Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it’s for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”That’s your theme statement. That’s what John is about to develop, and he’s going to filter his material to this end. He’s going to leave many questions out because he’s addressing this topic focally.
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.” “But Rabbi,” they said, “a little while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. It’s when he walks by night that he stumbles for he has no light.” After he said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I’m going to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he’s going to get better.” Jesus had been speaking about his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I’m glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let’s go too so we can die with him.” On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than a couple of miles from Jerusalem, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out of the house to meet him, and Mary stayed at home. “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Mary answered, “I know he’ll rise again at the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” After she 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. Jesus hadn’t entered the village yet, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who’d 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 wouldn’t have died.” 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 burst out in tears. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” Some of them said, “Couldn’t he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. There was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take the stone away,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there’s a bad odor. He’s been dead four days.” Then Jesus said, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you’d see the glory of God?” They took the stone away. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, thank you that you’ve 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’ve sent me.” When he’d said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, hither out.” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” Therefore, many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. The chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “This man is performing lots of miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this everybody’s going to believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.” (John 11:1–48)Jumping to verse 53: “So, from that day, they planned to kill him.” We end the reading of a long chapter in God’s Word.
These people are grieving and mourning and they look to Jesus, and he didn’t do what they wanted.We don’t know if it’s a wish or a little bit of accusation. Then it has this funny thing tacked in after it that lets you see what’s running the back of her mind. “I know that God will give you anything you ask.” She doesn’t even dare say it. Could that happen? It would be really easy to handle her anxiety instantly. “Martha, I got this covered. Relax we’re going to the tomb and he’s coming up.” But he didn’t. He chose instead to engage with Martha and move through a very real situation. He does that with us. We have good news, but he walks us through hard places and trials in which we grow. They’re not games. You may have noticed that. They’re not games to Jesus either. Jesus looks at Martha and says, “Your brother will rise again.” We can check with her, but my guess is what she next says is not what she was wishing. She probably didn’t even dare say what she was hoping, but we’ll find out. She says, “I know he’ll rise again in the resurrection at the last day. I believe in the resurrection. He’ll come, I’ll see him again. I’m reassured. I’m comforted by that.” It’s likely they comforted each other with that. We do that today, right? Someone has died and we look forward to seeing other people. I look forward to talking, don’t you? I spent a lot of my academic time studying Paul so I’m really interested. I would like a few hours with him as explains what he meant when he wrote this. Then we can talk to the Holy Spirit and Jesus about that too. How come it looks like this? “I know he’ll be there at the resurrection. He’ll rise again.” And Jesus carefully walks her forward with language that’s also going to stretch her. He does this so often. It’s kind of clear but then there’s more than just what’s being said. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Now in John’s gospel and in Jewish background “I am” is potent language. “I am the resurrection and the life.” She says, “He’ll rise at the end,” and Jesus says, “No, I am.” He’s pulling the attention right to himself. There’s been a lot of question about what he’s doing, but he’s pulling the attention here. “He who believes in me will live.” Even though he dies--you can bet your boots that she didn’t miss that language. “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Jesus so often chooses language that forces us to think, 'What is this? Can we see further into that? Can we bring this into the larger context of his message and of his work?'I suspect she was good with the first part of that. “Even if he dies he’ll live? That’s what I’m asking for.” Then this funny next piece, “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” “Well wait a minute, wait a minute. Lazarus is already dead. What are you talking about?” And Jesus so often chooses language that forces us to think, “What is this? Can we see further into that? Can we bring this into the larger context of his message and of his work?” “Do you believe this?”. “Yes, Lord.” And she actually doesn’t fully answer his question. I suspect she’s wrestling still with what it means. “But I believe that you’re the Christ the Son of God who is to come into the world.” This is a huge confession in a day when people wanted to stone him for saying that kind of thing. Then she goes to her sister, “The teacher is here he’d like to speak to you.”
We have a high priest who really knows our life.“Where have you laid him?” And Jesus burst out in tears. Some of them say, “See how much he loved him?” I want to emphasize here that Jesus does know the end. He knew the end from when the servant got there. He announced the end. He knew about Lazarus’s death when nobody had gone to tell him so he probably learned that from God. But he’s with a woman who is sobbing because she’s lost her brother and he is not saying, “It’s going to be okay.” He feels. He empathizes. He weeps. He bursts into tears. Jesus is not separate from our feelings even though he knows the end result. We have a high priest who really knows our life. Wow, I value that. He sees and he weeps. Many of us know places where we weep. It’s good to know we have a savior who really understands that. We learn that some people see his compassion and love, and others are saying, “Why didn’t you do something about it? You’ve done it at distance before. Why didn’t you help this man? Heals the blind.” So we begin to see people who see Jesus see him with some accuracy and they start to divide. Some to respond to trust and others respond with real cynicism and with criticism and it’s going to get bigger as we go on in the text. Then John carefully tells us that Jesus was deeply moved and troubled. The language there comes just before the weeping describes a gut level response of upset at the death, and it describes anger. He’s troubled and he’s angry-upset as well as sad-upset.
Trust and you will see the glory of God.And she’s saying that he’s been dead four days. It’s going to smell. You don’t do this. Trust and you will see the glory of God. And they roll it back. And now you want to see the scene that John has carefully drawn. We have the sisters in grieving and confusion. We have Jesus very much at the center. We have his disciples who are wondering, “What on earth is going on? Why did he sit there? How come this is not until death when he’s dead.? You have all of the people who have come to mourn who are watching this man who has worked great miracles, but there’s a cave and there is a dead man in there and it smells. What does Jesus say? We often miss it in the translation. We generally read it as Jesus saying, “Lazarus come out,” but it’s not what he said. He says, “Lazarus, hither out. Lazarus, come out to me.” God is glorified and the Son is glorified in this death. “Come out to me.” The whole narrative, people from wherever they are, Jesus is engaging them to learn who he is and by experience that he is trustworthy. Even in the terribly hard places, “Lazarus come out to me.” And the dead man came out. Can you imagine what happened when he started out of that tomb? What would you do? If you went to somebody’s tomb and he starts to walk out? We do horror movies but this isn’t a horror movie of that sort. There’s a dead man walking out of his tomb. The world will stop. People will have gasped. Some will have wept because he’s alive. Some will have been scared because dead men don’t walk. This hit like a truck.
The whole narrative, people from wherever they are, Jesus is engaging them to learn who he is and by experience that he is trustworthy.Jesus is teaching them about himself. He doesn’t take us away from all stress. He says, “I will be with you even to the end of the world. And if I walk you through the valley of the shadow I will be with you.” It doesn’t mean we don’t glorify him in really hard places.
As you walk in godly ways some people are going to be drawn to the Savior and others are going to deeply resent and reject.So Lazarus comes out. We have a million questions. Jesus tells him to take the clothes off. He’s done. He’s ready. Then the crowd splits. One side says, “Whoa,” and put their trust in him. The other side says, “This is too dangerous. We can’t have this.” Jesus does that. As you walk in godly ways some people are going to be drawn to the Savior and others are going to deeply resent and reject. We’re in a culture that’s made that decision. Increasingly if you follow Jesus you are going to be rejected. You are going to pay the price. Be the sweet savor, but then be prepared. There are people who turned against them and our culture is doing it now.
There are times when Jesus doesn’t do what we want, but what he does he does for the glory of God.We come in today at the end of this. There are times when Jesus doesn’t do what we want, but what he does he does for the glory of God, the glory of his Son, and he calls us to walk and glorify him by the walk. It’s wonderful when he does gracious things. Oh we celebrate that. We weep in joy when he does those gracious things and other times we walk and die. He is with you. We’re his servants. It’s not about what’s most pleasing to me. It’s about what glorifies as the Savior. My prayer is that you’ll get to know this one you really, really can trust, and that wherever he walks you your walk of faith will honor him and that you’ll know that peaceful relationship can hold you through that. Let’s take a moment to pray and then we’ll sing. Lord Jesus, you didn’t stay in comfort, but you gave yourself up for us. We had judgment coming. You took it. You came and loved us, and you dealt with Lazarus and his sisters not just for their comfort but for their good, and were glorified even in their suffering. Lord, thank you that you would show us yourself bursting into tears and feeling outrage at what death did to one made in the image of God and choosing in all of that to act for the good of your people. We worship you for that. Holy Spirit pray for your work to teach us to be trusting lights in a world. Lord, give us grace if the world splits around us the way it did around you. Lord Jesus, you said if they that they didn’t like you they’re not going to like us either. Give us grace to walk that way if that’s our calling. We pray, Heavenly Father, not because we’ve earned it, but Christ has, has loved us. We pray in his name. Amen.
Stephen Westerholm, Professor of Religious StudiesModern Pauline scholarship has largely done away with caricatures of Early Judaism, which arose out of ignorance of the sources, and replaced them with caricatures of the Protestant Reformers, spawned by a similar ignorance. This volume sets the record straight on a number of counts and raises the question of whether the concerns of the Reformers in their day may not have made them sensitive to aspects of Paul's thought to which moderns are oblivious. A provocative and timely study.
J. Todd Billings, Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed TheologyReformation Readings of Paul provides an insightful, bracing study of the apostle Paul's writings in light of their echoes and developments in early Protestant commentary. In this groundbreaking collaborative study, biblical scholars do not simply 'leap over' the history of interpretation, and historians make no attempt to claim that sixteenth-century reformers offer the final exegetical word. Yet, in moving beyond the common caricatures and attending to the concrete exegesis of key Protestant reformers, these biblical scholars and historians show the power and scope of Paul's writings not only in the sixteenth century but also today. This book is a model of interdisciplinary theological inquiry.
G. Sujin Pak, Assistant Professor of the History of ChristianityThis volume is a timely contribution to studies in the history of exegesis and Pauline studies, supported by an impressive array of historical theologians and New Testament scholars. Readers who desire richly contextualized and evenhanded evaluations of early modern readings of Paul will not be disappointed.
Timothy George, Founding DeanThis is a very important book that opens up a long-overdue conversation among biblical exegetes, historical theologians and students of the Reformation. In a series of sparkling essays, we learn how Luther, Melanchthon, Bucer, Calvin and Cranmer read particular Pauline texts and what that might mean for the renewal of the church today. A book for every pastor and teacher of Scripture." (Timothy George, founding dean, Beeson Divinity School, general editor, Reformation Commentary on Scripture)
Gergely JuhászIn preparation for the five-hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant reformations, this volume will appeal both to the exegetes and to church historians and will hopefully rekindle the interest in Early Modern exegesis.
William C. Roach, Senior EditorWe owe a great debt of service to Michael Allen and Jonathan Linebaugh, as Reformation Readings of Paul not only sets the standard for explorations in history and exegesis, it also, by God's grace, motivates contemporary readers to see through the commentaries of the reformers, and the interactions of biblical theologians, the writings of the Scripture, in order to recapture a Pauline perspective for the Christian life, which is a bold vision of our new life in Jesus Christ.
Bob Hayton, BloggerIn Reformation Readings of Paul: Explorations in History and Exegesis (IVP, 2015), editors Michael Allen and Jonathan A. Linebaugh take the time to bring the Reformers to life as readers of Paul. The book brings a fresh look at the exegetical readings of Luther and other Reformers, showcases the historical and theological background of their era, and then seeks to bring these insights into conversation with current Pauline studies. . . . This volume promises to be an intriguing read.