[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Jesus hears that Lazarus is ill, and so he waits two days to go and visit. But then when it’s time, he announces it to the disciples, and they’re hesitant, knowing that this is going to be a dangerous endeavor. But they go anyway. It’s a stunning and beautiful text. There’s a lot for us to consider. I mostly this morning want to think about how the raising of Lazarus from the dead fits into the gospel as Jesus is getting closer and closer to crucifixion. Because it’s… Jesus knows that going to Bethany is dangerous, and He knows even more that raising Lazarus from the dead means His doom, but He does it anyway.
But there’s a few things that I just want to pick up on before we get there, a few important things to note in the text. In fact, one of them is, I had decided some time ago that every time I had the opportunity I wanted to preach about this, and that is the sweet names of death that the Bible gives to us. The old theologians called them the dulce nomine morte, the candy sweet names of dying.
Like, to be gathered to the fathers, that’s how it says it in Genesis. Or to pass from death to life, that’s how Jesus says it in John 5: that you’ll pass from death to life. Or gain, that’s one of Paul’s, how he likes to say it, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Or remember, Simeon teaches us to think of death as departing in peace.
Well, these are so much better than the euphemisms we use, to pass over, to pass away, or whatever we say. It’s better to think of it in the biblical language. And what my favorite is, in the last chapter of Revelation, it says that we’ll see Jesus face to face. Can you imagine that? To go and see Jesus? But I think Jesus’ favorite name for death we have in the text today, and that’s sleep. In fact, we talked about it last week when the daughter of the man at Nain is, or no, oh yeah, the son at Nain. Or the daughter, Tabitha Kuhm, when Jesus goes into the room and they’re all mourning, and he says, she’s not dead, she’s sleeping, and they all laugh at Jesus.
Something similar happens today. Jesus is talking to the disciples and he says, well I want to go up to Bethany again, and they said, are you crazy? Don’t you remember last time we were there they were trying to stone you to death? We should probably stay away for a couple of weeks? No, I want to go to Bethany because Lazarus is asleep. And the disciples look at Jesus like he’s kind of crazy. They said, well Lord, if he’s asleep, he’ll wake up on his own. You don’t need to go wake him up.
So, John says he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead, I’m going to raise him. Now, that’s a beautiful name that the Lord Jesus has for death. It’s a beautiful name for you, and for me, as we mourn the death of those that we love, to know that those that you love who have died in the Lord are not dead, they’re sleeping. They’re resting in peace. And also for you, that one day you will fall asleep in Jesus, and all of this means, this is what sleep means, it means that you’ll wake up. That the Lord will stand on the last day, just like He stood outside the tomb of Lazarus, and He will call you forth. Come forth, and you will stand before Him. He will wake you up from the sleep of death.
So let us remember these sweet names of death, especially this one, sleep.
The other thing that we want to make sure we don’t miss is just the doctrine of the resurrection here. It’s good for us to know that there’s not many religions in the world and not many people in the world that believe in the resurrection. And it seeps into Christianity too in this way. I’ve heard it something like this. People, when they’re dying, will say, I don’t care what you do with my body, just put me in a cardboard box and throw me in the lake or whatever, I’m done with it. The problem is you’re not done with it.
The Lord Jesus will raise your body from the tomb and mine also. Your grave will be as empty as the grave of Jesus. This is the doctrine of the resurrection. Heaven is not eternal; it’s only temporary and hopefully very temporary because we remember that even the saints in heaven are praying, how long, oh Lord, until the last day when the Lord Jesus will raise all people from the dead and give eternal life to me and all believers in Jesus. That’s how we confess it in the creed, remember?
So we confess the resurrection here, and Jesus says to Martha, who comes out to meet him, I am the resurrection and the life. This is the third thing I want you, and probably I want you to look at the words for this one. Can you look in your bulletin at verses 25 and 26 for me? Because there’s a bad English translation, and it’s almost in every English version, and I do not know why, because the Greek is very clear here, and the English is very confusing.
Do you see Martha? Well, look at verse 24. Martha says, Jesus says, your brother will rise again. Martha says, I know he’ll rise again on the last day. Martha had paid attention to the Ezekiel passage that we just read and knew that there would be a resurrection at the end of the world. So she says, I know he’ll be raised on the last day. Jesus says, verse 25, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Now, the problem with that English, well, it’s just not what Jesus says. Jesus says, whoever lives and believes in me shall not die forever. You will die, but that’s only a temporary setback. You will not die forever. You will not die eternally. You will live with the Lord Jesus in heaven while you wait, and in the resurrection in the new heaven and the new earth. Whoever believes in me, says Jesus, though they die, yet they will live in the resurrection. Everyone who lives and believes in me won’t die forever. That’s what Jesus wants us to know and wants us to see and to believe.
One more thing before we look at Thomas and the structure of it. Do you notice what Jesus does? In fact, the text is quite touching because it talks about how deeply moved Jesus is. First when he sees Mary weeping and all the Jews with her weeping for Lazarus, and then when Jesus gets to the grave and he sees it, and he’s so moved by the whole thing. We come across in this text the shortest verse in the Bible where it says that Jesus wept.
Now, I want you all to listen to me; I mean all the time I want you, but especially right now. Because if I could count all the times that I’ve been at the hospital or the graveside and people who are dying were telling their loved ones not to cry for them, don’t weep over me, they said, don’t cry, don’t be sad, I know where I’m going. And that sentiment is good, but that request is wrong. Do not tell your family not to cry because weeping is a good work.
If Jesus, who never did anything wrong, but everything that he did was right and holy, wept at the grave of Lazarus because he loved Lazarus and because he was sad that Lazarus was dead and buried, that means that that good work Jesus also gives to you, that your weeping and your mourning for those who have died and gone before you is, in fact, a good work appointed by God. In fact, we can say it this way: that mourning, weeping, is the way that love looks for those who are absent.
And so we love those who have been taken to heaven before us. We love those that God has called to himself and we weep for them, we mourn for them. The difference is this: St. Paul says this, you do not mourn as those who have no hope. So, we do not mourn with despair or anguish; we mourn with hope. We mix our tears with joy. Jesus was weeping for Lazarus even though he knew that Lazarus was about to be out of the grave. And even though you know that your loved ones will soon be out of the grave, you still weep for them, for the time that they’re there, and for yourself for the pain of missing them. This is a good work, and we follow Jesus when we mourn.
Now, one more little point that gets us to the main point, and I want you to keep this in mind for, because in a couple of weeks we’re gonna get to Easter, and we’re gonna hear about Thomas, you know, doubting Thomas, who was there when Jesus came back from the grave. Well, he wasn’t there. Jesus came back from the grave, and he appeared to the 10 who were in the upper room, and then he left, and then Thomas came back, and they all reported that they had seen Jesus, and Thomas’ scoffer. He says, unless I see with my own eyes his hands, unless I put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And for that, Thomas gets the bad rap of being Doubting Thomas.
But I want you to see what Thomas does in this text. Because Jesus is talking about going down to Bethany, which is right there by Jerusalem, and all the disciples are trying to stop Jesus. They’re like, look, this is dangerous. It’s dangerous for you; it’s also dangerous for us to go down there to Bethany. But look at what Thomas says. He says, let us go with him; if he dies, we’ll die with him. Now that is how I want you to think about Thomas. Not doubting Thomas, but Thomas the bold. Thomas the courageous. Thomas the unafraid to die with Christ.
In fact, I think that’s the key to understanding why Thomas wasn’t there in the upper room when Jesus came back on Easter, because all the others were there because they were afraid, and Thomas is the only one bold enough to go out and look for Jesus. My own thoughts anyways, but that’s what I think is going on. But I want you to remember this, but also to think of this: the reason why Thomas has to say that, let’s go with him; if we die, then we die, the reason why Thomas has to say that is because this fight with Jesus and the Pharisees was getting more and more intense.
I mean, it had gone from kind of hot — they were arguing with one another — to maybe they want to get rid of Jesus, put Him in exile, to maybe they want to arrest Him, to shame Him, to maybe they want to have Him beaten or flogged, to maybe they want to stone Him to death. And now what’s going to happen after Jesus goes down to see Lazarus is they’re going to want to hand Him over to the Romans to not only be scourged but to be crucified, to make sure that His death was an embarrassing and shameful death that no one would ever want to be associated with the name of Jesus.
In other words, the danger level, the threat level in Jerusalem was high. And after the raising of Lazarus, it was going to be extreme. There’s going to be no escaping it. And the disciples are trying to prevent it. But here’s what Jesus sees. He sees Lazarus dead. And He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care what it’s going to cost. Christ loves Lazarus, and even if it means His own suffering and His own death, He’s going to go to Bethany and raise Lazarus from the dead because, after all, that’s the whole point.
Can you imagine Jesus, let’s say before Christmas, sitting in glory as the eternal Son of God before he’d been incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and looking down and seeing all of humanity in sin and in death and loving us and wanting to come down here? And what are the angels saying? That’s dangerous. If you go down there to try to save them, that’s a dangerous thing to do. They’re going to hate you. They’re going to reject you. They’re gonna beat you and flog you and spit on you and tear your beard out and all this other stuff. They’re gonna, I don’t know all the horrendous things that they’re… end up nailing you to the cross. That’s a dangerous thing to do.
But just like Jesus looked at Lazarus in the tomb and loved him and went to Bethany, so the Lord Jesus looks at you and your sin and your death, and He loves you, and He comes for you. It doesn’t matter for Him if it means suffering and dying. He would rather endure the wrath of God for sins that He didn’t commit than let you endure it. He would rather endure the darkness of the cross and the affliction and the shame of the crucifixion than let you endure it. He would rather die than you die, or that you die forever.
This same affection that the Lord Jesus has for Lazarus, the same love He also has for you. Let’s go to Bethany, he says. If I die, I die, because I’ve got people to rescue, and he has done it. Dear Saints, He is the resurrection and the life. All who believe in Him will not die forever. This is the promise. This is your confidence. This is your peace. May God grant it for Christ’s sake. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.