Lazarus part 5 - John 11:37-44

Jesus is overwhelmed by the emotions and sadness expressed by those around him and falls in with them, weeping. Some of those in the group speculated “behold how he loved him!” And it’s important to point out that Jesus knows that he’s going to restore Lazarus to life in just a few minutes, but his reaction to the pain felt by others is “hey, let me miraculously fix is!” it’s “I’m so sorry that this happened” with his own deep personal sorrow. And isn’t that what happens to us in our lives. We suffer from the losses we endure because of this fallen world that we live in, and instead of rushing to perform miracles all over the place to give us back what we lost, Jesus suffers with us, comforts us, and allows that suffering to motivate us to draw closer to him, because who are you closest to? Those who are there for you when you are suffering. I think one of the most pivotal lessons in learning about God is when I realized that he wasn’t indifferent to my suffering, he was crying right along side me.

But of course there are those skeptics who ask, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” I have to stop and wonder for a minute, at what point do we say, “Hey this guy gave sight to a man born blind, but he sucks because he wasn’t here to specifically save this one guy from dying.” I think that we are at the point of ridiculousness. JTC explains the significance of the question saying, “The miracle by which a man blind from birth had been made to see was very generally known, largely because of the official investigation that had followed the healing. The Jews had been compelled to admit the actuality of the astounding occurrence; and the question now raised as to whether or why One who could accomplish such a wonder could not have preserved from death a man stricken with an ordinary illness, and that man one whom He seemed to have dearly loved, was an innuendo that the power possessed by Jesus was after all limited, and of uncertain or capricious operation. This manifestation of malignant unbelief caused Jesus again to groan with sorrow if not indignation.”

After asking for Lazarus’ location, the group took Jesus to the cave where his body had been placed. Jesus commanded “Take ye away the stone.” Martha was most disconcerted and protested, “Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.” Again, I can’t help but read Jesus’ response imagining him being irritated, but that says more about me then Him, surely. If it were me, I’d be thinking, “holy crap, what else do I have to do for you guys to just do what I say and stop questioning me all the time about everything?!” But looking at Jesus’ reply logically with what I know about who he is, I have to reread verse 40 thinking about the words in a manner that conveys reassurance. Jesus gently reminds Martha “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” Let’s not be too harsh with Martha right now though, she just lost her brother, probably quite suddenly, Jesus is telling her that He is the one and only Messiah and that he is going to do something. She probably didn’t want Jesus to have to deal with the smell of a dead body, maybe there is an embarrassment factor in there somewhere, especially considering that the Jews had absolute abhorrence for dead bodies. I imagine myself being in Martha’s place and I would probably be completely overwhelmed and shaking, too out of it to comprehend what was going on.

But Jesus’ command is obeyed and the stone is rolled away, and He starts praying. He gives thanks to the Father for listening to His prayers, and acknowledges that He knows that His prayers are always heard, “but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” He addresses Heavenly Father knowing full well that He doesn’t have to say the words out loud in order to gain the power to raise the dead. Let’s think about what would happen if Jesus hadn’t prayed beforehand, or if he had prayed silently. Jesus walks up to the grave, calls Lazarus name and he is raised from the dead. The people around Him watching might attribute this to the power of the devil. Why? Who knows, it makes no sense but if they are going to deny it, nothing needs to make sense. The people around Him could become confused as to what Jesus’ agenda is or something like that. By praying out loud, Jesus reminded all the people that He came from God, what he does is God’s will, and requires everyone who is going to deny the divinity of the miracle to understand that they are rejecting the very God that they profess to serve and believe in.

The IM comments, “Lazarus was a close friend of Jesus. This loving friendship is evident in the Savior’s emotions at the time of Lazarus’s death. In our day, the Lord has taught, ‘Thou shalt live together in love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die.’ The miraculous raising of Lazarus from the dead makes clear that in times of need and sorrow, Heavenly Father hears our petitions to Him.” In the case of Lazarus, he was immediately returned to his family, but that’s not usually what happens, in fact it almost never happens, so how does Heavenly Father answer our sorrowful prayers if he doesn’t perform a miracle right away? That’s the question right? How does heavenly Father answer our prayers? I would tell my primary kids that He answers prayers through peace in our hearts, through feeling his love. These are all very abstract concepts.

I was having a rough day yesterday, do I really think God answered my prayers with peace and love? Eventually, yes I think He did. My best friend is wise beyond anyone I’ve ever known, she talks me back form the ledge all the time and she did the same thing yesterday. Heavenly Father helped us meet so that we would have each other. In fact, we were in the same ward in California, then she moved to Utah in August of 2015. She moved 8 miles from my grandma’s house. At the time, her husband was looking for jobs all over the world and had prospects from North Dakota, Afghanistan, Washington, etc. What are the odds that he would be offered the perfect job in the same city that my grandma lives in? Slim to none, if I had to guess. But here they are, and that’s the first time I thought “hey maybe I’m moving back to Utah too.” He did all these things because he knew that we needed each other, he helped us be together, knowing that I was going to have a rough transition up here and that she would be able to help me through it.

When Jesus prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for hearing His prayers, he said some pretty significant things. He reminded all those around Him that He is the Son of God, that everything He does is only because of God’s will, and that He is also required to walk by faith, like we are. But what is just as important is what Jesus left out of his prayer. JTC comments, “He did not ask the Father for power or authority; such had already been given Him; but He gave thanks, and in the hearing of all who stood by acknowledged the Father and expressed the oneness of His own and the Father’s purposes.” This is an interesting concept and it makes me wonder when exactly was Jesus given the power of life and death? I’m pretty sure that Jesus was not given all of God’s powers until after the atonement, but this must have been given to him before. Or it could just be part of His priesthood abilities and that through his righteousness he was able to perform this miracle because God had willed it.

After praying, Jesus “cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.” He didn’t go in and get him, he had Lazarus come to him, I wonder if that is important, all this was done in full view of the people. After calling Lazarus out of his grave, “he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” If you think about someone having mobility issues after bring raised from the dead, the first thing to come to mind might be a zombie shuffling along, but here, Lazarus is having difficulty moving because he’s all tied up with “graveclothes.”

This begs the question, why did someone else have to take off the restrictive clothing for Lazarus? Why couldn’t the clothes just fallen off when he was raised? JTC brings up the concept and explains saying, “The procedure throughout was characterized by a deep solemnity and by the entire absence of every element of unnecessary display. Jesus, who when miles away and without any ordinary means of receiving the information knew that Lazarus was dead, doubtless could have found the tomb; yet He inquired: ‘Where have ye laid him?’ He who could still the waves of the sea by a word could have miraculously effected the removal of the stone that sealed the mouth of the sepulcher; yet He said: ‘Take ye away the stone.’ He who could reunite spirit and body could have loosened without hands the cerements by which the reanimated Lazarus was bound; yet He said: ‘Loose him, and let him go.’ All that human agency could do was left to man. In no instance do we find that Christ used unnecessarily the superhuman powers of His Godship; the divine energy was never wasted; even the material creation resulting from its exercise was conserved, as witness His instructions regarding the gathering up of the fragments of bread and fish after the multitudes had been miraculously fed.”

This might be similar to how miracles work in our own lives, we must do everything we can in our power to bring forth what we want, then Jesus can work on the back end with what we aren’t physically able to control. Expecting miracles to happen just because we want them to, is like wanting Lazarus raised from the dead but expecting the stone to be rolled away by itself, or not being willing to help him out of his graveclothes. I try to imagine what the scene would have looked like if Jesus had done all those things himself, instead of asking others to do what they were capable of. I imagine Jesus walking straight up to the tomb, hurling away the stone like magic, Lazarus strutting out naked and everyone thinking, “wait, what?” I would look like a circus, like a staged performance, it would have caused a scene, similar to the scene that Jesus would have caused if he had accepted Satan’s temptation to prove he was the Son of God by jumping off the pinnacle of the temple. That sort of blatant display is not conducive to faith or confidence, so Jesus refrained in this instance, just like he did when tempted by Satan. Having other people involved in the process of Lazarus’s revival also allows them to be witnesses of the truth themselves. For lack of a better phrase, kind of a “see this, there are no strings holding him up, this really is the power of God.”

We’ve talked quite a bit about the three instances we have recorded when Jesus raise someone from the dead, Jairus’ daughter, the son of the widow of Nain, and now Lazarus. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as explaining the different between Lazarus and the first two instances. He says, “With ‘our friend Lazarus’ it was different… Two reasons in particular stand out. (1) As our Lord neared the climax of his mortal ministry, he was again bearing testimony, in a way that could not be refuted, of his Messiahship, of his divine Sonship, of the fact that he was in very deed the literal Son of God; and (2) He was setting the stage, so as to dramatize for all time, one of his greatest teachings: That he was the resurrection and the life, and immortality and eternal life came by him, and that those who believed and obeyed his words should never die spiritually.” Raising Lazarus was the dead wasn’t about him personally, it was about Jesus being the Son of God. Like Jesus explained when the message came about Lazarus’s illness, these events were for the glory of God and to strengthen the testimonies of those who already had an inkling of belief.