The LORD has recently opened my eyes on one aspect of Lazarus’ death that I didn’t know. I was carrying-out some research on the web when the name of Lazarus popped up and in a flash, I understood things that could neither be humanly said, taught nor even comprehended in such a short time.
We probably all know the story of Lazarus which can be found in John 11. Lazarus and his sisters –Martha and Mary– were friends of Jesus who always stayed in their home whenever He was in Bethany. Lazarus became seriously ill and his sisters sent for Jesus. Yet, the LORD went on with His business as if He had heard nothing. Lazarus eventually died and Jesus only showed up four days after the burial: what a friendship! Many of us would run to their friends half naked after receive such alarming news about them. So, I can easily imagine the perplexity of the two sisters when the messengers came back alone.
"Where is the Master?"
"He did not come."
"Really? What did he say?"
"That He had taken note of it."
Yet, despite their distress, they may have thought that Jesus must have had very good reasons not to be there. He was certainly at the bedside of a grieving widow or was busy resurrecting the dead somewhere...
Jesus finally showed up four days after the burial and didn’t even bother justifying His delay or absence. I wrote a piece about this “absence” a while ago entitled: “God’s absence.”
We know the end of the story: Jesus raised His friend from the dead, thus performing one of the greatest miracles of all times. We have often thought and heard that He left Lazarus to die and spend four days in the tomb in order that God’s Glory should be demonstrated. Indeed, a resurrection miracle is surely more “glorious” than a healing one, isn’t it?
But this is the thinking of men and it was not that of Jesus. Jesus never wanted to impress the gallery. He didn’t need to prove to anyone that He was capable of… In fact, if the devil could stop lying for a moment, he would tell you how Jesus refused to change the stones into bread to prove that He was truly the Son of God (Mat 4.3-4). Moreover, the Lord knew very well –and this even before Lazarus’ death– that His miracles were often quickly forgotten; had He not said to the crowd, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves" (John 6:26)? Therefore, His motivation couldn’t have been the miracle; but something deeper.
Indeed, the death and resurrection of Lazarus are an image of the dying to self and the new birth. Jesus took His time so that Lazarus would come to the end of himself. He took His time so that Lazarus would die and rot to his old nature in order to be born again in newness of life.
It has always been said that He cried because of His love for that family and that it was a sign of His humanity. However, He had no reason to shed tears of grief knowing what He was about to do. Is He not the one who reminded the sisters not to give in to despair because He was the resurrection and the life? Jesus did not cry out of friendly love.
He wept because He knew exactly how difficult and painful it was to kill the old man. Had He not said: “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; if your arm causes you to sin, cut it?” He was not insensitive; He knew how such actions, although necessary, were painful.
He wept because Lazarus’ death gave Him a glimpse of His own agony in Gethsemane and His own death on the Cross.
He wept because He thought about the time that He was about to spend into the bowels of the Earth.
He wept because in the sorrow of Martha and Mary, He saw and felt the grief, the pain, the confusion, the stupor, the despair and the loss that His friends and all those who had loved Him would soon go through.
The death of Lazarus reminds us that whenever we go through difficult times and we cry to God and have the impression that He is not diligent enough, He is not absent: He is simply giving us the time to die to ourselves first. And when whatsoever which was supposed to die in us is finally dead and buried, the Lord of Glory always comes to call us out of the tombs of our testing and trials alive, new and more after His likeness.
As for how God enlightened my spirit and made me understand all that I have just written about (and even more) in a split of a second, I will only say that it is a wonderful illustration of how a God who is out of space and time interacts with creatures that are confined within space and time. But this is not today’s topic; is it? I just wanted to tickle your brain ;-)
Have a wonderful week and GOD bless you!
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