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Tag: Lazarus

Jesus – Traveling to and from Bethany

Departing Bethany

Jesus the Messiah has just given the Jews of Judea a sign proving that He IS the Son of God. For after traveling some distance on foot to Bethany the Lord arrived to find his friend Lazarus dead. Then to the amazement of all, Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb.

The Messiah gives back to a man dead in the grave life itself!

We pause once more in the chronological events in Jesus’ journey to the Cross and His own resurrection to look back briefly at Bethany, the town of this miracle, from Luke’s Gospel.

Luke 10:

Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come…

“Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

This was Jesus’ caution to seventy disciples following Him. Do not be so innocent as to think that because God will save you that God’s enemies of this world will not harm you.

“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”
Luke 10:16 – Commission of the Messiah Jesus to followers

Jesus travels these roads between Galilee, Samaria and Judea. The Lord’s disciples know the dangers of travel in these places.

“Who is my neighbor?”

Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan to listeners familiar with a distrust of other travelers. The villains, however, turn out to be just the type of religious officials we look up to at church!

Luke makes his point from Jesus’ parable most likely told to crowds coming to Jerusalem, then proceeds to introduce us to the family of Lazarus in Bethany.

Bethany

38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said,

“Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”

But the Lord answered and said to her,

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Luke then moves on with another time and place without providing detail about their brother Lazarus, who presumably is at work somewhere away from this scene.

Returning now to the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha on the Lord’s later journey witnessed by John.

John 11:

… Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.

The Apostle John proceeds to witness the motives of the Jews who sought to kill their Messiah.

Two paths leaving Bethany

(God-willing, we will return to this while considering Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem, completing that for which He was sent by God the Father.)

A road through Bethany to the Cross

Now let’s depart Bethany with Jesus as the Lord left after healing Lazarus from death itself.

54 Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews,

but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.

Returning to Bethany

Then as the Passover approaches many leave for Jerusalem with other pilgrims traveling to the Temple to purify themselves.

John 12:

Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him.

Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.

And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.

The Apostle John adds further description of the fragrance, adding the reaction of Judas with witness of his motives:

“Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”

“Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always.”

Dining with dear friends

Jesus and the Twelve have returned to Bethany from the small city of Ephraim in the hills to the north full-well knowing of the plot of Jerusalem’s religious leaders to kill them all.

Yet for a brief evening, they share precious mortal time together. No man knows the value of this more than Lazarus, their host and the Son of Man who must soon depart for Jerusalem one last time.

How they must have discussed the experience of DEATH.. and of RESURRECTION…

March 31, 2020
Lazarus – the Dead Man came out!
Witness of a Dead Man

What must it be like to be dead? (Have you ever thought about it?)

You get sick and perhaps pain increases. Your loved ones begin to look at you in a different way than when you participated in life with them.

Although John’s Good News focuses on Jesus, dear friend of Lazarus (who just happens to be the Messiah), the mourners present for this funeral now would see Lazarus in a new light. He becomes a dead man walking out of his own grave!

The Messiah Jesus, after having been to Jerusalem for a festival (and likely Bethany) receives a message from Mary and Martha asking for help. Jesus continues His mission while returning to Bethany, arriving four days after Lazarus’ death. The Messiah mourns publically the death of His friend.

But then a turn of events for the dead man unexpected by the mourners of Lazarus.

John 11:

38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb.

It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

One does not go into the place of the dead to pray for their soul. And what else can a mere man do to help one that has died?

Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?”

This goes back to their conversation about death and resurrection when Martha first spoke with Jesus as He and the Apostles approached Bethany.

“If only you had been here, Lord,” said Martha, “my brother would never have died… “Your brother will rise again,” Jesus replied to her.
John 11:21-23 excerpt PHILLIPS

41 So they removed the stone.

Witness of a prayer

Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said,

“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.

I knew that You always hear Me;

but because of the people standing around I said it,

so that they may believe that You sent Me.”

Does God hear you?

If the Lord God hears you, then your public witness to the world around you had best be true.

43 After Yeshua had said this, he shouted as loudly as he could,

“Lazarus, come out!”

The Messiah Jesus (Yeshua) has just shouted into an open tomb to a dead man!

Does God the Father, Whom Jesus thanked for hearing Him, hear the Lord Jesus’ loud cry to Lazarus? Can a man dead for four days hear the loudest shout of earth or heaven?

Resurrection of a dead friend

“Lazarus, come forth.”

44 The man who had died came forth…

… bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth.

A dead man walking. This very sight of Lazarus bound in the wrappings of death must have terrified those present!

These sort of things do not happen.

“Now unbind him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go home.”

Some brave soul complied with the command of their Lord and Lazarus, a man dead in the grave, would walk weakly in amazement to the door of his own home, his sisters Martha and Mary at his side.

The Messiah Jesus, his friend, would accompany the one He had just saved from a death already experienced.

… for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth;
those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life,
those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
John 5:28b-29 NASB– the words of the Messiah Jesus
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You with ears to hear, 
hear the voice of Jesus 
calling out to your dead soul...

To be continued...
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March 30, 2020
Lazarus – Death and Resurrection
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Death and Resurrection
 Hosea 13:4 I have been the Lord your God
 ever since the land of Egypt;
 you know no God but me,
 and no Savior exists besides me.
 5 I knew you in the wilderness,
 in the land of drought.
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“Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. God’s bread is the man who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Yeshua told them, “I am the bread of life…
John 6:32b,34a NOG

The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus

John has already introduced us to those Jesus loves. Lazarus – HELP from the grave.

Now after a considerable walk from somewhere beyond Judea, Jesus arrives in Bethany.

Jesus walks into a scene of death visited by mourners who loved Lazarus but also religious officials from Jerusalem who sought to accuse their Messiah of blasphemy for previous signs on the Sabbath.

As reminder of both heavy hearts and hard hearts in the crowds:

John 6:

30 So they said to him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?

… 40 My Father wants all those who see the Son and believe in him to have eternal life. He wants me to bring them back to life on the last day.”

John 11

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem (less than two miles away).

He arrives at the funeral of Lazarus. No talk of death and resurrection here, just wailing and mourning his loss.

19 Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Yeshua was coming, she went to meet him.

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

Lord God

Ἰησοῦν κύριε – Iēsous kyrios – Jesus Lord

Martha addresses their Messiah and friend.

“I know that God, theos in greek referring to any gods, but for Jews and followers of Christ (a Greek word for Messiah), Martha’s confidence in God includes a mysterious relationship between this Son of Man and the HOLY SPIRIT of the LORD God!

“God with” – ὁ – ho – with the Holy Spirit, the very breath of life which hovered over creation.
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Gen 1:2
וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהֹום וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃
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“Who are you with,” we would ask?

Jesus, God with us, frequently answered religious critics with personally relational replies like,

“God is spirit, and those G3588 who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Now, out of compassion for a deceased friend and love for the family of Lazarus, the Messiah Jesus returns to Judea with nothing more to prove. (For the Lord had already raised others from death and healed some near to death of likely life-ending ailments to a cleansing of the flesh with life!)

Death and Resurrection

Death and resurrection always have connection. Will you rise again from the grave?

For Jesus’ friend Lazarus, temporary restoration of health and life in his case. Yet all understand judgment by the Lord God requires a raising of the spirit of your soul to life.

After flesh fails and bones decay to dust and ashes will the Lord also breathe life into a new body of each soul?

“..even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask him.”

23 Yeshua told Martha, “Your brother will come back to life.”

24 Martha answered Yeshua, “I know that he’ll come back to life on the last day, when everyone will come back to life.”

25 Yeshua said to her,

“I am the one who brings people back to life, and I am life itself. Those who believe in me will live even if they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

The Messiah of God!

Do you believe that?”

Pause to think:

“I am life itself!” Those who believe in Jesus ( יְהוֹשׁוּעַ ) will live even though we die. The Lord God IS our Salvation!

27 Martha said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who was expected to come into the world.”

She has said this – that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God – with witnesses surrounding her home — Jews who believe and Jews looking for excuse to kill Jesus.

… she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly,

“The Teacher is here and is calling for you.”

When Mary heard this she sprang to her feet and went to him.

30 (Yeshua had not yet come into the village but was still where Martha had met him.) The Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave. So they followed her…

The Messiah approaching death and resurrection

Compelling drama! – with much expectation.

Those who loved this family and mourned the loss of Lazarus would not have expected Mary’s sudden joy. Rather, they followed her to continue their expected public mouring for the death of a fellow Jew.

Imagine their surprise at the scene about to unfold.

33 When Yeshua saw her crying, and the Jews who were crying with her, he was deeply moved and troubled.

34 So Yeshua asked, “Where did you put Lazarus?”

They answered him, “Lord, come and see.”

35 Yeshua cried.

36 The Jews said, “See how much Yeshua loved him.”

An appropriate witness of the true personal compassion of the Lord Jesus. Yet listen to the dissent of hardened hearts.

37 But some of the Jews asked, “Couldn’t this man who gave a blind man sight keep Lazarus from dying?”

Jesus hears our complaints and the Messiah hears our kind words. All those comments of the crowds did not matter to the Son of Man sent to this place to weep – sent here to suffer for our sins.

38 Deeply moved again, Yeshua went to the tomb.

It was a cave with a stone covering the entrance.

39 Yeshua said, “Take the stone away.”
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To be continued...
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March 28, 2020