Fire On Your Head

The text that this entry is based on is John 11 – the death and resurrection of Lazarus.
I decided to look at it from a different angle than I used to, and after watching the Gospel of John movie with my mom and grandmother Easter Friday, I was compelled to look at a few Scriptures to see if I felt they accurately depicted them in the movie. (Yes, this is one of those entries I wrote a while ago an has sat in my drafts folder ever since).

The style of this entry will be simplistic; I will emphasize or highlight things in key selections from the passage, since to post the whole chapter would just lengthen this unnecessarily.

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (v 3-4)

Jesus is told about the sickness, and it didn’t seem to phase Him. He almost seems like He’s not interested in doing anything about it, but in fact, He reveals in His response that He is clearly aware of what is going on and what God wants to do with this situation — glorify the Son. In fact, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days (v.6). It almost would seem to them as though He didn’t care at all that their brother was sick, when keep in mind, this Jesus had been healing the sick, which I assume is why Lazarus’ sisters had made the Lord aware of his terminal illness.

Look what Jesus tells His disciples.
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

I find it interesting whenever people treat signs and miracles as though needing to see them is a bad thing and that expecting them means your faith is lacking. However, Jesus said right here how good it was that this particular death occurred SO THAT it would provide an opportunity for His power to be made known and they believe. It’s not the weak who need a miracle, but I challenge you that it’s the weak who deny them. (That was a commentary, not an observation from the text.)

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”(v.21-22). Was Martha upset with Jesus for not having been there? What is her approach and her tone when she expresses herself to Jesus about her brother’s death? We can’t tell from just reading the text. Does she feel Jesus let her down by not coming in time to heal him? After all, He chose to stay where He was two more days.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”(v23). Jesus doesn’t seem moved [in His faith] about this situation, He knows exactly what is going on. After all, a few days earlier He already said “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” This is a classic case of what we do with God–get upset because WE don’t have the whole picture before us as to what He’s doing. And if you’re like me–or at least honest with yourself–we have all gotten angry at God and told Him what He should or shouldn’t do in a situation when we have limited knowledge and insight as to what is really going on. Observe how Mary’s response is similar to Martha’s:

When Mary reached the place 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.”(v.32) Was she just as perplexed at the Lord’s handling of the situation? Was she struggling with bitterness? Were either of them? Again, I’m just posing questions from looking at this text differently than I have in the past.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Now this is where I veer off from traditional thinking. Yes, you just read the famous “Jesus wept” verse, but the context most of us have always heard it taught in is different than the text reads– at least I think so.

That verse doesn’t depict a man of God emotionally overcome to the point of being incapacitated by His feelings, and the bystanders observing it. Oh no. Rather, let me propose to you that Jesus, filled with compassion, and knowing fully well what He was about to do, was moved at how much these people were hurt out of their misunderstanding of His ways.
He is so moved by our plights, and so intimately involved in our lives, that it grieves Him also when we are hurting. However, I don’t think it stops there. I think knowing beforehand they would be disappointed, He was still taken aback to some degree at how they perceived what His will was in this situation. He probably feels the exact same way today when He listens to godly people teach others that it’s not God’s will to heal all today like in Bible times.

How often do we hurt Jesus by our frustration with Him at how He let us down in our eyes? Verse 37 is what gives me the idea that John, the writer of this passage, is giving us a glimpse that it’s their lack of faith that’s impacting Jesus to tears when the bystanders question
“Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” (v.37).

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (v.38-40) Could it be that Jesus is reminding her in this verse, of how believing is tantamount to seeing the glory of God be because not only she needed to be reminded (as we all do), but because she didn’t believe him earlier when her brother was still alive and he told her this (v.4)?

I’m not sure how to formally conclude this entry, but these are some interesting thoughts to consider.