raising the dead

Mary and Martha both say, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  Really?

People now (as people then) seem to be dying all around. So the sisters’ statement begs a question: “If people don’t die when Jesus is around, is Jesus with us…or not?”

As it turns out, Jesus doesn’t keep people from dying.  None of us get out of this adventure alive. In fact, Jesus doesn’t raise Lazarus to comfort the grieving sisters. He admits that he is raising Lazarus from the dead for the sake of the crowd, so they might believe God sent him. Jesus isn’t interested in prolonging mortal life so much as he is interested in creating trust in God and dispelling fear.

(btw, I would love to have heard Lazarus’ first words when he emerged from the tomb and they unwrapped his head.  My friend Tracy mimics him really well:  “What were you thinking?!”)

Jesus doesn’t raise Lazarus for Mary and Martha’s sakes, or even for Lazarus himself; he raises Lazarus to prove that he can. He raises Lazarus to prove that he has power over everything that terrorizes us to the core, including death. Jesus raises Lazarus so that we might begin to trust him with everything, including our own lives.

Lazarus was raised from the dead only to die again, at an undisclosed time.  As I imagine his second life, I imagine him pretty fearless. After all, he’d died once and seen the other side. What could life do to him? What can it do to us? Jesus raised Lazarus so that our only lives might be fearless, too. Want more? Click here to read John 11:1-45.