I haven't written for a while, but neither has Reid, so I thought I'd jot a few notes that are on my heart today. Reid, add your own thoughts too. I'm not analyzing this story in all its minutiae.
I'm reading through the Lazarus story in John 11 this morning. As Good Friday's cross begins to cast a shadow on this spring day, it's good for me to be brought to this pinnacle of the book of John. This "sign" is in the exact middle of the book of John. Everything--all of the miracles, all of the teaching, all of the mentoring--it's all pointing toward this moment. It is a long chapter. It seems as if John savors every moment of it in the post-resurrection remembering. It is the story of God who loves fiercely and visibly. God shows this sign so that people might believe that every natural and supernatural power are under his control. Jesus "He Who Saves" comes to the rescue of Lazarus "He Whom God Helps". As a reader and hearer, I am brought to utter the words of Thomas in v. 16, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." This is the last sign of Jesus (other than the resurrection, but that's THE event). From this day until the empty tomb, significantly, Jesus signs and wonders cease.
Jesus really did love this family, but oddly he chooses to stay a couple of extra days away when he hears his friend is sick. He deliberately, yes deliberately allows Lazarus to die and his sisters to grieve. There can be no confusion as to his power. In the past, whether it was the Widow of Nain or Jairus, Jesus went immediately. In those two resurrection stories, we don't get the intense emotional reaction of Jesus toward their deaths. They seem utterly simplistic. But here, as Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem for the last time, it seems that he is seeing beyond the situation of Lazarus toward his own.
The disciples are confused with Jesus words. If Lazarus is asleep, why would Jesus needlessly risk his life in order to rouse someone from an extended nap? They are manifestly unprepared for the spiritual shock of faith that is to come. They are upset with Jesus. If we could reverse a statement for a moment and understand this through their eyes. Why are you looking for the dead among the living? And of course, though Luke records it, the angels ask "Why do you seek the living among the dead?"
Jesus says, "Our friend is asleep. I go to wake him up."
We could probably just dwell on those words all day and for the next ten. This is the hope of the world. It is the extent and the strength of God. It is the event that turns the religious establishment fatally against Jesus. We may wonder why people would rather people stay dead, but that's for another discussion. Here it is enough that Jesus goes to rouse Lazarus from his stony mattress.
And Lazarus is raised. Jesus has poured out his tears of love, frustration, anger and hatred of the enemy over the entrance of the tomb. He has been moved to his very core to understand that the resurrection of this man would not solve the dilemma of the world. It would be his own resurrection that would be the cure. But in order for there to be a resurrection there must be the cessation of his own breath.
We are all Lazari in our own right--those whom God helps. We are all loved by God to death and through death. And every morning, when you groan your first yawn, maybe smile a bit too. Jesus has promised to go and wake you up too.
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