I must admit that whenever I read this passage I can't help thinking of our former Prime Minister John Howard likening himeslf to Lazarus with a triple-bypass. While his label was amusing (at the time, wearing a tad thin now), his transition to PM wasn't anything remotely close to the significance of Jesus raising Lazarus to life after several days buried in a tomb.
What I particularly love about this passage is the raw emotion, care and concern Jesus displays. In v33 "he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled." In v35 "Jesus wept" and in v38 he was "once more deeply moved". It seems pretty clear that he doesn't want Mary or Martha to grieve, but deems it necessary so that they, his disciples and the Jews who were present might believe.
Jesus delays his departure by 2 days so that (v15) his disciples may believe. Then there is a lovely interaction with Martha where Jesus questions her belief and she appears to respond in faith (v21-27), but more in a moment.
As an aside I find it interesting that when Mary comes to meet Jesus she hits him up with exactly the same question as Martha had done in v21: "If you had been here, my brother would not have died."(v32). When I'm reading the bible, I look for linkages in language as it often helps me to understand, but I'm not sure how much signficance (if any) the repetition here has...
Now back to Martha...despite her earlier v27 response to Jesus that she believes he is "the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world", by v38 she is questioning Jesus' decision to roll back the stone on account of the smell. (How often are we like Martha, believing but losing focus when it comes to crunch time?). In v40-41 Jesus makes it perfectly clear in public why he didn't intervene earlier - so that those who didn't believe might believe that Jesus is in fact the Christ, sent by God. And once Lazarus was raised from the dead we're told that Jesus partially achieved his aim as "many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him"(v45).
Phil (9am @ Engadine)
Tomorrows Readings: John 12, Deuteronomy 6
It's interesting to ponder what sort of attitude lies beneath the two sisters' and their same statement of "If you had been here, my brother would not have died."
ReplyDeleteThis is just a guess, but maybe they believe Jesus is completely powerful and capable of doing something as miraculous as bringing back someone seconds from dying, but they assume that if Jesus is not physically present at the time, that the need is off His radar?
Maybe they hadn't learnt that Jesus always knew what was going on, whether He was in the room or not, and that nothing escaped His notice.
I know that some people don't like the allegorical interpretation of this miracle, but I love seeing it as an illustration of our spiritual condition outside of Christ - that only he has the power to call us from spiritual death to eternal life in him.
ReplyDeleteLike you phil,I really like seeing jesus compassion and emotion on display here. Another comforting reminder that our elder brother has walked the path before us and can identify with our struggles, emotions and desires.