Food for Soul! 26

John 11:3-7,17,20-27,33-45

Mary and Martha sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’ Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’ On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’ ‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said: 'I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’

  

Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said: ‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer. I knew indeed that you always hear me, but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me, so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’ Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

Food for thought! Learning to cooperate with God!

As you know by now, Jesus raised three dead people from the dead. One had just died (Luke 8:40-56); the second, was being carried to be buried; the third is Lazarus in today's gospel reading; he had been in the tomb four days (Jn 11:1-44).

What is noteworthy about all of them, is the moment they were brought back to life: one had just died; another was on the way to the cemetery; the last was in the cemetery already for four days. It means that, for Jesus, time means nothing. He will rise those who died long ago, those who died recently, and those who will have died. He will rise us all who believe that he will.

In the time of Jesus, people believed that the soul of a dead person somehow remains with the body for three days. After three days the soul departs finally from the body never to return, and that is when corruption sets in. When Martha objects to the opening of the tomb and says, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days” (John 11:39), she is expressing the common view that this is now a hopeless situation. Hopeless it was from the human point of view.

Jesus' delay in coming made the situation become even more impossible and hopeless. G.K. Chesterton once said, “Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all.” This miracle is a challenge to never give up hope even in the hopeless situations in which we sometimes do find ourselves as individuals, as families, as organizations, as church or even as world. It is never too late for God to revive and revitalise us. But first we must learn to cooperate with God.

Did you notice that to effect the miracle, Jesus issued three commands, which were all obeyed to the letter. That is how the miracle happened and happens. First, Jesus said, "Take the stone away." The gospel says, "So they took away the stone" (verses 39-41). Did the people understand why they should do this heavy work of rolling away the tombstone to expose a stinking corpse? You bet they didn’t. But it was their faith in Jesus expressing itself not through intellectual agreement with Jesus but through practical agreement with him, through obedience. Why didn’t Jesus command the stone to roll away all by itself, without bothering the people? We don’t quite know. All we know is that divine power seems always to be activated by human cooperation and stifled by non-cooperation. As C.S. Lewis said, "God seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures." God will not do by a miracle what we can do by obedience.

The second command Jesus gives is directed to the dead man: "Lazarus, here! Come out!" and the dead man came out (verses 43-44). We do not know the details of what transpired in the tomb. All we know is that Jesus’ word of command is followed by immediate obedience. Lazarus gropes his way out of the dark tomb even with his hands and feet tied up in bandages, and his face all wrapped up. Even a man rotting away in the tomb can still do something to help himself; even in the midst of your problems you can and should cooperate with God.

The third command again is addressed to the people, "Unbind him, let him go free" (verse 44). Even though Lazarus could stumble himself out of the tomb, there was no way he could unbind himself. He needs someone to do that for him. 

Many of us today have fallen victim to despair and hopelessness and death of sin. Many people are already in the tomb of hopelessness and decay, in the bondage of sinful habits and attitudes. Nothing short of a miracle can bring us back to life in Christ. Jesus is ready for the miracle, but he needs and requires our cooperation. He himself said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Are we ready to cooperate with him for the miracle. Are we ready to roll away the stone that stands between us and the light of Christ’s face? Are we ready to take the first step to come out of the place of death? Are we ready to unbind (i.e. forgive) one another and let each one go free? 

With Jesus, we can rise up from where we fell, regardless of when. If and when we fall into sin, into hopelessness, into helplessness, into confusion, into despair, He can bring us back to normality, regardless of when we fell. It means that never lose hope in Jesus, with Jesus never write yourself or anybody off. You are never too dead of anything to rise up again. There's no sin, no state he cannot rescue us from. To him be praise and honour and glory, both now and for ever. Amen.