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Seeing is Believing – John 11: 45

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

There is an old expression that goes, “Seeing is believing.” It means that people will believe what they see, even if they don’t believe what they are told. It is an interesting standard because sometimes we see things that we shouldn’t believe, like a magician’s tricks or a movie that presents something as real that is actually a deception.

However, in this case, Jesus left no room for doubt. Lazarus was dead; buried, and like the old joke about what Mozart and Beethoven are doing these days, he was decomposing. Jesus called him back to life and people saw it happen. Not just a few people, either. John tells us that “many” of the Jews believed in Jesus after seeing this demonstration of God’s power.

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Mega-Metaphor – John 11: 43-44

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘’Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, ‘’Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Please forgive me if I am reading too much into this passage, but I think that there might be a living metaphor here for us. Lazarus has gone where no man wants to go. He is dead and buried, decaying in the flesh. He has become a perfect symbol for the effects of sin on the human condition.

Into the darkness where his body lies, decaying, comes Jesus’ voice: “Lazarus, come out!” At the command of Jesus, the corrupted flesh of the dead becomes new again. The heart starts beating again, the brain functions again, and the body moves. In coming back to life, Lazarus becomes the symbol or metaphor of what Jesus wants for all people: to come back to life in Him.

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Jesus wants you! – John 11: 40-42

Then Jesus said, ”Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ”Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

During WWII there was an Army recruitment poster that had a picture of Uncle Sam with his finger pointed at you, the reader. The caption read, “Uncle Sam Wants You!” The idea was that you, too, had a place waiting for you in the service of the country.

Jesus wants you, too. But not because he needs you or that there is anything you can do for him. Jesus wants you because he is your Maker, and he loves you. He wants you to know him and believe in him, and he is willing to go to the ends of the earth to earn your trust.

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Bad Smell – John 11: 38-39

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ‘’Take away the stone,” he said.
‘’But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘’by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

One thing that sets the Bible apart as historically valid is its honesty in presenting unpleasant details. The Gospel writers do not gloss over the aspects of life or, in this case, of death, that might offend the sensitive reader. Death stinks. Literally. Decomposing bodies smell bad, and in the warm climate of Judea, decomposition would start to take place quickly.

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Master Plan – John 11: 36-38a

Then the Jews said, ”See how he loved him!”
But some of them said, ”Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.

Sometimes a guy just can’t do anything right. Jesus demonstrates compassion towards Mary and the loss of her brother and while some people see, “…how he loved him!” Other people seem to complain; couldn’t he have kept this man from dying? Yet even the complaints move Jesus because they speak of faith in what he could have done.

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Encyclopedic – John 11: 35

Jesus wept.

Why do we cry? In my experience, it is something that we generally don’t have control over. (Yes, I know that some folks are very good actors and can control such things.) Powerful emotions that well up within us evoke unusual responses. Sometimes that response is such that we cannot speak at all. At other times tears well up and overflow our eyes. This is what happened to Jesus.

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Compassion – John 11: 33-34

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ”Where have you laid him?” he asked.
”Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus is man and also is God. As God, he is able to “know” what is in the hearts of men. He doesn’t have to ask what people are thinking. He knows. Time and again we see this aspect of Jesus’ nature in the Gospel stories.

Jesus is also a man. In particular, he is a man who has suffered. As if normal suffering wasn’t enough for our Creator, he was required to suffer forty days in the wilderness without food. At the end of that time, hungry and weak, he was tested by Satan. Jesus knows what it means to go through hard times.

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Deep Sorrow – John 11: 28-32

After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. ”The Teacher is here,” she said, ”and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, ”Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

We have heard Martha’s statement of faith, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” Now we are hearing Mary’s statement of faith. Mary firmly believes that if Jesus had seen her brother dying he could have stopped it from happening. Jesus would have been able to heal her brother and make everything okay again. Her words are, to my ears, a plaintive cry of lament.

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Do You Believe This? – John 11: 25-26

Jesus said to her, ”I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

As a human being, it is hard for me to get my head around what Jesus is saying here. When he says, “I am the resurrection and the life,” I think he is being quite literal. Coming from a guy who speaks mostly in metaphors, this change of gears is hard enough to keep up with. Looking at the content of what he says makes it even harder.

My tendency, as an engineering type guy, is to think of salvation as a sort of mechanism. I think in terms of process and process means that there are moving parts and things I need to do, levers to pull and ’cause and effect’ stuff going on.

Only there isn’t.

It is just Jesus.

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