John 11:1-7, 11-15, 18-27, 32-44 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2This Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was the same Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair.
3So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, saying, “Lord, the one you love is sick!”
4When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness is not going to result in death, but it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed in the place where he was two more days.
7Then afterwards he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
11He said this and then told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”
12Then the disciples said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.”
13Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they thought he was merely talking about ordinary sleep. 14So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15And I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
18Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. 19Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.
20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary was sitting in the house.
21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day.”
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. 26And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish. Do you believe this?”
27“Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
32When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.
34He asked, “Where have you laid him?”
They told him, “Lord, come and see.”
35Jesus wept.
36Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39“Take away the stone,” he said.
Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.”
40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone.
Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.”
We like to imagine that we would want to know the time, place, and way are going to die. But would you really want to know that information? What would you do with it? If you knew you’re going to live until you’re 102 and die of a heart attack on a Thursday at 2:45 pm, would you become complacent in your faith? Would you ignore praying and skip church until a week before your heart attack, and only then get serious about your faith?
Or if you knew you were going to die from cancer after years of chemo and radiation treatment, wasting away and feeling like a burden to your family and friends, would you sink into a deep depression?
There is definitely divine wisdom in not knowing the time, place, or manner that God uses to take us home to heaven. Our faith probably isn’t strong enough for that kind of information.
Yet, Jesus knew about the date, location, and manner of his death. Isn’t that astounding?! Jesus knew exactly what lay ahead of him as he took his final steps. Every twist; every turn; every plot of his enemies; every hateful word thrown his way; every lash of the whip; every tortured breath he would take on Calvary’s cross. Through the lens of his divinity, Jesus could see that his path ahead would lead to the most horrific pain and hellish agony. Yet Jesus took his final steps. Why? Because selfless love for his fallen creation moved his steps forward.
This Lenten season we are on what I hope is a memorable pilgrimage of faith as we watch our Savior take his final steps. This evening we examine the event that became the catalyst for our Savior’s final steps. Jesus’ miracle of raising Lazarus from the tomb sets the stage for God’s gracious plan to be completed: at the precise time the Lord had set from eternity, in the exact place the Lord had prophesied, and in the very way the Lord had planned it. Tonight, we see how Jesus’ final steps led to a tomb.
Jesus knew exactly what he was getting into by going to Bethany, the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The village was only 2 miles from Jerusalem, the headquarters for all the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus’ enemies had been dogging his every step for three years, watching, waiting, and hoping for Jesus to make a mistake. Perhaps words they could rip out of context; maybe a teaching they could twist to be in conflict with God’s teaching; or a miracle performed on the Sabbath. Something, anything they could use to discredit him, or even worse, put him on trial and convict him for blasphemy - with the sentence being death.
Yet there was no misstep, not a single word that could be used against Jesus. And then when his enemies grew so desperate that they were about to take our Savior by force, he “eluded their grasp” and withdrew back across the Jordan River, somewhere remote, somewhere out of the reach of his enemies (John 10:39).
But now Jesus’ set time was approaching. His appointment with the cross was at hand. Mary and Martha sent word, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” Have you felt the pain that death brings? (One of the saddest images in my memory is one of my girls crying holding our dog before the pet was taken to the vet to be put to sleep.) Have you lain awake at night listening to machines pumping air in and out of your lungs? Have you watched sickness corrode and atrophy the body of your loved one? Have you held his hand or her head as life slowly ebbed away? That’s the way Mary and Martha felt about their brother, Lazarus.
Jesus heard the news about Lazarus and … he waited. John shares this insight: “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed in the place where he was two more days. Then afterwards he said to his disciples, ‘Let’s go back to Judea.’”
Why wait two more days? “So that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” So that Jesus could tell his disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.” So, the disciples could respond, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” Then Jesus could patiently explain, “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Have you ever noticed that we’re not always much help when it comes to grieving? How often don’t we say things like, “I’m sorry.” “If you need anything, I’m here for you.” “Here’s a casserole.” Often when we see someone grieving, we either leave them alone or force them to move along too quickly. We may not be much help to the grieving, but Jesus certainly is. You see, if God is anywhere, he is in the face of death.
So, the Son of God goes to face death head on. Jesus waited two days before he took these final steps to Bethany because he knew what needed to be done for two grieving sisters, surrounded by friends who joined them in their mourning. Martha met Jesus on the road and broke our Savior’s heart with her words, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Jesus knew she needed to hear him say, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha realized Jesus was talking about Judgment Day. She heard the words we hear when we stand in cemeteries next to the caskets of our loved ones as the pastor takes some dirt and sprinkles it on the casket saying, “Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, earth to earth.”
Death has hounded mankind since the Garden of Eden and caused misery that God never intended for his children. When Jesus saw the effects of death on his loved ones, he wept with them, but also promised them that one day even this last enemy would be defeated. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish. Do you believe this?”
Jesus knows what he must do. He had to take the next steps – to the tomb, to a cave with a stone rolled against it. Martha takes Jesus to the cemetery where her brother is entombed. Jesus wants the stone rolled away and the grave opened. Remember, it is the fourth day, so Martha objects that the decaying flesh would smell too bad. Jesus replies, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” When Jesus finished his prayer, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” He who called planets into existence and breathed life into man, called Lazarus back from the dead and gave him once more the breath of life.
Lazarus had no choice. He came out. Lazarus’ response to the command of Christ stirs the heart of every Christian who has stared at the ugly face of death – the dead man came out.
Jesus took his final steps to a tomb that needed to be emptied for Mary and Martha, two grieving sisters who miraculously got their brother back. He took those steps for Lazarus who from then on knew from experience how the Lord could indeed make all things work together for good (Romans 8:28)! Jesus took those steps for his disciples, the men who were eyewitnesses of the Savior’s power and glory, the same men he commissioned to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)!
And Jesus took those final steps for us and for our faith! We need his words, “I am the resurrection and the life.” We need to hear Jesus’ shout, “Lazarus, come out!” We need to see the man who had been dead for four days come out of the grave.
Here is our proof that nothing is impossible with God. Here is our proof that the apostle Paul’s shout of triumph is forever true: “Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).
What happened at that Bethany cemetery is a prelude to what would happen in a few weeks in a Jerusalem cemetery. Jesus’ borrowed tomb was opened by the angel to show that Jesus was already gone. Jesus walked out of his own grave – alive. This is a prelude to what will happen to us on the Last Day when our graves are opened and we are called from our tombs. “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
When God speaks … people come out of their graves. They have no choice.
How comforting for you and me that our Savior’s final steps led to a tomb.
A few moments ago, I mentioned how Jesus’ enemies had been trailing him wherever he went, always hoping Jesus would say or do something they could use against him. They couldn’t find anything.
Then this business with Lazarus happened! This was the greatest of Jesus’ miracles up to that time. According to Jewish thinking recorded in the Talmud – a collection of writings that covered the full gamut of Jewish laws and traditions - the Jews were convinced that the human soul hovers around the body for three days after death. For three days the soul is lost and confused, hoping, and waiting to be reunited with the body in life. But only three days. After that, the soul is taken home to the Lord, and a resurrection can no longer happen.
Now do you see why Jesus waited two days before going to Bethany? Why he made sure that four days had passed since Lazarus had died? News of this miracle spread instantly, everywhere, like wildfire! The raising of Lazarus from the dead became the catalyst that caused the last stage of God’s plan of grace to be set into motion. John informs us, “From that day on they plotted to kill him” (John 11:53).
Jesus’ final steps led him to a tomb that needed to be emptied. Emptied so that the hatred of his enemies would boil over into an insane, diabolical plot to capture him, illegally try him during the night, and then crucify him on Calvary’s center cross. All this would happen on Passover, the time God had set from eternity for his Lamb to die for you and me.
We don’t really want to know when, where, or how we’re going to die, do we? But Jesus does. He knows when your time will come, too. That’s why he took his final steps. So that he can resolutely take his final steps to the cross. He will intrude on the enemy’s turf. He will enter Satan’s territory – the valley of death. He will be able to smell the sulfuric residue of the ex-angel. He will cry out in agony, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He will cry out in victory, “It is finished!” As he breathes his last, he will step down to crush the Ancient Serpent’s head under his bloody heel. The words he spoke loudly at Lazarus’ tomb will echo from his tomb on Easter morning, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Amen.