John 11:1
A certain man. A man named Lazarus.
The Hebrew name for Lazarus was Elazar - The God who helps. His sisters call for Jesus - Joshua - God is salvation expecting both help and salvation to come immediately. They believe both are true. The believe Jesus is the embodiment of both. He is. But he waits. This story starts with the age old question: does God care? Does God actually help? Will God save? It is normally couched in terms of derision. If God can help why didn’t he help me (my mother, my child, my sister, my brother)? If God saves where is he when I need him? Here is a story that may as well play out thousands of times a day all across the world. And here is an answer. God loves these people. He loves them all. But he waits. Heaven waits while Lazarus dies. While all hope goes out of the situation heaven is silent. But the silence of heaven does not mean the disengagement of heaven or the impotence of heaven or the cluelessness of heaven. If we believe this story we can wait differently than Mary or Martha. We can wait with hope in the most hopeless of circumstances.
Bethany
House of affliction or house of dates. What a difference that would be! Which one is it? A house of dates would be a place where sweetness and fruitfulness abounds. A house of affliction would be the opposite. But here they lay on top of one another. This is where affliction and sweetness coexist. Disease and fever and rest and healing. The kingdom of heaven is a “both - and” kingdom, not an “either - or” kingdom.
John 11:2
That Mary
Am I that Ronnie? The one who… She was specific to Jesus, not a face in the crowd. She was the one with whom he’d had an interaction.
John 11:3
He whom you love
Isn’t it interesting that we’ve never heard of Lazarus before and he isn’t mentioned anywhere else yet Jesus knew him and loved him.
The sisters think that Jesus loves (phileo) Lazarus. They don’t say that he loves (agape) him. This is always the case with us and God. We don’t know how he really feels about us. We may think he likes us a lot or loves us like a brother - they loved their brother like this - but we aren’t sure he loves us regardless of our actions or our blood. Will he really give up everything for such as us? Agape is such a big word. Is Jesus big enough for it? Vs 5 tells us plainly: Jesus loved (agape) them.
John 11:4
For the glory of God
Another situation where Jesus says it isn’t what it appears to be. The man born blind is for the glory of God and so is Lazarus. We often have the same issue with glory that CS Lewis had with praise in the Psalms. Why does God need glory? Why is Jesus going to wait and let a man die so that God gains glory? In fact God is glory and cannot become more glorious than he already is. God has no deficit of glory and needs no glorification from men. The deficit is with men. We do not know how glorious God is - we don’t know the weight, the full measure of his renown. This event isn’t for men to give glory to God it is for God to give his glory to men. For the magnitude of the weight of his person to fall into a life - in this case for it to fall into this little pericope and move everything out of its way. Life is getting ready to fall in this little pond. Life so much more alive than death that it will wash it away like dirt on a child’s face. It will not be more difficult than Jesus calling out to the dead ears and the reverberations of his voice penetrating the deepest darkness of men. He will say this later to his followers, but he could if he wanted, speak to the rocks of the tomb itself and tell them to come alive and sing.
This story is every story. Jesus tells us where it will not end, but where will it go? This is where all stories must go; through death to glory. Everything moves around him and takes its new place. Knees bending. Death giving way to life.
We don’t see it. We need the glorification. And so Jesus will reveal exactly who God is in this situation. The end of the story isn’t death, it’s that many will believe (see and know and commit themselves to the ultimate reality of God).
John 11:5
The word the Spirit uses to describe Jesus’s relationship with the family is agape. The word they use is phileo - it is the word for brotherly or friend affection. Both words are translated as "love." This illustrates the limits of words to convey full meaning. Eskimos have many words for snow because it is so essentially part of their environment. There are nuances in their language to account for how they see and experience snow: qanik: snow falling, aputi: snow on the ground, aniu: snow used to make water, maujaq (nunavik): the snow in which one sinks, and many more. In the language of heaven there is AGAPE - the divine love, the needless love, the fully committed unrepentant love of God for man. It is the fountainhead of all other loves; the qanik snow that falls upon us so that there may be other forms of love on the ground.
John 11:6
Stayed two days
God doesn’t jump at our call. This makes God look bad. Why wait? Why let the sickness continue? Why not end the suffering? He might die. You better get moving. I want to work with God but I don’t work on this schedule. It doesn’t always look like God is doing what he should do when he should do it, but then again “should” only fits in his mouth. Being in right relationship with the Holy Spirit won’t keep you in step with the expectations of the world or your own close friends and family, it will only keep you in step with heaven. Death is not a problem for heaven, neither is suffering. Being misunderstood is also not a problem for heaven. God has his own purposes which are just as opaque to us as the purposes of a parent to a toddler.
John 11:7
Let's go
After two days Jesus says let’s go back to Judea. Once again we have no window into a period of time in Jesus’s life. What’s going on? Is he teaching lessons? Resting? Playing cards? All we get is this enigmatic announcement. He might have said nothing for two straight days for all we know and then he stands up and says “let’s go.” Is it significant that he doesn’t initially tell them the exact destination only says Judea? Maybe. Probably. Judea is dangerous, going there to raise a man from the dead is ridiculous. I could see how God might be getting them moving before he unloads the Lazarus bit. It’s hard to keep in mind on this side of events how scary and disorienting it would be to follow a man who incites so much hatred that people want to kill him. The disciples were probably enjoying their respite away from stuff like that. It’s no wonder the first thing they think about is their own skin (they remind Jesus about his skin but it’s the same thing). They aren’t worried about Lazarus dying they’re worried about dying themselves, and not from illness but from violence.
John 11:8
Fear parading as wisdom
This is a theme: fear will always provide the facts needed to sustain itself. To these guys avoiding Judea isn’t about fear, it’s the prudent thing to do. How many times do we hear this or something like it each day? It is purely eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Let’s assess the situation, come up with the thing that looks like it makes most sense and then do it. Jesus doesn’t stop and hold a conference on the pros and cons of going back to the place where people wanted to stone him. He listens to the Spirit and he moves. If we abide in him, we will have many discussions like this one. They are good for us not because of the information but because it helps us to see what tree we are eating from. Strangely enough the fear of death seems to be the primary reason people eat from the tree that brings it.
John 11:9
Jesus and non-sequiters
How did we get from sick people and angry people to a lesson about walking in light? Is God always playing chess while we play checkers? What is this about? They are questioning the wisdom of going into harm’s way and Jesus is explaining how he sees the world. He won’t stumble into death or injury. He knows where he is going. The way is not dark for him. The way is dark for them, for us, because we eat from the tree of knowledge. Jesus sees the way because he eats from the tree of life. Yes we are going to walk right back into the place where death threats and sickness unto death are waiting. But there’s a way through both of those and I can see it. Here’s some good news, just come with me and I will show you the way. Keep your eyes on me and you don’t have to worry about finding the way. I am the way.
John 11:10
“In”
The NIV leaves this word out. The man walking at night stumbles because he has no light in him - no naturally occurring light. He needs daylight or he needs a source of light. Jesus sets up a contrast here. He can walk in the day or he can walk in the dark, either way he won’t stumble because he always has light. One of the first things I have to do is confess that my light is not light. Only when I admit this - which only comes via revelation - do I have room for Jesus light. I can have light in me if I confess Jesus. Then I can walk without stumbling all the time. This will never be something he gives me outside himself; this is not the phial of Galadriel. He is the light personally.
John 11:11
After
I never noticed this before. There are two stories going on here: the Lazarus story and the Disciple story. The teaching about light and darkness comes up because of their fears relates to travel. Jesus is getting ready to go and raise a man from the dead, but his disciples are afraid of getting stoned. He stops and teaches them a lesson. He has time for them. Raising Lazarus from the dead is not more important than telling these guys how to walk in the light.
Asleep
Death is no more than sleep to Jesus. It’s no more strenuous for him to raise Lazarus from the dead than it would be for a mom to rouse a child from a nap. He shows us this here and in the case of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5) when he says “talitha koum” little girl wake up.
Breathing the air in both places is a function of the Spirit.
Hints they missed:
Notice how they never asked how Jesus could possibly know this bit of information?
Why does it take the messiah to wake up a sleeping man?
John 11:12
If he sleeps
This is the natural mind doing what it does. This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We could even say this is knowledge given by God (Jesus) to men which they misunderstand and misinterpret because they don’t know they’re talking to God. It’s no good to take Jesus words and disconnect them from Jesus or to take Jesus words and connect them to our judgments. We never know what Jesus is saying unless Jesus tells us what he is saying. We need the Spirit to interpret the Bible. We need the Spirit to interpret dreams and visions. We need to wait half a best before we jump to our own conclusions or we will never get it right.
John 11:13
Jesus…they thought
I can’t hear Jesus words without Jesus explanations. My thinking is faulty on the best day with my highest level of insight. Jesus talks about death and sleep as one thing and I can never do that.
John 11:14
Plainly
Jesus please speak plainly to me. Yes? Is this what we want? Why doesn’t he do this all the time? This group gets clear messages and everyone else gets parables. Maybe we don’t want plain speech from Jesus as much as we think we do. He says things like this. Lazarus is dead. When Jesus says something it ends debate. He isn’t resting or recovering, he’s dead. I don’t know if I wanted to know this. Don’t know if I was ready for it. Now I’ve got a lot to deal with. A beloved friend is sick. We wait around and do nothing for two days and now he’s dead. What were you waiting for, Jesus? Plain speech isn’t warm and fuzzy with Christ. Christ words are never platitudes. They are as hard and sharp as steel blades. Be sure you want him to speak plainly before you ask for it. And perhaps we don’t want it and that’s why so many people say they can’t hear him…
John 11:15
For your sake
What? How about for Lazarus? Mary? Martha? Does Jesus mean this? These guys have already witnessed a ton of miracles but Jesus says the Lazarus project is for them so that they can believe. What’s really bad about this is that they won’t. They’ll still run away. They’ll still deny. They’ll still betray him. You can tell the confidence they have in him by Thomas’s remark in the very next verse - he’s going to get himself killed in Bethany but let’s go and die with him. Jesus isn’t going to raise anyone from the dead, he’s going to die. Is this Jesus teachable moment about Lazarus or about resurrection itself? They obviously don’t believe he’s going to raise anyone from the dead. Who believes anyone could do that? Maybe it’s priming the pump for the big resurrection problem of seeing Jesus come back from the grave. It’s for their sake so they have some context to believe when Jesus shows up alive after they see him die.
I also think that some times the disciples are standing in for all of us. The “you” in this case isn’t just the twelve, but me. “I’m glad I wasn’t there so that the world would come to see and believe I am the Christ.”
John 11:16
Die with him
Thomas, like all the other doubters, is not going to die with Jesus. Not now, not later. But he echos the thoughts that many of Jesus’s followers have had through the ages. It is John 6:68 playing itself out. We no longer have options once we come this far. I don’t want to go back to Bethany but I’ve got to go where you go. I may fail when I get there but I’m still stuck with you Jesus.
John 11:17
Jesus arrived
Jesus found
Whenever Jesus arrives he is on time. He finds (this is a study all by itself) Lazarus 4 days dead but this is on time. Death and divorce and disease don’t set heaven’s clock. I love the words themselves: Jesus arrives. They called for him and waited but we call for him and he’s already here. We have a once arrival and a never departure. Who is in better shape the disciples who walked the earth with Jesus or us who walk the earth with his Spirit? Jesus arrived. It is full of possibilities. Now that Jesus is here what might happen? Even the people who knew him the best did not comprehend how this arrival might change things. They had no context. They were on the wrong side of their own Red Sea. No one ever arrived with the way through this difficulty before Jesus arrived. The only way forward from here would be another day and Lazarus would be five days dead. That’s what they would find. That’s what Jesus would find next.
Can I believe that when I arrive with the Spirit of Christ there is a way through anything we find?
John 11:18
Less than two miles
This location is going to turn out to be very important. If you were writing a story and wanted it to get attention you wouldn’t want it to be set in Nazareth or Bethlehem or Bethel. It would be like launching your new high end line of cosmetics or clothes in Petersburg instead of Richmond - or if your a snob about such things - in Richmond instead of Manhattan. Why is Bethel the place? Who knows? God works in places like this all the time. It’s the same as the previous verse: Jesus arrived. When he arrived it was the right time; where he arrived was the right place. That’s it. Later we get word that Bethel’s proximity to Jerusalem is the reason a lot of people hear about the Lazarus story, but that’s not really a good point is it? Jesus could have done this in the center of that city and no one would have to wander out into the suburbs to see if it was true. The fact that people end up doing that is only important to show that God works wherever he wants to work and it’s us who have to go and look for it.
John 11:19
Many Jews
So why are there many Jews who want to comfort Mary and Martha? Are they super well known? Is Lazarus well known? And why is it put this way: many Jews? As far as we know, these people would not be very acceptable to the “in” crowd - the “religious” crowd. Isn’t Mary a prostitute who pulls down her hair in public and scandalizes Jesus’s dinner companions? I think it’s reasonable to believe this family is a curiosity because of their connection to Jesus. The discussions that follow lend themselves to this idea. Did they come out to see them because they really wanted to comfort them or because they wanted to see if Jesus would show up or because they were curious about people who knew Jesus so well suffering such a catastrophic loss? Probably there was a mixture of things going on as in every crowd.
Which would I be? I might go out of a sense of duty if I was close enough to the family. But I’m not going to be around death if I don’t have to be. But if Jesus is involved I might be curious to see what he would do at a funeral; especially the funeral of someone he loved.
*additional thought: why is it the author emphasizes the identity of the people who came to mourn? Why not just say “a whole bunch of people came”? For some reason throughout this gospel the Jews are called out and nailed down. Maybe it’s because John is the only gospel author who is writing to gentiles and he feels the need to do this. But it is a feature worth exploring.
John 11:20
Martha and Mary hear
The two sisters react differently to the arrival of Jesus. Martha is a doer and reacts like a doer - she’s going to move and meet Jesus head on in a confrontation. Mary is a feeler and stays where she is. Everyone reacts to Jesus differently and we aren’t in a position to tell them how they should react or when they should go to him. We have to let people come to him on their own terms or they don’t really come to him at all. This is true no matter how much we want them to come to Jesus or how much we think Jesus may be offended by their lack of attention. Jesus knows Mary better than Martha does and Martha better than Mary does. The cool thing is that as different as they are, they both come to the same conclusion: Jesus was the savior, the one whose presence would have changed everything, and kept their brother alive. Now they will both find out they didn’t know him well enough.
John 11:21
If
We always miss the tone when we read. We have to fill it in whenever we read words on a page. It’s another reason we can’t read the Bible without the Spirit. What did Martha really say? We have the words but we don’t know. Was this an accusation? Where were you? Was it a flat statement of fact - like a statement of faith? I am fully convinced you were able to heal my brother if you’d have been here. Was it a cry of anguish? I’m undone because my brother is dead. Angry? Sorrowful? Maybe it was even full of hope and possibilities. This is fascinating because here we have someone Jesus loved and knew and who loved and knew him. This is no Pharisee or scribe coming to him with another test. This is someone who is as aware of Jesus’s true identity as anyone on earth. And she’s a doer. I’m almost sure the tone here must be a challenge at least. Possibly angry but also asking. Is this it? Are you going to let this be the end of the story?
Martha and Mary after her both level this accusation at Jesus. They know him. They love him. But they don’t know how well he knows them and loves them. A centurion has more raw faith in Jesus than these two sisters. His servant is sick, suffering, and about to die (Matthew 8 and Luke 7) and he sends for Jesus like the sisters. But he believes something they fail to grasp. He says Jesus doesn’t need to move a muscle to heal. Just say the word from right where you are and it will be done. Jesus says this faith is unlike any he’s seen in Israel and here is evidence of that statement. It’s actually always been this way. The pagans are more likely to throw their faith upon Jesus. Those how know God struggle with what God is (or is not) doing. The name Israel itself means “struggles with God.” Jesus is here now to blow up what Martha and Israel believe about God. To show them they think too small. To call them into pagan faith; cut loose from their too small expectations of who God is and what he can do.
John 11:22
Even now
So now we know a little more about what the tone of Martha was in v21. Wow, who talks to Jesus like this in all of scripture? Who has this kind of revelation? This is a doer with the Spirit of God in the center. Let’s go and charge hell with a water pistol. Jesus can do anything. Martha knows it. She doesn’t say “I think” or “I hope” she says “I know” (also could be translated, see or perceive or comprehend). Is there a piece still missing for her though? She might have made the connection that Jesus is connected to God like an Old Testament prophet of her Bible, or even the predicted messiah, but does she see that he is God? How far can she see? Thomas doesn’t make it until after a more astounding resurrection - Jesus himself raised from the grave (John 20:28) when he declares “my lord and my God.”
And still we are not sure what Martha sounds like. The statement is bold enough. Is it “and please ask the father to give me my brother back”? Do we ever know exactly what God wants to do? All we can say is we know God is good and then we ask him for what we think is good. Lazarus coming back to life may not be a good thing; we don’t know until Jesus does it. It is only good because Jesus does it.
John 11:23
Jesus said
We never know what Jesus is saying fully. Right here and now is he talking about what’s going to happen in the next ten minutes? Or the next life? Or both? Maybe even more than both or either. I need help to hear Jesus well and to respond. Perhaps I need more than anything just to stay with Jesus and let whatever comes come and not get so focused on what he says. Ok. My brother will rise. Cool. What do you want to do right now, Jesus? Go to the grave? Go see my sister? Stay here and talk? Whatever you want to do is what I want to do. Resting this completely is not possible without you Holy Spirit dwelling in me. Otherwise I’m too focused on what you might be saying and I miss just being with you.
John 11:24
I know
Martha actually says “I perceive” or “I see.” When you are talking to God you are talking to the person who is sight. He is the only one who sees and you can only see in the light of his presence. All around us is darkness. Even the things every other person claims to be “enlightened” are not. Jesus is the only light. What Martha sees right here is something Jesus enlightened for her, but even this is only partially in the light. I think it’s ok to proclaim the things Jesus has revealed to us, but if we leave him and try to use his light without him, we will miss the deeper things. And there is always more. Holy Spirit you are the light come to live inside us. Help me keep from shading you. Keep my heart and mind seeing what you see.
John 11:25
I am
This may be the most outrageous thing you ever said or did. You are life. You are the life that stands up. The life that death cannot put down knock down or keep down. You intend to make these words into a picture no one will forget; and in a few moments you’ll do the pencil sketch of what it’s going to look like. Lazarus will die again after this sketch but when you rise it will be in full color and permanent. When you stand up death will die and life will reign.
John 11:26
Living and Dying
All who live believing in me don’t die. This seems like a better translation. Believing in Jesus isn’t like believing a fact. It is entering into the truth of who he is. Another way of saying this would be that no one is alive who doesn’t believe in Jesus. He is the doorway into life, not a mothers womb. No one comes alive without belief in Jesus. Is this right? Then when he says to Martha, do you believe? He is asking her: are you alive? Are you really and totally alive?
Compare this to the faith of the centurion for his servant. Jesus could have cured Lazarus from where he was put in the wilderness. These people who “believed” in, knew and loved Jesus did not have as much faith as the pagan Roman.
John 11:27
Yes Lord
How ridiculous is this? Lord? Master? Authority? Jesus is a carpenter from Nazareth. He has no education, no family, no claim of any name. Martha is also no one. Two no ones having a discussion about the life and death of all humanity in a suburb of an inconsequential city in a subdued nation on the edge of an empire. This may as well be a janitor and a prostitute in a suburb of Chong Ching at the height of the Japanese empire discussing how one is the Lord of all the earth and the other affirms it.
John 11:28
The Teacher is asking for you.
Is Mary skulking? Hiding? Angry? Sorrowful? She doesn’t come out to meet Jesus, The Teacher. Interesting that Martha calls him the Christ and then goes to her sister and calls him the Teacher. Why didn’t she go to Mary and say The Christ is here and he’s asking for you? Was that too much to say out loud to her sister? It’s easier to call him teacher than Christ. Maybe she was still getting used to the title. And maybe there were people around and it was less risky to use “teacher”.
Either way it’s amazing that the Christ is come to see to the affairs of these two sisters. Why does it merit his attention? And why does he seek out a woman who is snubbing him or pouting? Doesn’t this mitigate against so much Christian angst that we’ve somehow missed out on what God wanted to do for us by not paying attention or by ignoring him at a key juncture? God is the God who seeks after us and comes to our aid. These women and their brother are no different from the entire nation of Israel enslaved in Egypt. Their cries have come to the attention of God. He is sending a rescuer. Death is not going to hold its slave any more.
John 11:29
Heard what?
Martha went out when she heard Jesus was close. Mary didn’t go out until she heard Jesus asked after her. This reflects the nature of two different people who have two different relationships with Jesus. This doesn’t seem to be a problem for Jesus. But it’s always been a problem for the church which is always trying to make everyone into either a Mary or a Martha.
John 11:30
Jesus was still
The movements of God are a mystery to me. Why he stays one place for three days or 3 minutes is not clear. Why not follow Martha back to see Mary? He asks for her but he doesn’t move. What’s going on when Jesus lingers in this spot. We can’t just dismiss it. God is at work. Jesus tells us himself that his father is always working so he is always working. The Spirit halted him here in this in between place so he stays here. I want to be comfortable in the in between places and here I see that God is there too. It must be ok to be there if Jesus is there.
John 11:31
Supposing
People around us don’t know it when we are headed toward Jesus. They only have their own motives to judge our actions. We are the same. The only way we get inside information is from the Spirit. These people may know Mary very well and may have good intentions but when she responds to Jesus, they get it all wrong. She isn’t going to mourn, she’s going to the Master.
John 11:32
Repeat
What do we know about this? Mary and Martha are reported to have said the exact same thing upon meeting Jesus after the death of their brother. Martha adds an addendum about know even now Jesus can do anything. We could make a great deal of that addendum; make Martha into the virtuous sister, the faith filled sister, the bold sister. We know nothing but what the Spirit tells us beyond the words. We don’t see their faces, her hands. We don’t here the lilt in their voices. We miss all the important bits that make communication between us work; especially when we talk to friends and loved ones. All we know for certain is that two people suffering the loss of their loved one addressed Jesus initially with the same thought: the presence of Jesus would have stopped Lazarus from dying. And that in itself is a remarkable bit of information. They were both so convinced of Jesus’s love and power that they were confident he would have acted in their favor with all his power. Are we sure of this? What could happen to shake our confidence in this? That thing happened to these two women. It is a terrible thing to happen to anyone but if we are to see the full extent of Jesus’s love and power, we must pass through this moment ourselves.
John 11:33
When he saw
It’s one thing to see death and suffering as a God, it’s a completely different thing to see it as a man. If this doesn’t demonstrate the full humanity of Jesus nothing else does. This isn’t death from a distance. This is death up close. This is the death of a friend. There’s a scene in the movie Cocoon where alien beings of light hold one of their companions while they expire. The leader explains to the humans with him that this is something they’ve never experienced - the light beings never die. Jesus himself is going to experience this - actually the Father is going to experience it - at the cross. Something so un-godlike is going to happen there and it’s previewed here. The language is flawed in translation. Jesus is torn. The word means snorting with anger. He’s furious. He’s completely present in his present and feeling all of this. He doesn’t stuff it or defer it. He doesn’t excuse himself from the table and let the mere mortals drink this cup. He drinks it with them. He’s one of us. Can you feel the joy of resurrection without the sorrow of death? He can’t skip out on this and jump to the party that he’s going to initiate. This is a full dress rehearsal for gethsemane and Golgotha.
John 11:34
Where
Is this like the question in the Garden? Where are you Adam? You're hiding in the the living green garden. It is alive but you are dead. Now there is a man alive hidden in the dead stones. Does it matter where Lazarus is laid? Did Jesus need them to tell him or did they need to say it for their own sakes. Surely Jesus who healed the centurion’s servant from miles away didn’t need to call out from a certain perimeter of the tomb. Proximity isn’t important to him. Maybe it is for us. Maybe we need to go with Jesus to the place of death and acknowledge it in his presence. God called Adam out of the greenery and he was alive yet dead. Jesus called Lazarus out of the stones and he was dead yet still dead. God called the second Adam out of a garden tomb and he was dead yet alive and death was dead. Where is he? In a tomb. Where is Jesus? In paradise. The question is not mechanical, it is not part of the resurrection of a man. It is the question of all mankind. Where have you laid him? Will he stay there forever? These same women will be the first to the garden tomb. They will see the stone rolled away and remember this day. They will see the empty stone tomb and remember this day. It will engrave the reality of Jesus’s resurrection so deeply in them they will stand up to the doubts both inside an out. They will hear this question in their minds. They will know Jesus did for himself what he did for their brother.
Where have you laid him? It isn’t like Jesus needs the tomb’s coordinates like an artillery commander lining up his field piece. Point me in the right direction so I can shoot resurrection shells in the tomb. Did Jesus waste words? He says he only does and says what the Father tells him to say and do. God asks a question he knows the answer to. He knows where they’ve laid him. Do they know where they’ve laid him? Can you point to the spot where you laid your hope to rest? Where Jesus did not show up on time and the lights went out? Where did you lay him; where did you lay it down dead? Come and see, Lord. Lord. Majesty. All the power that spoke the worlds into being in this raggedy little Jew with dirty feet who has nothing at all attractive about him - just what Isaiah said he would be. Bring the veiled king to the closed tomb. This takes an effort. Some would resist this question. Some do even now. It’s your fault that my hope is in the ground. You’re late. Or you’re not God. If you were, why did you let this happen to us? I’m not going there with you Jesus.
But these did go. They invited him. Perhaps they only wanted his company in their mourning. What else could they expect? Dead people don’t come out of tombs. Red seas don’t part. Burning bushes just burn up. They answered when Jesus asked and that is all any of us can do. It’s all heaven asks of us. Let Jesus in and go wherever he goes, come what may.
John 11:35
Jesus wept.
The cross is not the cross without this verse. I know God loves me because of this verse. His blood dripping down a Roman cross is not more important to me than his tears dripping down his face. He dies as a man but here he cries as a God. I already knew men could bleed and die but who knew Gods cry? I see back through the prismatic tears into the Garden how our Father felt when his children chose knowledge over love. I see all the suffering and loss and what it cost us and what it will cost him. Separation. Is it possible God the Son sees what God the Father must go through when he dies? The breaking of eternal fellowship. It is like this moment. It is soon to pass. Three days and restoration. It isn’t the point. It is horrible this breaking of love by sin. If this doesn’t cause us to fall in love with Jesus I don’t know what will. Complete identification with our condition. Holding nothing behind his back. Feeling all we must feel. Not skipping over the grave to get to the celebration. No. He lets himself feel it all. Read this one day at my graveside and rejoice knowing our Jesus stood where we stand. He passed through it and we can too. Cry. Go ahead. It is the sweetener for the coming of life that stands on top of death putting a sword to its throat.
John 11:36
Loved
This is a place where the language fails. The word here is phileo - the brotherly love. Maybe that’s right. Maybe it is the brotherhood of humanity when Jesus cries. But is the love of Jesus ever just phileo? Isn’t everything he does rooted in agape? And who are “the Jews”? Are these hired mourners come to fill up the seats at the funeral? They see Jesus crying and call it love. They are right. Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus. But is that why he’s crying? And why does the story shift focus here from Mary and Martha and Jesus to the outsiders perspective of these nameless faceless Jews? Why Jews and why not crowd or family? This is an odd expression and it is out of place. It reminds me of the place where the disciples are locked away in an upper room for fear of “the Jews.” Is this who it is? The religious crowd that’s at the tomb because it is a religious obligation to sit shiva with the family? Then Jesus’s tears must surprise them. Their emotions are not engaged by their religious duty. They don’t mourn for the people who’ve lost someone; they mourn for their own sakes to keep their ledger clean with God. Jesus is different. He didn’t come out of religious obligation. He came out of love. He cries because he’s not removed from the story, he’s in it. He never had to experience this feeling but he’s here now. He is here on this planet because he loves.
“The Jews” is a uniquely John phrase that is repeated so often it’s impossible to miss. The Spirit is identifying this group, setting them apart from Jesus and his people. Some of them may become converts but in the flow of the story John tells, they are opponents. This includes their leadership and the people over whom they hold sway. It might be correct to ascribe doubt to anything they say - a sneering tone that puts a question mark at the end of anything Jesus says or does.
John 11:37
Could not
See the note on vs 36 for comments on “The Jews.” If this is true, the same group of people who doubted the healing of the blind man in John 10 and threw him out, talk out of the other side of their mouths now. This isn’t meant to endorse either thing, it’s meant to create even more doubt about who Jesus is. In effect they’re saying “so you fools believe this guy healed a blind man he didn’t even know, but couldn’t or wouldn’t come heal this man Lazarus whom he’s crying over??? How idiotic is that? The blind man is still blind and Jesus didn’t do anything for Lazarus because he couldn’t. Wake up and smell the fraud.”
There are people who like to stand at the edge of God events and tweak things. Did God really say? Aren’t you the son of God? Could he have healed? They are cowards who have no stomach for a direct encounter with Jesus or the people who love Jesus. If you pressed them they’re the ones who fall back and say things like “I was only asking a question.” The thing to do with them is to turn their questions back on them. Did Jesus heal the blind man? Do you believe Jesus could have healed Lazarus? Why are you here asking questions? Do you want to be saved also?
John 11:38
Again…moved
Same word as before. Angry. Furious. Snorting. Why would he again be angry? Had his anger subsided since he saw Mary weeping and the Jews weeping? He had wept in between. Did he go from rage to sorrow to rage again or is this all one sweep of emotion? We don’t know how long this took. It may have been a long walk to the tomb. He comes to it now. Now he sees the stone in the mouth of the cave. We don’t know what Jesus knows about his death. We only know that he’s clearly aware he is going to die. Maybe he knows about his own cave and stone. But we know he’s come to destroy death. This is the undercard. This is the Savior confronted with the enemy he has come to defeat. If he can’t win here, can there be hope for a win in Golgotha? The anger here is more focused. It is intensified and directed. He is not angry at the mocking Jews or the slow to believe friends. They are irrelevant now. Now there is only the true enemy and the symbol of his kingdom; a sealed tomb, the destination of sin. He is going to break it. He’s going to open the door a crack right now. He is going to show the mockers and the fearful the king has come and will not be resisted.
John 11:39
Take away the stone
So often Jesus is demur and deferential. He is not assertive when he has every right to command any and everyone. He lets fools have their day and he eschews public displays of power or authority. But there is a sense here and now that the king has come and no foolishness is to be tolerated. He doesn’t ask. He commands. Remove the stone. Only a madman or a king would make such a demand. The people on the spot must decide which one he is and act. Martha, practical to a fault, tries to take a middle path. The natural world has asserted itself here, Lord. Decay rules here. Stench. Death. Four days of it.
Nobody hears the command and snaps to obedience. All present, the mockers and scoffers and semi-believers and mourners all pull up short and consider what to do. Is Jesus off his nut? Is there going to be an awkward scene? The best outcome is a terrible, smelly awful, trek into the mouth of the tomb ending at the feet of a corpse wrapped in linen.
The Spirit brings us to these places. He confronts us. Is Jesus king? Or is divorce? Or failure? Or disease? Or loss? He won’t move the stone. He tells us to move it. We can. Will we look again into the throat of the thing we want to keep buried? The thing that stinks? Is Jesus the king? Can he command me to do the worst thing even with no promise he will resolve it? Never forget that all these people, friend and foes alike have no context for what’s about to happen. Martha speaks for everyone. Did anyone think Lazarus was moments from walking out? Did hope stir at all in any heart? Could it? Was there the tiniest heartbeat of faith for this? Have you ever been to a graveside of a man taken too young? Looked into the face of his wife? Has it been you? Could anyone have talked you into returning there four days later to dig up the coffin and pry it open? No. No one stirred. The fact that anyone obeyed this command tells me something. Who moved first? Was it Martha or Mary giving a nod?
You’ll never really know who Jesus is if you don’t obey this command.
John 11:40
Jesus is the king of nonsequitors. But can there be a nonsequitor when God speaks? There is no other conversation going on besides his conversation. Anything we say that isn’t in the flow of what he is saying is the actual nonsequitor. And since Jesus is the Word of God, everything he does is the God conversation. His silences and his sermons are exactly what God is saying. His works and his words. Martha isn’t hearing the story yet. Jesus tries again to get her on track. She’s thinking later glory and God is talking present glory. I am like this. I look for glory out of step with Jesus. I think he’s doing something now and it’s not yet or I think he’s telling me about the future when he’s telling me about my now. The thing is, we never can be completely sure about timing because he may mean both things at once. Perhaps this is evidence of the eternal nature of God who lives outside of time. For him, everything happens in the “now.”
Didn’t I tell you? I love Jesus’s reminders. I’m not a good reminder. Somehow I expect when I’ve said something once that all concerned should receive it, understand it, and execute my commands or commit my thoughts to memory. Jesus is always reminding people.
See. Is this a key word in this conversation? If you go back and look at it, there’s no place in this chapter where Jesus says anything to Martha or Mary about seeing God’s glory. Is it left out? Or is he referring to previous times they’ve talked? The people he’s told about God’s glory in relation to Lazarus’s death are the disciples. He told them plainly,before they set out for Bethany, the man was dead, he was going there to “wake him up” and it was about God getting glory. They’ve moved into the background. Have you even given a second thought to them since Jesus got to Bethany? I haven’t. I’ve been focused where the camera is pointed: Jesus, Martha, Mary, and now the tomb. But they’ve been here all along. Step back and watch from their vantage point, with their inside information. Why isn’t Jesus telling Martha and then Mary the same things he’s told them? Did he really mean what he said back there? They got to Bethany and found that Jesus was right about Lazarus. He was dead. What about waking him up? Who talks like that? Who would ever say they were going to wake up a dead person? Again, picture yourself sitting around with your friends. A call comes in from another friend some distance away saying they have a life and death situation - yet another friend is about to die. Yet you wait around two more days before the person you most respect in your group says it’s time we all go and offer some help. He says he knows the sick friend has died, but I’m going to wake him up. No. Just no. Are you up for that trip? I’ve been to plenty of funerals. If somebody suggested to me two or three days later we were going back to the cemetery to wake up the person we just buried, I think I’d sit that one out. Even if I went along I don’t know what I’d do if the dead man’s sisters met us at the cemetery gates crying with a crowd of people also crying. I don’t think I’d want to be at the head of the line with Jesus. I’d keep my distance. He’s the one saying crazy stuff and I love him but it’s still crazy talk. I’m basically here in case things get out of hand. If he says this crazy stuff and it gets him in trouble I’m here to pull him out and keep him from getting hurt. Imagine the scene unfolding. Each stop feels like it’s electrified. Is he really going through with this?? The Martha stop. The Mary stop. Go to the grave? I thought he’d just go back to their house and console them. No. On to the grave. Walking through the cemetery it’s getting more and more surreal. Other gravestones. It’s quiet. Ok. Maybe we just go to the graveside and show our respects and say a prayer. Maybe God gets glory because we all get there and agree that the dead man won’t always be dead. That he will rise on the last day like everybody else who knows God. We don’t have to push it beyond this, right? Jesus, just, let’s go. This is enough. Get a shovel. Did he just say to get a shovel??! All the disciples look at each other. He’s going through with this! Martha is talking to him. Maybe she can save this embarrassing moment - change it from a disastrous moment when Jesus loses all glory - all weight will drain out of his name if he goes through with this ridiculousness. There’s an awkward pause and then the shovels are out. Who put the first hand to the stone? Who put the shovel in the ground? Who do you think? Was it a believer or a doubter. Could anyone believe this was actually happening? Can you? Can I? I’m in a graveyard now. I’m seeing this. I’m afraid. I’m sad. I’m anxious. I’m a little angry that I’ve been put in this situation. I might grab a shovel and start digging just to get this over with. I’m not believing even though I’ve seen Jesus do some pretty amazing things. But I’m over the edge with Jesus. I slowly realize I was over the edge when I followed him here. I’m not leaving without him. I may as well suffer the embarrassment with him. I dig. I shove the stone away. Then I get back. Am I looking at the open grave? Or am I looking at Jesus? I flash back and forth one to the other. I settle on Jesus. What he does next is what I need to see. I know what the grave holds. What does Jesus hold?
John 11:41
Heard me?
Another nonsequitor? When did Jesus say anything to the Father? It’s not in this text. No praying. No kneeling. No quiet time. And that’s just the beginning of problems with this sentence. Is this mission a Jesus idea? Don’t we see in another place that Jesus only does what he sees his father doing? That would mean this sentence is backwards. Jesus should be saying “Father, I’m glad I heard you and now I’m here to do what you told me to do.” Also, Jesus has already laid out the meaning of the mission. Just like the blind man in John 10, this is a God glorifying mission. Jesus never misspoke so we need to look at this clearly. What are our options? A silent prayer we don’t get to hear? Perhaps. But Jesus has already said this is about God’s glory. How will God receive most glory? Another option is that Jesus prays the way we do. That his deep groaning and anger is translated by the Spirit into prayer. His tears like ours. This makes most sense to me. Jesus has to live like us. He shows us an utterly Spirit-led life. We must live this way ourselves, depending upon the Spirit to give us what we can’t put into words. How does the sentence sound if we accept this view? Father I’m glad you hear me…even my tears and my groanings…I know you always hear every sigh, every heart cry, every murmur, all of it. You hear me and know me and answer me even when I don’t have words.
John 11:42
I knew
See note on 41 too, but here is the evidence that his tears and groans were most likely prayers that didn’t need God interpretation but man interpretation. Just to make sure all the bystanders would get the message and God would be glorified Jesus breaks the third wall like an actor on the stage addressing the audience directly. Jesus actually plays for an audience of one at all times - constantly in conversation and commerce in heaven while participating in our world. He does this seamlessly and for the most part never breaks character. Here he does. He turns from heaven and speaks directly to earth. I’m saying this for them. They may miss the fact that you always hear me, even my tears, but I’m going to make sure they don’t.
I’m sure. I know. Never doubt. There is coming a moment when this will change. When Jesus falls through the floor of the universe into eternal hell. When God the Father turns from him and no longer hears him. Then God the Father will rage and cry in pain even knowing his Lazarus will also come out of the tomb shortly. The pain is real. There is no other path and no hiding from it. Jesus becomes sin and rubbish and God the Father counts him as loss in order to (re)gain his lost ones; his children.
Sent me
There’s an argument amongst the religious knowledgeable people about where Jesus came from and who has authorized him to do the things he does. Here Jesus ties himself to God’s hearing. God, you hear me and that proves you sent me. I’m not acting on my own (another place he says he is not his own witness). I am here to glorify you and I’m here because you sent me.
John 11:43
Said this
Go back and read through the run up to this statement. There’s no incantation for the dead. No straining. No pleading. No repetition. In fact it appears there’s not even a direct request for anything to happen or any power to be granted to Jesus. He only says he has confidence the Father hears him. Jesus has to live like we do and we all have access to two things: choice and faith.
Loud
Why loud? Surely not for dramatic effect or because there was too much crowd noise. I can’t imagine these people making a lot of hubbub around Jesus at this point. I envision the crowd stunned to silence by all that’s transpired. And graveyards are not normally loud places - they’re kind of like libraries, they demand silence. I just got a thought: how loud was it when Jesus rebuked the storm? I see that as the opposite of this; noise all around, wind, waves, panicked men. Be still. Almost a whisper. But now Jesus is the storm. He is the wind. He is the waves. This shout is going to send a shock wave through the earth. Death has no more power to keep what it has taken. Is this an angry loud shout? Or is it the winning shot in the tennis rally? No one could return this shot. It’s a clean winner. The feeler is still here. The emotions are still high. It’s ok to shout, but don’t ever believe volume is power. Lazarus doesn’t come out because Jesus is loud. Jesus isn’t loud to get Lazarus out of the grave. He didn’t have to speak at all. For that matter he didn’t have to come all the way to the grave side to raise the dead man. The loud shout isn’t for Lazarus, it’s for us. It’s our sonic reset. Let it go through you now. Right now. Feel it come out of the page, out of the text. Let it blast away all the lesser voices. Let it blow away all the fear and doubt inside. Let it wash away your own death. No. No! No!!!!!!!!!! I got up every morning for years only to hear the threat of my impending death; my mortality. Every day the same thing repeated over me. You are going to die. It was as regular as the sunrise. I lived under it all day every day. And then one day I came alive. And I got more alive every day and every day more and more alive. One day I noticed I got and heard how alive I was and would be forever. Death fled. Life got too loud for it to hang around me like a cloud. Religious people would tell you that you’re the one who must say life words to yourself. It’s up to you. All I can say is they’ve never been dead. They’ve never been dead enough. I had no words. I had no life. He said it. He shouted it. It rolled through me like sweet deep bass driven music. It started my heart. It made hope real. It made sense to think about living and no longer made sense to think about dying. It was him. It was his words. It was me lying in the grave - and I’m not talking here of salvation, I’m talking about life. Dead in trespasses and sins is only one kind of dead. Dead in hopelessness and fear and helplessness is altogether different. There is a death that believers die that Paul talked about. Dying to self. You won’t. He will show you the cross. If you take it, you will die and the only way to life will be his call to you. Broken people have a care; you are closer to the kingdom than you think. His voice still opens tombs.
John 11:44
He came out
In our day and age of high tech manipulation of imagery and ever more elaborate hoaxes and magic tricks (David Blaine/Chris Angel) it gets easy to think that these people were not skeptical enough to deconstruct this event. We are so worldly wise and they are rubes. This is a really good magic trick. Some people got taken in and now we have this story that’s supposed to be true. They needed more camera angles and curiosity. This is a dress rehearsal for the resurrection of Jesus. It’s entirely possible that some people did walk away from here thinking Jesus had pulled off the greatest publicity stunt ever - maybe most of them did. All faked. Mary and Martha and Lazarus pranked everyone. And they obviously did it with Jesus’s collusion. He needed a big show and this is what they came up with. A fake illness and death and funeral. A fake mourning. A fake message to Jesus to come help them. Great acting job when Jesus arrives. Lazarus either agreed to spend four days in a tomb or snuck out and back in to make it work. And there would have to be others in on it. If this is the case you have to ask yourself why? What is there to gain from this? Also, if any of this is true these people, including Jesus are either insane or truly wicked for even trying to pull this off. So right here is one of those CS Lewis moments. You can’t walk away from this and say Jesus was a good man or good teacher but he did not raise Lazarus from the dead. He either did it or he’s the most gullible or insane or wicked person ever. Or…if he did raise the dead man, he is who he says he is: God.
The grave clothes
What did Jesus see when Lazarus came out? Did he see his future? The unblinking courage of Jesus moves me. He didn’t look away. He knew. This will get very graphic in Gethsemane when the Father opens up the full view of the coming ordeal of the cross.
Here Jesus sees how he will be wrapped up and entombed. But no one will come and raise him unless the Father does it. No one will untie him unless the Spirit looses him. This must have muted the celebration for Jesus. He wasn’t surprised to see Lazarus. He was the only one there who knew…KNEW…Lazarus would be walking out. Would anyone else have had the courage to run up to the corpse that just walked out of the grave? No wonder he had to give the commandment “untie him!” Everyone else is frozen in place in shock or fear or wonder. We need this extra word from God. Don’t think we don’t. Miracles are not easy. They don’t fit in our lives and so we can’t react to them without God’s help. If he doesn’t help us we will be frozen by the miraculous - stuck looking at it and not adjusting our lives and actions to it. We will squeeze the miraculous out of our minds and back into the tomb. It was coincidence. It was medicine. It was natural causes. The miracle isn’t miraculous if we don’t untie the dead man and invite him back into the world of the living and adjust to living with him. And Jesus has to show us how to do all of this. It isn’t normal. It isn’t natural. There’s no precedent. We need help knowing what to do next. Jesus tells us.
Something else?
Layers. What else is Jesus showing us? I see the saved man or woman responding to Jesus’s call. Awake from the dead! Come out! I see us alive but bound by the clothes of death. We are more used to the grave than the light. We need help to learn how to walk, how to hear and see things in the living world. The grave clothes feel more natural than wedding garments. The light hurts our eyes. It’s loud out in the world. We need time to adjust. We need friends. We need more assurance that we won’t go back in the grave. Holy Spirit you loose us and keep us free. There are places I’ve gone that feel like the tomb again. That feel like grave bindings again. My strength and my heart fail. It is dark and lonely and hopeless. I’m back where I began but it’s worse. I know all the things now. How did this happen to me? Why is this happening to me? What did I do wrong? What sent me into a darker grave than the one I was saved from? And this time I know there is no further rescue. Now I’m fully alive in the place of the dead. I try every way I can imagine to get out. I plead. I hammer. I curse. I threaten. Finally I lie down and rest. I have no answer and no means. Either he will come and get me, or I will live out my days here. All I have is a choice. I choose you Jesus. I believe you Jesus. This is it. No other way into the deep places without falling in with him. Then he connects with me and the deep places are metamorphosed. The deep deep dark becomes the means of seeing into the heavens as on the darkest night at sea. There is more up there than my imagination can take in. I lose my breath. I feel small and loved. I know it’s your hand and your artistry that did this thing and that I am not insignificant before the vastness of the cosmos, but I am known right here and now more fully than I ever have been. And I know you. I know you. And I know there was no way to know you like this but to come here to this place that I cursed. Now I want to stay. Only stay with me. All else has lost its meaning and been recreated in your image. Marriage? Success? Friendship? Possessions? Nothing has meaning without you but all are filled up and returned to me different and alive. Living stones. I see now. The rocks cry out. They repeat your name to me; this Lazarus twice saved.
Take off
Who is willing to touch the miracle? It has to be somebody willing to touch the accoutrements of death. I can’t imagine many people wanted to be first to touch Lazarus but whoever did had to first touch the grave clothes.
John 11:45
Many put their faith in him.
These are the same “the Jews” as before.
Not “all” but “many. More on this in the following verse but let’s focus on the many. We don’t even know if this is a majority of those present. It is an ambiguous term: many. Not most. So who believed and why? We can rule out peer pressure causing them to believe. In fact there may have been peer pressure in the opposite direction. Remember recently Jesus was so unpopular in these parts that there were credible death threats against him, possibly by some of these same people. Publicly admitting you think he raised a dead man to life and putting your faith in him was risky. It doesn’t appear to be the case that the believers out numbered the doubters.
How about the idea that many people were gullible or stupid? Possible, although I think more people are skeptical than not in any crowd.
The thing that’s so hard about God’s scheme for gaining children and not slaves, is that it requires subtlety not violence. He isn’t forcing anyone to believe therefore there must always be room for doubt. There’s coming a day when he will reveal himself utterly, but that day will be the day all knees bend involuntarily. Resurrection is a violent act, perhaps the most violent because it breaks the most ancient curse of sin and causes the clocks to run backward. If it was shown too clearly it would compel belief without faith. This is why the working here is important. The many didn’t just believe Lazarus was raised from the dead; they put their faith - trust - in the person of Jesus, the resurrector. It’s much more reasonable to ask ourselves if we could believe our own eyes if we were there when this happened. Search inside. See how easily you can dismiss miracles. We need assurance from the Holy Spirit even to believe what we see first hand - contrary to the popular saying, seeing is not believing. This fits with what we know God is up to in the world: sons and daughters who choose to believe the unbelievable because He has shown it to them. The two trees again and again. Here is a man raised from the dead. Tree of knowledge? Impossible. Must be hiding something or deceiving me. Tree of life? I believe and put my faith in you Jesus even though it makes no sense.
John 11:46
But some
The picture is clearer now. “Many” put their faith in Jesus, “some” go and report what they’ve seen to the religious authorities. Notice this doesn’t account for everyone. There is a chunk of people who always sit on the fence, never moved enough to act one way or the other. But some were moved to act as spies for the authorities. What could motivate them to do this? Did they think it was a hoax or did they attribute Jesus’s power to the devil? (Another theme that runs through the gospels). Either way some people miss what Jesus is doing and some are unmoved by what Jesus is doing. I’m inclined to be more concerned with those who are unmoved - if a potential resurrection from the dead doesn’t produce something in you, what else could? (This is another theme we could explore even today, but was also something that Jesus brought up in his parable about another Lazarus and a rich man - Luke 16:19-31)
The ones who go to the authorities may have genuine concerns. They are going to the people who’ve taught them the Bible and instructed them in the ways of God. It may seem self evident to us that Jesus was empowered by God, but he has a lot of religion to break through to reach these people. Generations of teaching and tradition are in the way. It may be that these people who go back to their religion and ask it to give them the answer to what they just saw will not get any answers or get answers that don’t work. One way or another no one can come to Jesus and put their faith in him without having their religion dismantled. Taking Jesus to your religion is not a bad place to start the process of seeing who he is and who you are.
John 11:47
Called a meeting
There is a certain type of person to whom “calling a meeting” is their first reaction to any development. They are all over the place. They will have meetings about meetings. What drives this? Basically the need to get agreement and validation from a group. No one wants to act alone. Think for yourself. The Pharisees and “the Jews” might be the greatest example of group think in history. It’s no surprise they react to this news of Jesus’s crowning miracle by getting together in a meeting. It’s safer for the preservation of the status quo. Let’s not take the time to consider this as individuals. Let’s think of this as a group. The trouble isn’t sharing information and ideas, the trouble is giving up one’s heart and mind to “the group.” God’s scheme isn’t to save a group, but to gather sons and daughters who come on their own into his family. Group think won’t bring anyone to know who Jesus is - it’s going to take single acts of faith where one individual at a time commits their heart to him.
What are we doing? vs what is this man doing?
The same word is actually used for them and Jesus. What are we doing? This “man” (more on that later) is doing ______. It isn’t a good idea to compare what you are doing to what Jesus is doing unless you’re willing to face up to the facts. You are not able to do what Jesus does. You are not doing what Jesus is doing. You’ll lose this comparison every time. Obviously the Sanhedrin do not want this comparison and are not asking the question in that way. They’re saying this man is out there doing miraculous signs and we are not doing anything about it. Jesus is accomplishing things and we are not. The implication is that we better get busy doing something. But what? What to do about what Jesus does always comes down to this: who is Jesus? If he’s a good teacher we should respond one way. If he’s a hoaxter we should respond another way. If he’s a hell-empowered sorcerer still another response is required. But, if he is God, we’ve got even another response. Who is he? These men think Jesus is a man. They start from there. To be fair where else can you start? If someone shows up in your neighborhood claiming to be God it would be wise to begin with the presumption they’re not. They’re just human. Watch and listen and maybe you’ll get some indication of the truth. (signs). A man might be a good teacher. But these men eliminate that possibility because Jesus didn’t go their seminary. He has no pedigree. He’s not a Harvard man, he’s not even a high school man. Jesus might be a good man. These men eliminate that possibility because Jesus doesn’t keep the rules that good men keep. He works on Sundays, he says blasphemous things, he hangs out with hookers and enemies of the state. Jesus has power but he’s a bad man with unauthorized teaching. He must be sent from hell or a hoaxter. This is how the Sanhedrin read the signs. They are probably more thoughtful and honest than many people sitting in churches all over the world who read the signs and somehow believe Jesus is only a good man or a good teacher. The signs don’t point that way. They point up or down. God or no? If you say no, what the Sanhedrin do next isn’t a crime, it’s good religion and better politics and you should hold your tongue about criticizing them. They decided to do something. They decided to kill a devil or a bad man bent on dragging their nation into political and religious rebellion. If they are right. If the man is a man. But the man Jesus did not say “come to my teaching” and there is no way to God except through my doctrine. He said there was no way to God without coming to and through him. He claims all the signs point to him personally. They prove his identity. They are not to wow the audience into admiration of the distant Father but to invite them to accept the Son. We can call a meeting and talk through this with as many people as we want, but there is no avoiding personal response to Jesus. You can disbelieve the miracles and believe Jesus but you can’t do the opposite. He never wanted people to dwell on the miracles any way. Come to me, he said. And he meant it. You can miss all the signs and still find him. He will gladly go back later and show you all the signs you missed. Just don’t miss him.
John 11:48
If we let him go on
What is the logic here? A man has demonstrated power over death itself and here a council meets to discuss how that affects their relationship with Rome. What does Rome represent? Power. They are more afraid of Roman power than of Jesus power.
If we let Jesus go on like this it will change our relationship with Rome and with our people. They’re right. Jesus is a disrupter of relationships. If he keeps going he is going to redefine political power, religious power, and personal power. He will actually Empower individuals so much they will no longer be subject to other power structures. The gospel will level the Roman Empire and the religious superstructure. It will also level all personal relationships between human beings; no more color or class power differentials.
People constantly see part of what Jesus means and miss the rest. Is it laziness or fear that keeps them from following through with these thoughts? It doesn’t seem to occur to these religious leaders that having one of their own demonstrate power over death itself could be an advantage against political oppression and military intervention. What if it is true that Jesus just proved he could raise the dead? What kind of army would you field if death wasn’t a problem for your side?
“Taking away our place and our nation”
Jesus offers a place and a people that Rome cannot take away but that is hard to see from the top of the cultural-religious pyramid these people stand on. They are on top of both the people and the religion, where could a change lead but down? And Jesus’s message is insane to them. Lose your life to find it. Give up your power to become empowered. No wonder it’s easier for the outcasts to hear Jesus. They have nothing to lose by letting him go on like this.
If everyone believes in Jesus why does it follow that Rome will take action? Will the people become unmanageable because of Jesus? Did Jesus suggest rebellion against Rome? The Sanhedrin here reveals their own hearts. What they are saying is only what they would do if they could do what Jesus did. If they got this kind of power, they would extend it and assert it over Rome. This is on their minds as the primary problem with “the people” and their personal “place.” Gentiles. Outsiders. Give them more power and they’ll get rid of the people who don’t belong. Religion aims to exclude. Jesus plans to use his power to include everyone, to make all people his people and to make every place his place.
John 11:49
High priest that year
Caiaphas is high priest for a year and he feels the need to correct the situation. It’s happening on his watch. Jesus is the high priest forever, unelected, unimpeachable, carrying out his duties flawlessly. Compared to Jesus, the high priest sees (the word used here means “to perceive”) less than nothing; most of what he perceives is wrong, yet the words come from his mouth: you (all the other leaders) perceive nothing at all. This is not a good thing to say to anyone on our best day with our best knowledge of our highest competency and clearest eyes.
Before I’m too hard on Caiaphas I have to acknowledge how much I think I see. I think I see everything. I’m pretty sure I see more than anyone else and I’m often willing to let people know. Leadership carries with it a peculiar set of pressures and that pressure effects different unique selves differently. For a certain type of person being the high priest would mean you must see more and more clearly than anyone else, for others it might make them aware of how little they see. Caiaphas, who represents religion, shows what climbing to the top of that pyramid looks like. Religious people all do this. They all believe they see more than anyone who hasn’t gotten to their level. At the very top they can see everything and no one else can see anything. The problem is that the climb to the top of religion leaves us like this - so nearsighted we can’t see God when he taps us on the shoulder. Basically all Caiaphas could see from the top was the pyramid he’d climbed. He knew all about Judaism and nothing about God
John 11:50
One man die
Caiaphas sees the way forward clearly: let one man die so the nation lives. It’s a numbers game. It’s always a numbers game with religion. What adds up? What balances the equation in our favor? This is an easy decision. Let one man die. One impious upstart irreligious peasant die. The people and the nation go on. The religion rolls on. It always requires sacrifice. They’ve shed lots of blood to get here; innumerable doves and goats and lambs. What’s a little more blood? What’s a little bit of human blood? What’s the difference? Why are the rest of you so blind?
Religion looks to kill anything that doesn’t fit neatly into its system. Don’t think for an instant Christianity the religion doesn’t work this way too. The crusades and the inquisition prove the point: conform or die. It isn’t unusual, it isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. The thing to keep in mind in this instance is what prompts the religious to act. A man (they keep referring to Jesus as “that man” or “the man”) has just raised someone from the dead. Raising someone from the dead doesn’t fit into the Jewish religious system. Once again we have to ask what really happened. If Jesus perpetrated a hoax with the intention leading people astray, maybe he deserves to die. If he raised a dead man because he’s in league with the devil he definitely needs to be stopped. Is this why Caiaphas wants to have Jesus killed?
Why would the whole nation perish if Jesus went on doing what he was doing? If everyone believed in him, how would that destroy the Jews? It might destroy Judaism but it wouldn’t destroy the people or the nation. When Christ performs the encore performance to the Lazarus resurrection and the whole world goes after him, he will actually go and take away Rome’s place and make Rome’s people into God’s people. There will be no more Jew and Gentile but one people (Ephesians 2). The Jewish “religion” was never meant to leave people in the cold. The Jews were set apart to attract the world to God. Here at the end of their religion, the leaders have come to the absolute pinnacle of their misconceived notions; there are observing Jews (Jews who conformed to their leader’s teachings about the law and the prophets) and there was everyone else. Jesus fell outside of that definition so they handed him over to the outsiders to take care of him. They didn’t sacrifice a Jew, they sacrificed an outsider so they could maintain their insider status.
John 11:51
Not on his own
This may be one of the most fascinating verses in the Bible. We already know God doesn’t mind having an ass speak for him (Num 22:28) but here is something even more strange; God opens the mouth of the man who is planning to kill his son, and has him prophesy. Surely this means God will work with anyone or anything to get his message out. Caiaphas doesn’t know it but he is speaking God words. There is a word of warning here: I should be ready to hear God from anyone, even someone I know is working against him. My ears have to tune in to heaven and the only way to do that is to listen to the Holy Spirit while I’m listening to my Caiaphas. When I do, I can hear the gospel in what he says. Jesus is going to die for the nation. This also points to the fact that Caiaphas may be doing his own thing, choosing this wicked path, but God uses his bad choices to bring about something unspeakably good.
John 11:52
And here is the primary difference between the religious worldview and the gospel. Caiaphas aims to preserve a people from impurity, the gospel is the scheme to expand God’s friendship to everyone.
Religion = kill anything that makes us impure
Gospel = die to purify everyone
Scattered children
This is put explicitly in Ephesians chapter 2. Judaism was never for the Jews and neither was Christianity. All the plan was for all the people scattered by the Fall to come together with God the Father as one nation and kingdom.
John 11:53
Plans to put him to death
Think about it What kind of genius’s are these guys? Someone who just showed he can defeat death is marked for death.
What must it be like to prioritize killing a person? Each day you work out ways that might get the job done. Most people who commit to this course of action are also committed to getting away with murder - appearing to be innocent, creating an alibi. These people are no different. Their plotting includes a scheme to have Jesus killed legally, but right here they show themselves to be guilty of first degree murder. The rest of their plot is a coverup.
John 11:54
The Jews.
Here it is again. This group of people have now created a situation where their messiah - the hope of the Jewish nation, the longed for deliverer - is no longer free to walk among them. Everything in the scriptures pointed to his coming. Everything in their system was designed to get them to this moment in history. All their scholarship existed to support preparing a people for him; tilling the ground, making room for the Christ. I think this may describe the church age more than anyone wants to admit. I think it’s possible that the Holy Spirit is to the church what Jesus was to Judaism.
The wait for the Spirit was short compared to the wait for Jesus, but it’s the same idea. Wait. I’m giving you the fullness of God. The Spirit will come and testify of me, he will bring conviction, he will empower you to do signs… As we look at the church can we say the Spirit of Jesus is welcomed? Is he embraced? Or is his book the thing we worship. Are his gifts? It may be that the Spirit has withdrawn to a place away from the mainstream where he abides with only a few. It was a sad day when the religious leaders pushed Jesus out of the way and it is no different now with his Spirit. Sad.
John 11:55
The Jewish Passover.
Does it drive you nuts when some people see providence in every little detail? Timing? Events? Order. Is symbolism everywhere or no where? But this is too much. The Passover is the Jewish holiday. This is too on the nose to miss. And it is so hard to see. Imagine someone showing up for Christmas with a whole new idea of what it means. Someone who says Christmas is really about them. That’s what hits the Jews. Jesus is the Passover. The ceremony of the lamb is replaced by the person it predicted. The cleansing and the preparations for the celebration - here again the religion fails them. They are so busy with their little traditions and parties about God that they don’t have room for God at the table. He isn’t invited. He would probably have made any Jewish family uncomfortable and ruined the fun. He ends up hanging on a cross at the most inconvenient time so the religious leaders want to hurry his death along to keep it from ruining their ceremonial cleanliness. How bizarre is this? The dead body of Jesus is the things that cleanses the world of sin and makes everyone clean again before God. Don’t bother me with news about the baby Jesus being born…I'm too busy cutting down a Christmas tree.
And who do they go to so they can receive ceremonial cleansing? The religious leaders who are planning an illegal murder. Can a dirty priest stand between me and God and declare me clean?
John 11:56
Looking for Jesus
Why were they looking for Jesus? What was the motive? Were they expecting the messiah to show up or were they looking for more miraculous entertainment? Good Jews came to Jerusalem for Passover. It doesn’t seem the people grasp what’s going on with Jesus. His status as a threat to the establishment. The plot to remove his influence. Jesus creates a lot of curiosity for people who want him to show up in their place. In this case the Jews are in their temple preparing for their ceremony. Will Jesus show up? Will he come and fit in with us? No one goes looking for Jesus. In the early days they did. Maybe some still would, but not on Passover. No one wants to go looking for Jesus in the middle of their party.
John 11:57
Arrest him
So we come to the end of this chapter. It starts with Jesus run out of town, the subject of a man hunt to kill him and he ends up the subject of a manhunt to arrest and kill him. Normally this would be the story of a dangerous criminal who escaped custody or avoided it and then committed another crime. Between these two markers Jesus raised a man from the dead. Miracles are dangerous to the status quo. This is not new and it hasn’t changed. Anyone who did what Jesus did would potentially be a very dangerous man. If we go back to our imagined resurrection we wrote about earlier, and consider what the aftermath would be, we can see this clearly. Let’s say there are only 50 people who go with us to the cemetery to see what the man will do at the tomb. They see a coffin dug up. They hear the resurrector cry out. They see the coffin open. They see a dead man sit up, rise to his feet and step out of the coffin and the grave. They believe what they see. What power does the resurrector have over these 50? What influence? If he says “I am God, worship me.” Would they? Would you? That’s not so easy to answer is it? You might say he’s a good man or a powerful man but probably you’d be stuck with “man.” But would you plot to murder the man? Why did nicodemus have to say about all this? He visited the man in the night and got the infamous “for God so loved the world” speech and the “you must be born again” speech. Now he is here in the room when the plotting begins. He’s been rebuked for an attempt to bring his colleagues attention to their law breaking ways with regards to Jesus in John chapter 7. Now he’s gone quiet. Perhaps he’s stuck on the horns if this dilemma. Jesus has left him no room to maneuver. Worship me as God or put me away as a demon or a fool. There is no escape. When we get to the end of John 11, we ourselves must confront this question. This is either a true account not only of a man who raises a man from the dead, but a man who claims to be God who does miraculous signs as evidence of the fact - or - it is a document purposely written by someone to fool us into following a demon or a fool. You have no room for other choices. There is no nuance that will save you from this. Choose. Arrest him or worship him.
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