PART 5 – EXPLORING THE EMOTIONS
​
Chapter 28 - AND JESUS WEPT
​
In the previous chapter I talked about God being angry with David for his sin, and desiring to be reconciled with David, and suggested that it was not only David who lost his joy when the guilt of sin broke their relationship.
It’s common for Bible scholars and preachers to argue that when we use this kind of language we are just using human terms to describe a God that we can’t fully understand. God does not have emotions in the same way that we do. But is that a Scriptural conclusion?
​
Colossians 1:15 tells us that, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.” God the Father sent Jesus into the world to give us an example of His likeness in human form, so that we can more fully understand His divine nature. That “visible image” doesn’t refer to Jesus’ physical appearance. Interestingly, the Gospel writers give us not even a single hint about Jesus’ physical make-up – his height, his hair style,, the colour of his eyes….. Rather, the picture that is painted for us is of Jesus’ character, his love, compassion, righteous anger, and sorrow over the plight of those who are lost and yet refuse to accept him as their Salvation.
​
Our God is indisputably a relational God. The doctrine of the Trinity raises many theological difficulties, but it does lead to the conclusion that the Godhead involves within itself fellowship, communion and harmony between Father, Son and Spirit. And God created mankind in order to share that experience of fellowship and communion, both with one another, and with God their creator.
​
Jesus gives the highest priority in his ministry to developing positive and lasting relationships with his disciples and followers, and there were a few among them with whom Jesus developed very close and intimate friendships. The apostle John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, and in the story we are considering in this chapter we explore Jesus’ special friendship and emotionally intense relationship with Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
​
And in a way, this story also involves a loss (or at least a potential loss) of relationship and a very emotional reconciliation. I’m not referring to Lazarus’s resurrection, but to the tension that arises between Jesus and Lazarus’s sisters, Martha and Mary, who are driven in their grief to put the blame on Jesus for their brother’s death.
​
As you read the story below, put yourself in Martha and Mary’s shoes. Remember how, in the story of Ruth and Naomi which we explored earlier, we saw how the experience of grief caused Naomi to feel angry and bitter against God. How did Mary and Martha’s experience of grief affect their relationship with Jesus? How did Jesus respond to Mary and Martha’s emotional turmoil and bitter sense of loss?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (from John 11:1-48)
Jesus had a very good friend called Lazarus, who lived in the village of Bethany, not far from Jerusalem, with his sisters Mary and Martha. This was the Mary who, later on, poured expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair.
​
Jesus was teaching the crowds by the River Jordan when Lazarus fell sick. So his sisters sent word to Jesus, telling him, “Lord, your dear friend Lazarus is very ill”.
​
When Jesus received the message from Mary and Martha, he said to his disciples, "Lazarus's sickness will not end with his death. On the contrary, God has arranged this for His glory; so that the world will see the glory of the Son of God."
​
So although Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus very much, he stayed where he was in Galilee for two more days. Finally, he said to his disciples, "Let's go back to Judea. Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I will go back to Bethany now and wake him up."
​
The disciples said, "Lord, if he is sleeping, then he must be getting better!" They took Jesus’ words literally, and didn’t understand what he really meant.
​
So Jesus told them straight, "Lazarus is dead, and in truth I'm glad I wasn't there to heal him. This is all happening for your benefit, so that you will learn to believe in me. Come on, let's go and see him."
​
Jesus’ disciples weren’t happy about going back to Judea, because of the controversy and opposition to Jesus’ teaching. “Just a few days ago,” they said, “the people were trying to stone you!”
​
But Jesus answered them, “There are twelve hours of daylight each day. When the light is shining, people can see where they are going and not stumble. But if they go out at night they are in danger of stumbling, because they have no light to guide them.”
​
So they set off to travel back to Bethany, but by the time they arrived, Lazarus had already been sealed in his tomb for four days. Many of Lazarus’s friends and acquaintances had come from Jerusalem, which was just a few miles away, to bring their condolences to Mary and Martha.
​
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, why didn’t you come straight away? If you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask for."
​
Jesus told her, "Your brother will rise to life again."
​
Martha replied, "Yes, I know that he will rise at the Resurrection, on the Last Day."
​
Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will continue to live, even though they are dead. Whoever lives in me and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this, Martha?"
"Yes, Lord," Martha told him. "I have already come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one whom God promised to send into the world."
​
Then she returned to find Mary. She took Mary to one side and told her, "The Teacher is here and he wants to see you." So Mary quickly got up and went to find him where Martha had left him, just outside the village.
When Mary got up and left in such a hurry, the mourners who were at the house with her assumed she was going to Lazarus's tomb to weep. So they followed her and witnessed her meeting with Jesus. Mary fell at Jesus’ feet and said, "Lord, if only you had got here in time, my brother would not have died."
​
When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the others weeping along with her, he was deeply moved and troubled in his spirit. "Where have you laid him?" he asked them. “Come with us,” they said, "Come and see his tomb." And Jesus wept.
​
The people who had come there to mourn said, "Look how much he loved Lazarus!" But some of them said, "This man made a blind man see. Couldn't he have kept Lazarus from dying?"
​
Jesus was deeply moved when he arrived at the tomb, which was a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. Jesus told the people to roll the stone away. But Martha spoke up and said, "Master, the smell will be awful! He has been dead now for four days." Jesus replied, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
​
So they rolled the stone away from the entrance. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me, but I say this out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me."
​
Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" And the man who had been dead came out, still in his grave-clothes, his hands and feet wrapped in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus told them, "Take off his grave-clothes and set him free!"
​
When the mourners saw what had happened, many of them believed in Jesus. But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the high council. "What are we going to do?" they asked each other. "We can’t deny that this man is performing many miraculous signs. If we allow him to carry on like this, soon everyone will believe in him!”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly, let’s look at the background to this story. If we look back at the previous couple of chapters in John’s Gospel, Jesus has been causing quite a bit of controversy. In chapter 9 Jesus heals a blind man. He spits on the ground, mixes his saliva with earth to make a mud paste, and spreads it on the man’s eyes. Then he tells the man to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. The man did as he was told, went to wash in the Pool of Siloam, and was then healed and able to see.
​
But this miracle happened on the Sabbath day, which caused considerable controversy. Some people tried to deny the miracle happened by saying that the man who now claimed to have been healed was not the same man. Others (especially the religious leaders) said that if the miracle had happened, it could not have come from God, because God would not approve of doing work on the Sabbath.
​
Eventually the Jewish leaders tracked down the man’s parents and asked them what they knew, and they confirmed that the man was their son, and that he had indeed been cured from his blindness. But the controversy continued. The religious leaders insisted that Jesus could not be from God because he was a sinner (for working on the Sabbath), but the blind man himself believed in Jesus as the Messiah.
​
Jesus continued teaching in Jerusalem, and in the Temple, but in the face of continued violent opposition from the Pharisees and religious leaders, Jesus decided it was safer to leave Jerusalem for a while and went to the other side of the River Jordan, close to where he had been baptised. Many of those who came and listened to him there believed in him and found new hope and purpose in Jesus the Saviour.
​
And it’s while he is there by the River Jordan that the message arrives from Mary and Martha. But Jesus deliberately waits for two more days before he reacts, leaving enough time for Lazarus to be no longer ill, but dead!
The “upper story” – God’s purpose and plans
​
It’s clear from Jesus’ conversation with his disciples that he is fully aware of the situation. He know what is happening, and what the Father intends him to do about it. Jesus tells the disciples:
"Lazarus's sickness will not end with his death (Lit: is not unto/with regard to death). On the contrary, God has arranged this for His glory; so that the world will see the glory of the Son of God."
​
It often takes quite a bit of digging and deciphering to work out what Jesus means. You have to look beyond the literal meaning of the words to the underlying spiritual implications. The disciples understood Jesus to be saying (at least initially) “Lazarus is not going to die”. But that’s not true, because Lazarus will die. We could interpret this saying as a deliberately incomplete truth: “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in his death, but in his resurrection”. But there is another option (this would be my preferred option) which would be, “The ultimate goal/purpose of Lazarus’s sickness is not about saving Lazarus’s life, but about giving God the opportunity to show his glory, so that the world will see the glory of the Son of God”.
​
There is secondary purpose which Jesus refers to when he goes on to tell the disciples:
"Lazarus is dead, and in truth I'm glad I wasn't there to heal him. This is all happening for your benefit, so that you will learn to believe in me."
​
The purpose of this, and other miraculous signs that Jesus performs, is to demonstrate his divine power, and to convince the disciples, who are very slow to learn, that he truly is the promised Messiah.
​
When the disciples object to going back to Judea, Jesus gives them a rather cryptic answer. It sounds a bit like a riddle, or a cryptic crossword clue.
“There are twelve hours of daylight each day. When the light is shining, people can see where they are going and not stumble. But if they go out at night they are in danger of stumbling, because they have no light to guide them.”
​
The most likely interpretation of Jesus’ words would be along the lines, “I’m only here on earth for a limited amount of time – I need to make use of every available opportunity while I’m here in order to demonstrate the light of the glory of God.” Here Jesus is referring to the overall purpose of his ministry on earth, to reveal the image of God the Father in human form, so that, in John’s own words, people might “believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing in him might have life by the power of his name.” (John 20:31). Lazarus’s death is one important piece in that greater plan.
Collateral damage
​
But Jesus must be aware that his delay, and Lazarus’s consequent death, will cause some “collateral damage” – and I’m not referring to Lazarus. Jesus knows in advance that Lazarus “is only sleeping”, as he puts it. Lazarus’s death is a temporary measure. We have no idea whether Lazarus has some kind of after-life experience during the four days he is in the tomb, or whether he just wakes up surprised to find himself swaddled in grave-clothes! We have no account of any interaction between Jesus and Lazarus after his raising from the dead, though we do know that Jesus visited the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha again just six days before he celebrated his final Passover meal with the disciples. We have to assume that Lazarus appreciated the reasons for his “real-death” (as oppose to near-death) experience and counted himself blessed by God to be chosen for this demonstration of Jesus’ power and his Son-ship.
​
But Mary and Martha have no fore-knowledge of God’s plan for their brother, and are heartbroken, stricken with grief for Lazarus’s death. And this grief is made worse by knowing that Jesus could have healed him if he had been there. The big question they both have for Jesus to answer: “Why didn’t you come when we needed you?!” From their viewpoint, Jesus has let them down badly, has allowed their beloved brother Lazarus to die, has ignored their pain and their grief.
​
Jesus knows what goes on in the hearts of Mary and Martha, and as the unfolding story continues, we see that Jesus is deeply affected by their grief and pain, and takes steps to resolve their questions and doubts, and bring about a healing and restoration of their relationship.
Jesus and Martha
​
When Mary and Martha hear that Jesus is coming to Bethany, Martha immediately goes to meet him, leaving Mary at the house. We will consider Mary’s reaction shortly, but it is convenient that Jesus has the opportunity to interact with each of the sisters independently, and as we will see, their emotional needs are quite different.
From other familiar stories about Mary and Martha, we tend to see Martha as being the busy, active sister, and Mary as being more quiet and reflective. But here it is evident that Martha has been responding to her grief and disappointment by thinking through the issues in a very reasoned manner. And she has not entirely lost her trust in Jesus’ ability to resolve the situation.
​
Martha initially questions Jesus, "Lord, why didn’t you come straight away? If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But she doesn’t stop here, she still maintains a faith In Jesus’ power, “… even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask for."
​
Martha’s answer shows a deep spiritual insight. She clearly understands that Jesus’ power to heal and to work miracles comes from God and that it is Jesus’ personal relationship with God the Father that enables him to do the things that he does.
​
So Jesus continues to challenge her faith and lead her on to the next step: "Your brother will rise to life again."
​
Martha assumes that Jesus is speaking of the future resurrection of the saints on the Day of Judgement: "Yes, I know that he will rise at the Resurrection, on the Last Day." Even though Martha misunderstands Jesus’ meaning, this is still a very positive response from Martha, since it shows how her certain hope in future resurrection is helping her to cope with the present grief. No doubt Martha would have appreciated Paul’s description of future resurrection as a “wonderful secret”:
Let me tell you about a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be changed – transformed!
This will happen in a single moment, in the blink of an eye, when the trumpet sounds to announce the Day of the Lord. At the sound of the trumpet, those who have suffered earthly death will be raised to life again with new bodies that will never grow old or die. And we who are still alive on earth will also be changed. For our earthly bodies that are subject to corruption and decay must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will remain whole and perfect for eternity. (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)
​
So Martha is certain that Lazarus will enjoy the wonderful experience of receiving a new, incorruptible body and live for ever in God’s eternal kingdom. Jesus doesn’t correct Martha’s misunderstanding – she will very shortly see how Jesus’ words will be literally fulfilled. But he pushes Martha’s faith still further:
"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will continue to live, even though they are dead. Whoever lives in me and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this, Martha?"
​
Jesus is prompting Martha to acknowledge that the hope of future resurrection is not just based on a religious creed, but on a personal relationship with Jesus the Messiah: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will continue to live…” And Martha confirms that her hope is indeed in the person of Jesus Christ:
"Yes, Lord, I have already come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one whom God promised to send into the world."
​
Martha hasn’t yet seen Jesus’ purpose that Lazarus will be raised again in this life – we know that for certain because of her reaction when Jesus orders the people to roll away the stone from Lazarus’s tomb: "Master, the smell will be awful! He has been dead now for four days." But she has already grasped the most important truth without the need for a miracle.
So Jesus and Mary are already “on the same page”. Mary’s grief over the death of Lazarus is more than balanced out by her hope in the future resurrection and her present faith and trust in Jesus the Messiah.
Conversation over. Martha’s doubts resolved. Relationship restored.
Jesus and Mary
​
Martha returns home to find her sister, and tells Mary, "The Teacher is here and he wants to see you." So Mary goes to find him where Martha left him, and the other mourners who are there decide to follow her.
For the moment, let’s forget about the others and just concentrate on Jesus and Mary. Compared to Martha’s meeting with Jesus, there is very little conversation, but in this case the interaction between them is on a different level.
​
When Mary arrived at the place where Jesus was waiting for her, we read that she “fell at Jesus’ feet and said, "Lord, if only you had got here in time, my brother would not have died."
​
The first striking difference between Mary’s encounter and Martha’s is their attitude. Martha seems to treat Jesus more as a friend (though she also refers to him as “the Teacher”). But Mary falls at Jesus’ feet in an attitude of worship. We see this same contrast on other occasions when Jesus visited Mary and Martha at their home in Bethany. In the account in Luke 10, Martha is bustling around preparing a meal for Jesus and the disciples while Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to his teaching, and in John 12, while Martha is again serving the meal, Mary kneels at Jesus’ feet in worship and adoration, and anoints them with expensive perfume, resulting in biting criticism from Judas Iscariot who accuses her of wasting money that could have been spent on the poor.
​
But let’s not be unduly critical of Martha. Jesus does chide her in Luke’s account for being worried and distracted, but Martha and Mary are different characters, with their own individual emotional and spiritual needs, and Jesus responds to them according to their personalities. He understands them, empathises with them, and shares their concerns, their sorrows, and their individual strategies for coping with grief.
​
When an expert in religious law, asks Jesus, “Which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?" Jesus replies, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:35-37). But the balance between these aspects of our personality is different for each of us. For Martha, reason and intellect play an important part in her relationship with God. She needs to work through the grief and pain by understanding God’s purposes and unravelling the theological implications of what is happening. But Mary is all heart. She doesn’t need a conversation with Jesus to sort out her questions and doubts. She needs to know that Jesus recognizes her deep sorrow and loss, that he shares her emotional pain, that he did not delay his coming because he was uncaring and inconsiderate of what her brother’s death would mean to them.
​
So Jesus opens his heart to her, and not just to Mary, but to the other friends and neighbours who are also grieving for Lazarus. The mourners indeed provide an opportunity for Jesus by inviting him to come and share their grief. “Come with us,” they said, "Come and see his tomb."
​
The people misunderstood the nature of Jesus’ sorrow and weeping, "Look how much he loved Lazarus!" They say. But Jesus is not weeping for Lazarus. Lazarus is just sleeping and is about to be raised again and walk free from the tomb. Rather he is weeping with Mary and the others, sharing their sorrow, breaking his heart in sympathy with their broken hearts.
Jesus and Lazarus
​
So we come to the climax of the story. Jesus arrives at the tomb with Mary, Martha and all the other mourners, and tells them to roll the stone away from the entrance. Martha, who is still interpreting Jesus’ words as referring to a future Day of Resurrection, tells Jesus, "Master, the smell will be awful! He has been dead now for four days." But Jesus replies, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
​
So the people roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb. Then Jesus prays, not for his own benefit, but to make crystal clear to the people who are watching the spiritual significance of what is about to happen:
"Father, thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me, but I say this out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me."
​
Then Jesus calls in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" And Lazarus, who had been dead and laid in the tomb now for four days, comes out, wrapped in his grave-clothes. Jesus tells the people, "Take off his grave-clothes and set him free!"
​
So we come back full circle to Jesus’ words at the beginning of this story, where he tells the disciples, “This is not about Lazarus, it’s about providing the opportunity to glorify God and to demonstrate the power and glory of the Son of God, so that you might believe that I am the Messiah.” In keeping with this declaration from Jesus, John’s account says precisely nothing about Lazarus’s response to his resurrection. We have to imagine for ourselves the incredibly emotional reunion between Lazarus and his sisters, and their glorious gratitude to Jesus for giving them back their loving happy family.
​
But it’s all about Jesus, and the opportunity to believe in him as God’s chosen Messiah. There is a mixed response to the miracle of Lazarus’s rising from the dead. But there is always some reaction, whether positive or negative.
When the mourners saw what had happened, many of them believed in Jesus. But some went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done…
​
So from God’s viewpoint, everything has been carefully planned. Lazarus has been left in the tomb for long enough that no-one can argue a miracle has not happened. It’s impossible to deny that Lazarus was dead, and is now alive again. Jesus’ power to heal and to raise the dead confirms (to those willing to listen) that Jesus really is God’s Messiah. And the “collateral damage” to Jesus’ friendship with Martha and Mary has been satisfactorily solved – resulting in a deepening of their faith and their relationship with him.
​
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Questions for consideration and discussion
-
How does this story demonstrate Jesus’ ability to empathise with Mary and Martha’s feelings – their sorrow and grief for their lost brother?
-
Summarise the differences that surface in the story between Mary and Martha’s emotional make-up. How does Jesus respond to their separate, individual characters?
-
Do you identify more with Mary or Martha? Why?
-
Jesus is "the visible image of the invisible God". How does the character of Jesus that we see in this story reveal the nature of God the Father?
