Coleman’s text for his sermon this past week was from John 11; the raising of Lazarus from the dead. You can find his sermon over on his blog. This passage contains my favourite verse in all of Scripture, and I had the pleasure of being able to read Coleman’s message as he wrote it, hear him preach in the morning service in Dawson Creek and then teach a Sunday School lesson on the text at the evening service in Grande Prairie. I woke up this morning still thinking about this story and the lessons, so I thought I’d type up some of my reflections and thoughts on my favourite verse and our Sunday School project and share them.
Now, there are some strange things in the story. Jesus hears that His friend is sick, and says that “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (verse 4) John tells us that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters, so instead of going to them, He lingers where He is for two more days. Then He gets up, tells His disciples that Lazarus is ‘resting’ and that it’s time to go wake him up. The disciples are pleased – if Lazarus is sleeping, he must be getting better, right? So Jesus tells them bluntly “Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.” (verse 15, emphasis mine) Jesus arrives in Bethany and is greeted first by Martha, then by Mary, and they both say the same thing: if Jesus had been there when Lazarus was sick, He could have saved him. The sisters had seen Jesus work miracles, they knew He could heal the sick. They both believed He could have saved their brother. But neither of them seem to think He can do anything for them now.
And it’s here we find my favourite verse. It’s the shortest verse (in English), just two words, verse 35: Jesus wept. Before He weeps, there is another verse telling us that He is upset. In verse 33, “when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.” And then in verse 38, “Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb.” Jesus was friends with Lazarus. He loved him. Now Lazarus is dead. But when we weep for someone we love who has died we weep for what is lost: their life in this world, our relationship with them. We weep for what we we have lost, and we grieve for each other, for friends and family who have now lost a precious relationship. But Jesus is God! He didn’t lose Lazarus. Lazarus wasn’t beyond His reach or His relationship. Jesus knew exactly where Lazarus was and what He was doing. And He’s already decided to “wake him up”. So why does He weep? When He sees Mary and those with her weeping, He groans and is troubled. Martha has acknowledged that He is the Son of God (verse 27) and confessed that she believes He is the “resurrection and the life” – but she still does not understand what that means. And Jesus weeps. He weeps for their sorrow, and their ignorance, for their grief and their lack of understanding. He weeps because they are hurting, and He loves them.
Jesus could have come earlier, He could have saved Lazarus and He could have saved them from the grief and pain of his death. But He didn’t. He waited, deliberately, until Lazarus had died. And He loved them. So there is something bigger in the raising of Lazarus than there would have been in the healing of Lazarus. Something better, something greater that meant He allowed them to suffer through the grief rather than simply sparing them. But they don’t understand that. They can’t understand why He didn’t come sooner, why He let Lazarus die, why He allowed their suffering in this.
And this is why that short little verse is my favourite verse, and quite possibly my favourite moment in the whole Bible. Jesus isn’t callous, isn’t hard, isn’t unmoved by their grief. He knows something greater will come from this, but He still weeps. He groans and is troubled and weeps for them, for both their suffering and their ignorance. There are times when I do not understand why the Lord is allowing something in my life. When I can’t see what His plan or purpose is. There have been so many times where I have thought ‘Jesus! If only you had been here sooner, stepped in sooner, stopped this, changed that, then I wouldn’t be hurt! I wouldn’t be grieving!’ And where I have wondered, like those sisters who didn’t say it, but may have wondered ‘Why? Why didn’t you come? Why weren’t you here? How could you let this happen? Don’t you love me?’. I don’t understand. I can’t see God’s purpose in my sorrow or suffering. But Jesus loves me, and He weeps. He weeps over my grief and my pain, and He weeps over my ignorance and my foolish, constant lack of trust. He weeps to see me suffer and He weeps to see me wandering, spiritually blind and lost. Our God is not a distant puppet master pulling strings and causing events and sitting back and watching from a cold hard distance. Our God came down to our level and He weeps with us. He weeps for us. He puts His arms out to comfort us as He works for our ultimate good, and He holds us and carries us when we don’t understand.
Our Sunday school lesson focused on some of the ‘whys’ in this story. Why did Jesus let Lazarus die and then raise Him from the dead? What is the deeper meaning here? We talked about an illustration Coleman used in his sermon, about telling the difference between being awake and dreaming. When you’re awake, it’s clear which is which, but when you’re dreaming… it can be hard to tell. Being spiritually awake and spiritually dead can be even harder to figure out. We talked about how this life isn’t everything. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, but at some point, he died again. The message about life that Jesus shared was that this life, this world is not all there is, and it’s not even the most important part.
Our story and craft was about a caterpillar. Have you ever read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle? You can watch and listen to Eric Carle read it here:
The caterpillar has a pretty good life. He’s got a goal: eat. He accomplishes that goal: he’s not hungry anymore. But that’s not all there is for the caterpillar. In fact, as good as life as a caterpillar was, it’s not even what he was meant for. Life as a caterpillar was all to prepare him for one thing: what came next. After sleeping falling asleep in his cocoon, the caterpillar wakes up, now a beautiful butterfly. There are some pretty cute caterpillars out there. But we usually only describe butterflies as beautiful. There is something finished, complete and glorious about a butterfly. And I think it’s a good picture of what God intends for us. Life here is not all there is, and it has a purpose, to prepare us for what’s ahead. How we live life here determines what happens when we move through that cocoon and emerge from the other side. Have we lived life spiritually dead? Or have we confessed our faith in the Lord and followed His commands, loving Him and others and allowing Him to spiritually awaken us? Life on this side of the cocoon has challenges and grief and pain and moments of confusion, blindness, and sometimes complete ignorance. But our God walks with us, weeps for us and is ultimately leading us to eternal life in Him.
Life as a caterpillar is pretty good…
…but he was made to be a butterfly!
It's Between Me and God 