Every year I let my confirmation students pick their own bible passage for confirmation. I encourage them to talk to their parents and grandparents, the people who know them best, and get advice about which passage might best suit them. I tell them to pick a passage that they can memorize and will serve as a source support and encouragement as they live out the rest of their days. I tell my students they can pick any passage in the bible except one. They can’t pick John 11:35. You see I know the temptation a student faces when they realize they must memorize and recite that memorized verse in front of a congregation. They look not for the most meaningful and impactful verse rather they look for the shortest easiest to memorize verse and that’s when they discover John 11:35 which says, “Jesus wept”. For over 20 years I have not allowed my students to pick “Jesus wept” as the confirmation verse that they will use to support and encourage them as they live out their days, …but I might make an exception if they told me the story, I am about to tell you.
The home of Mary, Martha, and their brother Lazarus was always open to Jesus and his disciples. This home was a place where meals were shared, lessons were taught, and relationships were strengthened. The relationship between Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Jesus went beyond acquaintances, associates, or even friends. They loved each other like family. It was as the old Proverb says, “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother”[1]. “Closer than a brother” describes the way Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Jesus felt about each other. Yet Mary, Martha, and Lazarus recognized that the man they had grown to love was more than a brother. As Martha once confessed, Jesus “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”[2] They knew Jesus was more than just a man they loved, He was their Savior from sin.
It is not difficult for us to imagine the sort of relationship that Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Jesus shared. We share similar relationships with family and with friends who become to us closer than family. We can imagine the dinners they shared, the conversations they had, and the relationship they built because we have shared, had, and built the same things with the people we love.
It is because it is so easy for us to imagine the relationship Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Jesus shared that we feel the pain the death of Lazarus caused. How it must have grieved the sisters to watch their brother grow weaker and weaker as his sickness overcame his body. They sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”[3] …Less than a week later their brother was dead. Like an unwelcome guest, death had forced itself into their home. Death had reminded Mary and Martha that this world and all the people living in it are broken. The curse of Eden comes for us all, for “the wages of all who sin is death”[4]. For “dust we are and to dust we shall return”[5].
Lazarus had been returning to dust for four days when Jesus arrived at the village where Mary and Martha lived. “32… Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”, the grieving sisters cried. In your grief, you have cried something similar, have you not? Maybe not out loud. In front of other people, you likely grieved your loss with a stoic stiff upper lip and publicly said things like, “it was the Lord’s will to call them home.” But in your heart of hearts you cried, “Why was it the Lord’s will? Why did they have to die?” This is the Lord who laid the earth’s foundation, hung the star in the sky, and commands the forces of nature. He has the power to prevent death. So, “Where were you, Lord; where were you when my loved one died?” When death visits a home, it is easy to feel as though the Lord is distant from those who grieve. It is easy to imagine the death of, yet another person has little to no impact on the one who rules a kingdom in which there is no sorrow or morning or pain. It is easy to imagine yourself all alone in your grief. I think that is how the devil wants us to feel. I think the devil wants us to feel angry and alone. People who are angry and alone are susceptible to all sorts of temptations like bitterness, resentment, and even despair.
But my dear hurting people, the Lord is not distant from you in your grief. He feels the pain of those who mourn. “33 When Jesus saw her [Mary and her sister Martha] weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.” The death of Lazarus “deeply moved” Jesus. It upset Him. It insulted Him. It angered Him. This is not how it was supposed to be. We were not designed to die. We were designed to live. We were not meant to suffer loss; to have family and friends torn away from us by death. Jesus, the author of life, was upset, insulted and angered to see yet another family torn apart by death. Death “troubled” Jesus. Death filled Jesus with an emotional distress that shook Him to His core. Death caused His chest to ach and His body to shake. “34 Where have you laid him?” he asked.” They led him to the tomb where his beloved friend Lazarus had been buried and, at the sight of it, “35 Jesus wept”.
As we imagine Him weeping at the tomb of His beloved friend Lazarus, it is comforting to know that Jesus understands our grief when we mourn. But Jesus came to this tomb to do more than grieve alongside those who mourn, He came to bring comfort t those who weep. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said.” “But, Lord, objected Martha, my brother has been dead four days, by this time he stinks.” How undignified death is. We don’t simply get to fade away as a passing mist or vanishing vapor. Oh no! Our bodies rot and decay as death slowly consumes them and reduces us back into the piles of dirt from whence we came. But Jesus would not be discouraged by the indignity of death. “40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” Here is a moment worthy of our pondering. “If you believe”. There is no comfort for those who do not believe. For those who refuse to confess Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world; for those who do not believe Jesus is their Savior from sin, here is where the story ends. It ends with a stinking corpse rotting in a tomb and heartbroken mourners grieving a loss. However, for you who believe this story continues to a glorious conclusion.
As instructed, they removed the stone from Lazarus’ tomb. Jesus looked to heaven and practiced what He preached. In the Psalms the Lord invites us “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will honor me.”[6] Those words are not just polite platitudes. When Jesus said it, He meant it and so He Himself did it. Having called upon the Lord in His day of trouble Jesus then turned His attention to the dead man in the tomb. “43 Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” And that is exactly what the dead man did. He came out. This is not something dead bodies do. Yet at the command of the creator and sustainer of all things the dead man had no choice but to obey and with “his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face”, the dead man came out. And from that day forward all references to Lazarus described him as, and I quote the “one whom Jesus raised from the dead”[7].
The scene outside the tomb of the resurrected Lazarus is arguably more difficult for us to imagine. We are told the raising of Lazarus from the dead strengthened the faith of some but hardened the hearts of others. Other than that, we struggle to imagine how Mary, Martha, and Lazarus reacted to this unprecedented resurrection. I think it is safe to assume they were pretty happy. However, there is no experience from which we might draw a comparison to this. We burry our dead and that is where they stay, at least for now. But there will come a time when we will be able to imagine the joy that filled those who gathered at the tomb of the one whom Jesus raised from the dead.
Jesus is not distant from you in your grief. He feels the pain of those who mourn but more than that He has the power to bring comfort unlike any other. So then why does He not do for your loved ones as He did for Lazarus? Is that what you want? Truely? Is it? I don’t think that it really is. You see though he was raised back to life and Mary and Martha enjoyed more time with their brother eventually Lazarus died again. This raising of Lazarus from the dead was a temporary gift; a gift that is meant to encourage those who mourn. However, Jesus has something much more permanent in mind for you and yours.
Those who have died confessing Jesus to be “the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world”; those who have died believing Jesus to be their Savior from sin have already heard Him call their name. Their souls have already come out from the grave and are at this moment in the glorious presence Jesus. The garments of the grave have been stripped from them and they have been clothed with the robes of His righteousness. The souls of all who die believing in Jesus as their Savior have already come out and on the last day when Jesus returns in all His glory the bodies of those believers will be raised, glorified, and reunited with those souls, not just for an extension of time but for all eternity. AND, one day the same thing will happen to you. One day He will call your name, and you will come out of your tomb and you will exchange your grave clothes for His robes of righteousness. One day you who believe will be known as one whom Jesus raised from the dead and on that day, you will see the glory of the Lord and you will know the Joy that filled Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
I have every reason to expect at the end of confirmation class this year Franchesca will be confirmed. But before she is I will ask her to do what I have asked all my other confirmations students to do. I will ask her to pick a verse that she can memorize and use as a source of support and encouragement as she lives out the rest of her days. If she can tell me the story, I just told you then I might possible maybe potentially consider letting her pick John 11:35 as her confirmation verse. Because if you know the story there are few other verses that can support and encourage a person as they live out their days better than the verse that tells us, “Jesus wept”. Amen
[1] Proverbs 18:24
[2] John 11:27
[3] John 11:3
[4] Romans 6:23
[5] Genesis 3:19
[6] Psalm 50:15
[7] John 12:1