often. Because of either our pattern building brain, laziness, convenience, or inappropriately placed trust in others, we know a story; but not necessarily the word. Or if we do search the scriptures, because we think that in them, we have eternal life, we still might not be willing to come to Him (John 5:39-40). Don’t believe me? Then let me ask you a question. How many magi visited the Lord and gave him gifts? Where did this visit happen? If you said that there were three kings that visited the Lord at His nativity (birth) in the manger, then like most people you would be incorrect three times over. The bible doesn’t give the number of magi, it doesn’t say they were kings and while some shepherds certainly “came in haste and found…. the baby lying in the manger” (Luke 2:16), the magi arrived to see the Lord much later and, in a house (Matt. 2:11). Yet almost every representation of a nativity scene I’ve ever seen shows the magi there; even establishing a “holy day” only 12 days (Jan 6) following the supposed day the Lord was born, called Three Kings Day. This and tens or even hundreds of other examples could be given to show our conceptual conflicts of interest with the word. Now if you don’t believe the bible is the infallible word of God, or you are not a believer, and or you have no desire to know the God in whom your salvation and hope of glory rests; then maybe it doesn’t matter. However, if you do…. then I believe does…. The more we know the objective truth in the word, and to the degree we know the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord is to the degree to which we can count all of our concepts, opinions, projections and self-centered views as loss, in order that we might gain Him (Phil. 3:8).
Now, let’s turn back to Jesus wept, and why it had absolutely nothing to do with him “being sad”. The Greek word used in this verse, “dakruo” (Strong’s 1145), is only used once in the bible and means to “shed tears silently”. Also, no where in the chapter can we find that wonderful phrase “moved with compassion”, but we do find another expression of His motivation. Twice, and bookended around our verse in question, it says He was “moved with indignation” (John 11:33, 38). Right after we also have a small warning flag raised by the religious Jews of that time speaking the same misconception – “The Jews then said, Behold how He loved him!” (John 11:36), i.e. He is weeping because He is saddened at Lazarus’ death because He loved him. However, many times over we are shown that the Jews during that time didn’t have the best discernment of who the Lord was and what He was thinking; this should be another indicator that Jesus didn’t weep because he was “sad” that Lazarus died or even simply because of the pain that those around were going through. Ask yourself this, why would He be sad if He was about to raise Him from the dead? Ask yourself, why would He be sad if He specifically made the decision to remain where He was for two additional days after hearing that Lazarus was sick (John 11:4-6)? The Lord wasn’t saddened by the death of Lazarus, yet He was in deep anguish and even exasperated to the point of shedding tears. The Lord wasn’t saddened by the situation, He was “moved with indignation” because everyone, even His followers, believed more in what they saw, in what they thought, and in the situation rather than in Him and what He said. The Lord wasn’t weeping because of the belief in human death but because the lack of belief in eternal life! Oh, how full of unbelief we as His own followers, His own “believers” might be! We all are Peter’s, within the very same chapter of our lives we can be up on a mountain, witnessing the face of our Lord shining like the sun and hearing a voice saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!” (Matt. 17:1-5). We become the personal witnesses and believers that this Jesus, who has been transfigured before our eyes is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, but we always seem to come down that mountain. We always seem to get “taxed” by our fallen concepts. We always seem to allow the questions that come from within and without to change our view of Him, and with a greater trust in our environment and a speed of thought and speech that follow, we say, “Yes” that our Lord is required to “pay the temple tax”, even though He is exempt as the king, which He just proved to us that He was! Now while the word says that the very first fish that Peter took up contained the required money to not stumble them, I am scared to wonder how many hours he had to fish in order learn that lesson (Matt. 17:24-27).
In John 11 it was a similar situation, yet exponentially more frustrating. From the very beginning and throughout the entire chapter the Lord ran into human and conceptual barriers. It’s as if without ever even asking the question, He was told the number of magi there were and that they were at the manger. Firstly, it was our beloved doubting Thomas, who more fearful of losing his own life than the Lord’s or raising Lazarus’ made the passive aggressive comment “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16). This him is Lazarus. He wasn’t saying that he was willing to go with the Lord and die with the Lord because of the Jews that were seeking to stone the Lord. He was expressing in an offhand comment the stupidity of the idea of going to Lazarus because the only result that could be accomplished is that they also would become like Lazarus, dead. Then when the Lord arrived, Lazarus’ sister Martha went to meet the Lord. I always wondered if no word was spoken, if no one ever stepped in front of the path of the Lord, if the entire chapter wouldn’t be a whole lot shorter? Would the Lord have simply walked unabated to the tomb and said those three marvelous words, “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43)? The Lord tells Martha that her brother will rise again, to which she replies, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection (event) in the last day (John 11:24). The Lord then instantly says, I am the resurrection and the life (person), culminating in a question of belief to which she seemingly doesn’t even answer. It’s almost as if she answered the Lord’s question based on her concept of the situation or even subjective determination of His question (John 11:25-27). After which, she calls her sister Mary, even potentially telling her that the Lord was calling her, out of a belief that the word doesn’t tell us He ever uttered (The word doesn’t tell us that the Lord called for Mary). And where did Mary find the Lord? He was “still in the place where Martha met Him”. Or could we say He was still in the place where Martha left Him! Or could we say He is still in the conceptual box that we put Him in based on our view of Him, thereby limiting Him from bringing resurrection life to the current tomb of our lives? Either way Mary comes, and while maybe in a pure or more innocent way still projects a theory upon him by saying “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:32). So regardless if our notion comes out of innocent ignorance or stupid confidence; they both have the same effect. They both actively prevent the Lord, albeit only for a certain amount of time since who can withstand God Himself, from doing what He does and being what He is – Resurrection!
Now before the Lord can levy the final blow to death, two final and climaxing attitude assaults are hurled at Him like a boxer’s one-two punch. The first, the jab, is thrown by those very same religionists who essentially asked why the Lord didn’t simply prevent Lazarus from dying; since He could restore a blind person (John 11:37). The second, the right cross, thrown my Martha, who comes out of nowhere with “Lord, by now he smells” (John 11:39). To which the Lord seemingly worn out from the constant barrage of earthly estimations asks again, Did I not tell you that if you believe……? But overcoming it all, the Lord raises Lazarus, proving in the briefest of times the prophecy that He said concerning Himself, probably not more than a few minutes ago – I am the resurrection! After all the talk had finally stopped, He proved that where He is there also is resurrection life. So, the question now becomes, what about us? What is our view? What is our concept of “the” resurrection? Do we, like Martha, answer the same way and consider resurrection to only be an event and only in the future? Maybe we might even think it’s better to die in order to be resurrected first? Now, I don’t want you to think that I say this to be controversial, or worse, to be heretical. Since, yes, the bible in many places speaks about resurrection in such a way (and even time). However, the Lord Himself, the one in whom all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell (Col. 1:19, 2:9), the one who had the authority to not only lay His life down but to pick it up again (John 10:18), and the one who has neither beginning of days nor end of life (Heb. 7:3) directly challenged Martha’s statement on resurrection. It’s almost as if He wanted to add an eternal view of Himself as resurrection, one not bound by space and time. In many places the word clearly tells us that we have already been resurrected (Rom. 6:4, Eph. 2:6, Col. 2:12), but is this your experience?
The reality of resurrection is the foundation and cornerstone to our Christian faith. When we repent, believe into the Lord, confess that He is the Son of God and are baptized into His name then the exact same experience in John 11 happens to us in the most mysterious and hidden way. Because the Lord went through the experiences that He did and Himself was resurrected; He now is not only ascended and living far above all and before the face of my God and yours. He also is the life-quickening Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), and the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). Wow, do you see this? The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17)! But freedom from what? 1 Cor. 15:26 says, Death, the last enemy is being abolished. Oh, my dear and genuine brothers and sisters in Christ, this is the reality of resurrection! Being! In process of! Currently existing and experiencing the abolishing of death! When you and when I believed in the Lord, we received that very person into us. The word tells us that indeed the Spirit of God dwells in us, that Christ is in us (Rom. 8:9-10, 1 Col. 1:27). The reason that you or I can have any hope of the future resurrection is because we have a taste of it today. Our salvation isn’t a thing. Our faith isn’t simply an “ability” to believe in something that is unseen, it is the real, living person of our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. The reason that God views you and I as righteous is because His Son now is in us and we now are in Him (1 Cor. 1:30). He has become the reality of our Passover where God is satisfied with the blood on the lintel and we are in the house, Christ! The reason that you are going to be “raised up in the last day” is because the only thing that is stronger than death now resides within the deepest part of your being, God! God hasn’t given you the ability to be resurrected, He has put the one with the authority to take up His own life inside of you! May the Lord save us from our limited, earthly, fallen, natural and narrow concepts. May He enlighten the eyes of our heart in order to see the real meaning, depth and nature of our salvation and what it means to confess the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. May we have a turned heart to Him so that the veils of our religion and tradition and even “stories” be taken away. May we be those that do not deprive the word of God of its authority in our lives due to the traditions of men. Lord save us from waiting to experience resurrection in the future to being “raised from our death sleep” every single morning. Cause the Spirit that dwells in our spirit to even give life to our mortal bodies. Lord, when the experience of death comes into our lives, our families, our marriages, our jobs, help us to shorten our Chapter 11 and get out of your way in order for You to bring in resurrection. How much we need Your mercy to pick up our cross, daily follow You, being conformed to Your death that we might also be in the likeness of Your resurrection.
COMING FORWARD 