At the Tomb

Lesson #181

When Jesus saw Mary weeping at his feet and the Jews also weeping, he was greatly troubled and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” (John 11:34 ESV). The pieces are coming together, emotions are sober, and Jesus has a gathering of people around him. He asks where they laid Lazarus and they told him to follow them and they would show him. As they near the tomb where Lazarus lay, the emotions of Jesus bubbled over and “Jesus wept” (John 11:34 ESV). This is the shortest verse in the Bible, but it demonstrates the humanity of Jesus.

As Jesus wept, “the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”” (John 11:35 – 36 ESV). Again the Jews are divided into two groups. The first group speaks with candor and modesty and point out the love Jesus had for Lazarus, but the second group maliciously slander him for not healing Lazarus to keep him from dying. If Jesus had the power to give sight to a man born blind, then surely, they reason, he could have prevented this death. They had expectations of what Jesus should have done and since he failed to meet these expectations, they now turn against him with complaint. Have you ever expected God to do something for you and when he didn’t your expectation turned into a complaint? We need to be careful not to subject God to the desires of our flesh and limit him from doing greater things for us in his time.

“Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it” (John 11:38 ESV). Jesus knows what he is going to do with Lazarus and as a result Lazarus will again have to experience physical death. Jesus also knows the hatred that will increase against him when he links the raising of Lazarus to him being the resurrection and he knows the extreme suffering he must endure when he takes upon himself our sin and drinks completely the cup of God’s wrath and then dies in our place to defeat the power of death.

“Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”” (John 11:39 ESV). Jesus moves into action and gives orders to take away the stone that sealed the tomb where Lazarus lay and when he does, Martha cries out in shock and disbelief. Her thoughts go to the decomposing body of her brother and wants things left as they are to take their natural course. There is no thought, based on her earlier conversation with Jesus about the resurrection, that Jesus could take his decomposing body and raise it again to good health. Her course of action is to leave things as they are, but in so doing she limits Jesus in the work he was sent to do. She fails to grasp the fact that standing before her is the eternal Son of God who spoke the universe into existence. Beyond this, Jesus must demonstrate and convince those present that he is the resurrection and that he has the power to raise from the grave all who die in him. Jesus needed this decomposing body of Lazarus as a means of demonstrating to all of us that one day our decomposed bodies will be raised as a perfect eternal body to house our eternal soul. What a glorious day that will be and being in Jesus we will experience that resurrection.

Prayer

Father, as I write about what Jesus is about to do with the decomposing body of Lazarus and realize that he will raise each one of our decomposed bodies to perfect eternal bodies to house our eternal souls, I get real excited. What Jesus is about to do is such a clear example that he is the resurrection and what he will do for us in the end. Praise the Lord! Thank you Jesus!