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Tag: resurrection

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
Lazarus – HELP from the grave
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name;
And deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake.

עָזְרֵ֤נוּ אֱלֹ֘הֵ֤י יִשְׁעֵ֗נוּ עַל־דְּבַ֥ר כְּבֹֽוד־שְׁמֶ֑ךָ וְהַצִּילֵ֥נוּ וְכַפֵּ֥ר עַל־֝חַטֹּאתֵ֗ינוּ לְמַ֣עַן שְׁמֶֽךָ׃
Psalm 79:9 – NASB, Masoretic Text

Where does my help come from?

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2 KJV

Each year as the festival crowds approached Jerusalem, weary and faithful Jews making the pilgrimage would pause to rest in places nearby before their walking ascent up the hill leading to the Temple.

Bethany would have been one of these places – a town where Jesus would stay with a good friend and later perform a sign the He IS the Messiah of Israel.

John 11:

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany…

John’s Gospel begins by mentioning the village along with details of Mary and Martha which do not happen until later, but of course have already happened by the time John writes his Good News to the churches and unbelievers.

Although we have just read of a story from the festival of Hanukkah where Jesus may have also stayed over at Bethany (we cannot be certain), I remind us that John’s Gospel is not strictly chronoligical.

The importance here relates to the characters – the real people of this family living in the village of Bethany outside Jerusalem. And what we are about to witness is not only a miracle and sign of Jesus, but the human love of true friends of this family by the Lord.

A messenger asks Jesus to help a friend

3 So the sisters sent a messenger to tell Yeshua, “Lord, your close friend is sick.”

These friends knew where to find Jesus, where He was preaching.

Jesus most likely had already been in this part of Judea, but departed for Samaria and other distant places as was His custom traveling from town to town preaching the Good News.

4 When Jesus heard it, he said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

John gives us an important background to their friendship without providing specific details of where Jesus was teaching, but he tells us something important about this family in Jesus’ earthly relationships.

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
John 11:5

It is the same description John uses so often to describe the Incarnate Lord Jesus – ἀγαπάω – agapaō – ‘of persons to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly.

Christians are to love the world in this same way Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus. For John uses this same word to describe how God ‘loved’ humans made in his image.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16 NASB – agapaō

Yet the messenger might have thought Jesus’s response to be somewhat dismissive. “This sickness is not to end in death…”

6 Yet, when Yeshua heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days. Then, after the two days, Yeshua said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

What do we fear?

Even in the unexpected crisis of these last days what does man fear most?

Death!

It was the death of their brother Mary and Martha feared. And the Apostles also fear capture and death due to several previous attempts by Jerusalem’s religious officials to kill their friend Jesus. The Disciples fear death even though Jesus had demonstrated His power over nature time and time again.

8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, not long ago the Jews wanted to stone you to death. Do you really want to go back there?”

9 Yeshua answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day don’t stumble, because they see the light of this world. However, those who walk at night stumble because they have no light in themselves.”

Jesus again assures His own Apostles that He is the Light of the world and reminds that Jerusalem’s leaders have no light of God in their actions.

Lazarus

… and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.”

Of course the Apostles continue in their regular banter questioning the Lord as to His motives. Yet before we proceed to Jesus’ sign, let’s take a closer look at His friend Lazarus.

Λάζαρον –

Λάζαρος
Lazaros – Lazarus = “whom God helps” (a form of the Hebrew name Eleazar)

Jesus also tells a parable of another man, Lazarus, a poor beggar who died and God helped.

אֶלְעָזָר

el·ä·zär’ – same meaning in Hebrew was the name of Aaron’s son, also a Levite Priest, as well as several others in this Bible.

Clearly, if Jesus is going to help Lazarus it is God who helps the man close to death.

Lazarus is dead

Jesus has not spelled it out in His first mention to the Apostles as they attempt to convince the Lord not to return to Judea.

12 Then the disciples said to him,

“Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.”

(The Disciples certainly do not care to risk returning to Bethany near Jerusalem.)

14 Then Yeshua told them plainly,

“Lazarus has died, but I’m glad that I wasn’t there so that you can grow in faith. Let’s go to Lazarus.”

How does Jesus know these things?

Can a mere man know such truths?

Of course the Disciples had witnessed such knowledge possible only from God before. Yet like us, they lack faith that Jesus can take authority over the situation as it involves their mortal lives.

16 Thomas, who was called Didymus, said to the rest of the disciples,

“Let’s go so that we, too, can die with Yeshua.”

Isn’t that how we feel when confronted by death?

How will Jesus help us, we ask ourselves?

Can the Son of Man HELP a man already dead?

That’s the question lurking in the back of our minds when we pray to God.

Can God help me even though I am dead? Will the Lord keep me from death?

Jesus returns to Bethany and eventually Jerusalem to answer the immediate questions of Lazarus’ death, the soon-to-be asked questions about the Disciples’ deaths due to following Jesus and most importantly our eternal questions about death appointed to each mortal man and our only hope of resurrection to the Light of eternal life.
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To be continued, God-willing...
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March 27, 2020