Do You Believe?
Good Morning Friends,
In today’s scripture is the shortest verse in the Bible… “Jesus wept.” As kids it was our very favorite passage to memorize. Yet in these words we see Jesus preparing to give us all new grounds for believing in a personal God… The Lord of Life. The story of Lazarus becomes our story too. We are all dead waiting for Jesus to come…to call us out of our tomb …to save us from our stink. And when he does, we… like those who saw Jesus first hand create this sign of God… have a choice of what we believe about life and death. Not just a resurrected life at the end of time but an abundant life of love right now. And that is why Jesus weeps. He weeps for Lazarus, He weeps for His death on the cross, He weeps for our sins, weeps because some will not believe, weeps because He is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings and people still don’t get it. He weeps because sometimes we fail to weep when we should. Yes some who saw Jesus first hand did not believe. Some did. It is no different today. Do You Believe?
Scripture: “Where have you laid him?” [Jesus] asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept.
John 11:34-35 (NIV)
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ But when Jesus heard it, he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘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 of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’ When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So 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?’ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’
John 11:1-44 (NRSV)
Message: Today we face the question about what we believe regarding the subject of death and we do it wrapped in another question, “Why did the King of kings and the Lord of lords cry?” The simple response is that it is natural…it is the normal response, a typical human emotion exhibited when one is confronted with death. Yet Jesus who holds the power of life in His hands still wept… There is weeping for those who die and rejoicing for those who believe in the power of life- The freedom of Jesus all human and all God. In John 11:27 Martha gives one of the greatest confessions in the Bible, saying in the face of Lazarus’ death that “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” These words of focus, devotion and direction bring balance. It is then that Jesus raises Lazarus. But first he cried. Jesus cried three times in the Bible. He cried when he heard about his friend, Lazarus’ death. He also had tears of sorrow for the city of Jerusalem. And finally Jesus had tears of struggle in the Garden, known as Gethsemane. Jesus cried in sympathy for the loss of a friend. He cried in sorrow for a Jerusalem that would be crushed into the ground because the people of this place did not accept the opportunity for salvation in Jesus. Jesus cried in suffering because he was heartbroken at the prospect of being painfully separated from God the Father. Some things are worth crying for…. and Jesus understands them all. He understands the power of tears and their worth in making us whole; in bringing us home …in bringing us together….He understands the healing power of tears. Here in our tears, Jesus connects to our pain and the very powerful human experience and emotion of grief. He knows every heartbreak and headache we have ever had. He even knows the joy that surprises us when He comes to comfort us. Friends, when we hurt, God is right in the middle of the experience. So today we look at the tomb of Lazarus it gets personal. And it prompts us to remember those who have died. It prompts us to review our own lives in light of the fact we all face the same future. It prompts us also to refocus the direction of our life in response to reality that this earthly life is unpredictable and short. Today’s message reminds us that ultimately there are only three things that are important in life… the people you love…. the people who love you and where you are going when you die. But sometimes our faith seems to need a miracle to sustain it. It is interesting that Jesus demonstrated His power at three tombs during His ministry. The tomb of the possessed man called Legion, the tomb of Lazarus, and His own tomb… the tomb of our Lord. What is striking about them is what happens at each regarding the supremacy of Jesus. Note that His supremacy is not an issue in the realm of the demonic; it is not an issue in the realm of God… Instead it is an issue and a problem only among man, both believers and unbelievers. How we encounter Jesus and His salvation and our hope of resurrection is important for everybody.
Pray that we have a friend in Jesus. Pray that we realize that Jesus understands our grief and comforts us when we have lost loved ones. Pray our tears of sympathy, sorrow and suffering bring us together in the hope of Jesus’ return. Pray we have hope after death…hope in the resurrection. Pray we have an expectation and belief that Jesus is coming to take us back home. Pray for strength that comes from trust in the Lord.
Pray we strengthen weakened faith. Pray we impart a fresh hope in people’s lives. Pray we sympathize with and aid those in need. Pray we become unbound from our own grave clothes. Pray that God shares our tears. Pray that we see Jesus and Lazarus as more than a sad story with a nice ending. Pray we gain understanding into the nature of our tears. Pray we not underestimate the power of empathy in building communities. Pray we rejoice in the life of Jesus in us.
Pray that when we are confronted with death that we use the experience to remember the lives of those we love, review our own life and then refocus our attention on the purpose God has for us in ours. Pray that we would be ready to unbind the grave clothes of others so that our actions would glorify Him. Pray that we would be willing to follow Jesus sacrificing for the benefit of others our pride and arrogance in favor of bringing comfort, joining others in the burden and pain of their crosses as we share tears. Pray that in our life we would find strength for today and hope for a tomorrow in the Lord of life that swallows up death in victory.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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