I’ve grown up listening to all sorts of genres of music from the 30s to the 90s, thanks to my Dad. But out of all the genres and eras of music that I’ve listened to over the years, I personally love 90’s and early 2000’s country. I can’t put my finger on why, maybe it’s the nod to classic country, while having modern arrangements, or maybe it’s the nostalgia of my childhood.
But as I’ve grown, my understanding of those songs have changed. Now this might not be the place to talk about this, but here we go. In the song “Friends in Low Places” sung by Garth Brookes, there’s a line in there that I remember picturing as a kid of what it meant. Do you know this line, “and the beer chases my blues away?” Well as a kid, I thought it said, “and the bear chases my blues away.” And I would just imagine a bear chasing someone’s sorrows away from them. Then one day I heard it, and I thought, wow, I really didn’t understand that song.
But there’s another song that in the last five years has come to have new meaning in my life. The song is sung by Tim McGraw and is titled, “My Next 30 Years”. The song was recorded in 1999, and released in 2000. I remember hearing it and just liking it. But when I turned 30, the song became something new for me. The opening lines read like this,
“I think I'll take a moment celebrate my age
End of an era and the turning of a page
Now it's time to focus in on where I go from here
Lord have mercy on my next thirty years”
The moving of one era of life into another. Of fully leaving behind adolescence, to full adulthood. Looking back on what has been accomplished and what lies before. This song spoke to me in a way, that my younger self couldn’t understand, because they hadn’t had the time to encounter the world around them. But it’s the final verse that hits home for me.
“My next thirty years will be the best years of my life
Raise a little family and hang out with my wife
Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear
Make up for lost time here in my next thirty years…”
Those words speak to a recognization of what life really has in store. The time that has been given to us is precious, and needs a more intentional approach than the haphazard one the we tend to do in our youth.
And it’s this idea of life, that brings us to our passage today. Where we’ll be looking at the book of John chapter 11. So if you have your Bibles, we’ll be in John chapter 11 starting in verse 1.
And as we open up to John 11:1, one of the four parts of the vision that God has given us here in the Alliance Church is this idea of life. We say it this way, “Pointing people back to the life that God has for them.” Not the life that I think someone should lead, but back to the life that God created them to live.
In the New Testament, the word life appears 223 times. If we break it down even further by book, the word appears 41 times in the book of John. That’s the most of any one book, almost doubling the closest book, which is Romans, at 26.
In John’s Gospel account of Jesus’ life, an intentional focus on Jesus’ message of life is on full display. In fact, in the first several verses of the book, it says this, “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind (John 1:1-4).”
John opens with an eternal description of who Jesus is, he is the Word of God, which is eternal and one with God. And then John adds that life is found in Jesus, he is the Creator God, and that the life found in Jesus, is the light in which mankind needs to walk in. This sets the rest of the book on a path of revealing that life. In fact, in chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, John reveals why he is even writing his book. He writes, “30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
John bookends his writing with this understanding that life is only found in Jesus. So today, let’s dive into the middle of John’s Gospel, chapter 11 starting in verse 1. And as we make our way through this passage, we’ll see three groups and their approach to both life and death.
1 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 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.”
So our setting is simple, Jesus’ friend Lazarus whom he has a brotherly love (phileó) for, is sick and his sisters send word to the One they know can heal him. But Jesus’ response is peculiar. He says, “This sickness will not end in death.”
Now, in verse 5, we’re told that they spend two more days where they’re at, and then Jesus decides to head out for Lazarus. The disciples then say this is verse 8, “8 ‘But Rabbi,’ they said, ‘a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?’” This is important because it shows the realization that possible death awaits the group if they return to the town of Bethany.
But Jesus follows this idea of speaking about light. 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” Jesus speaking about walking in the light, connects us back to John 1:4, where light and life are interconnected. So to walk in the light is the same as saying be focused on Jesus the Giver of life.
Following that bit of information, the conversation goes like this in verse 11,
11 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.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Did you see what just happened? The disciples and Jesus are on two completely different pages on what’s going on in this situation.
Jesus speaks of Lazarus being asleep, the disciples think then that he’ll get better, because Jesus said his sickness wouldn’t lead to death. But then Jesus has to clarify, no Lazarus is actually dead. Now, the disciples should connect the dots here: Jesus said Lazarus’ sickness wouldn’t end in death, but he is actually dead right now, but Jesus speaks as if he is merely sleeping, therefore Jesus is going to wake him up or resurrect him. But the disciples don’t connect the dots. And so Thomas believes that by going back to the place where Jesus was almost killed, that they too will be killed.
The disciples have this mindset of finality when it comes to going back to Bethany. Jesus was almost killed there, and they are now resigning themselves to death. But the reality is, they’re not ready to die. If we fast forward to when Jesus is arrested and killed, they all take off and run from death. The disciple represent our first group, the group that thinks death is a noble end, but is still fearful of it.
The disciples represent how we can glamorize death. We can just look at our society to see this. When I was younger I used to like watching films like Saving Private Ryan and the like. But now I find if very difficult to watch shows that glamorize death. Because the reality is, we glamorize death to cover up a deep fear of it.
Let’s drop down to verse 21, with Jesus’ arrival in Bethany and his meeting Lazarus’ sisters.
21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
With Martha, we see a little different situation than with the disciples. Martha understands that Jesus could have healed Lazarus if he was there, but she also leaves the door open for something else. Jesus then tells her that Lazarus will rise again, and Martha’s thought goes to a future resurrection. But that’s not what Jesus is talking about, we already know his intention is to raise Lazarus from the dead. And so Jesus tells her that he personally is the resurrection and life, and those who believe in him will never die. Now, Martha seems to believe that Jesus can raise someone from the dead, but in the practical application, we can see that she has trouble fully believing it.
After this conversation, Jesus meets with Mary, the other sister of Lazarus. In verse 32, she echoes her sister from verse 21, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Here, the sisters represent our second group, a group that believes that there is eternal life, but the real pain of death can overwhelm our trust in God.
I have seen this in people’s life when a love one dies. It’s easy to say I trust in God when there are good times, but when a love one is suddenly gone, the pain of the moment, makes it hard to trust.
Both these sisters believe Jesus is the Messiah. We’re told that specifically by Martha in the passage, and through John’s side note that Mary anointed Jesus with perfume. But the real pain of the death of their brother is blinding them to fully trust Jesus in the here and now.
It’s at this point that we get the famous shortest verse in the Bible in verse 35, “Jesus wept.”
My question is, why does Jesus weep? It’s not because Lazarus is beyond his power, because, spoiler, in a few verses Lazarus is resurrected. Instead, I think it’s because of the sorrow that surrounds him at that moment. Not because he is sympathizing or empathizing with the people in their sorrow, but because death as a finality in their and our minds that keeps us from experiencing Jesus’ life. Death has a hold on our society that puts us into bondage. We’ve seen it in the minds of the disciples, and we’ve just seen it in the minds of the sisters.
And take this situation for an example: in Jewish tradition, when a family member died, the effected family had to hire at least two flute players and a professional wailing woman. A whole subset of industry is created to deal with death. In our society, we have mortuaries, with caskets, and flowers, and cremation. That’s not say those things are bad, but rather death is so final and comes to us all, that we have to create these things to get us through it. And it’s in this context, that Jesus weeps.
Its not for Lazarus’ passing, or Mary, Martha’s or the people’s crying, it’s because death has a hold on us. We’re in bondage to it, and so Jesus weeps at our plight, he weeps, because death can blind us to real life, which is his life.
In verse 43, we get the climax of the whole passage,
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Lazarus is resurrected, and the people go on to rejoice because of it. In fact, in verse 45, it says, “45 Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.”
Because of Lazarus’ resurrection people believed, and they should. Up to this point in Jewish history, there has only been one resurrection recorded, and that was by Elijah in 1st Kings 17. And so, rejoicing should erupt because another person has been resurrected. Everyone should now fall down and believe that Jesus is truly sent by God.
But that’s not the case, because in the very next verse we read this,
46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”
49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
I think this is where the Scriptures meets our world. Jesus is the life Creator. He is the life Sustainer. Jesus is the life Restorer. And he is the death Overcomer. But to those whom death has it’s grip on, death is king. Death is an unscalable mountain. An all consuming beast, that we must placate for our own survival.
The Jewish leaders didn’t see in Jesus the resurrection and the life. They didn't see in Jesus the escape from death’s clutches, all they saw was their momentary escape from death’s hand, and all it would cost was the life of another.
But what we we tend to miss, is that death doesn’t stop there. One life isn’t enough. In the book of Acts, this same council of men, sacrificed Stephen to death. Because with death, one life isn’t enough. But this is the tendency of humanity under sin. We try to sacrifice others so that we may escape death’s call for just a little while longer. We believe death’s lie, that sacrificing an innocent would enhance or prolong our own life. This is our third group, a group that views death as something to escape by sacrificing other things to it.
Now, I’m going to speak on something right now, that I know some would say is political, but I believe it strikes at the heart of John’s presentation of Jesus’ purpose on this earth. Last week there were marches against abortion across the nation.
When I was young listening to the music I grew up with, I, at the least, was indifferent to the idea of abortion. I never saw a problem with a pro-abortion stance. It wasn’t until I read through the Scriptures that my mind was changed.
As I see Jesus weeping over death’s hold over humanity, I have come to realize that if the Savior weeps over it, then his people need to weep over it’s hold as well. It’s hold over mothers who have lost their children to this sacrificial system. A system that lays down one life, so that another can have a momentary reprieve. In Jesus’ interaction with children, and his response to death’s control over us, I see the Scriptures calling us to a place of mourning over the lost of life that is all around us.
But we shouldn’t just mourn over abortion as if that is the only thing that leads to death. Rather, we should mourn over the sin that brought death in the first place. Romans 6:23 reads, “23 For the wages of sin is death…”
Every act of sin, is a sacrifice to death. It’s allowing death to keep us in bondage, and rule over our lives.
But the Scriptures point us to hope. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. When speaking of Jesus’ own resurrection Paul quotes from the prophet Hosea in 1st Corinthians 15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
Through Jesus, the power of death is broken. Through Jesus forgiveness of sin has come. Through Jesus, new life is given. Our past life of sin is laid in the grave, and our new life starts now and last for eternity.
To those who have sacrificed at deaths’ alter, whether through abortion, through murder, through hatred, through lies, through deceit, through jealously, through theft, through all types of sin, there is new life available.
This is not the end of the story. This is merely the sleep before the awakening, the night before the dawn.
In Jesus, death has no power, and so we can move beyond it. We do not have to fear death, glamorizing it to cover up that fear as the disciples did. We do not have to let it blind us to our trust in Jesus as it did to the sisters. Nor do we need to sacrifice to it as the Jewish leaders did. Jesus made himself to be the sacrifice, and now death has nothing to hold over us. Because there is no condemnation in Christ.
Today, my challenge is simple. Do you glamorize death, does the real pain of death keep you from trusting God, or are there things in your life that you are sacrificing to death? It could be an addiction, of drugs or alcohol. It could be a decision of proceeding with an abortion. It could be the guilt of a pass abortion that death is holding over you. It could be a rebellious attitude. It could be a series of lies, of gossip, of breaking relationships for personal gain. All of it is being done at the alter of death, because all of it is sin. And as Paul writes in Romans 6:23, “23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
If you are struggling in one of these three areas, let us go to God this week to repent of sin. To turn away from the glamour, two turn to deeper trust, and to walk away from the alter of death, by going to God and opening up to the reality of sin in our lives.
Let us go to God this week and ask him to strip away anything that we would be doing, that sacrifices to death. Any sin that death uses to hold sway in our lives, that blinds us to Jesus or calls us to sacrifice to it. So that our lives, would reflect the life that is only found in Jesus. A life with no condemnation, but only forgiveness. Amen.
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