Part 6: The Focus on Resurrection (iii) Lazarus



Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:1-4)

Because we know the outcome of this story we ought also to recognise what ‘the glory of God’ is being equated to. Lazarus’ sickness was not for the purpose of him dying and remaining dead but for the opposite: physical resurrection. We have no difficulty in thinking of God’s own Person or dwelling place as His ‘glory’, but I have very rarely (if ever) thought of His raising the dead as being due that description also. And yet I am beginning to think that there are many more occurrences of ‘glory’ in the Bible with that specific event in mind than we care to consider (the more obvious ones being, to name a small selection, Matthew 16:27; 24:30; 25:31; Mark 8:38; 10:37; 13:26; 9:26; 21:27; Romans 6:4; 8:18; 1st Corinthians 15:43; 1st Peter 1:7, 21; 4:13; 5:4).  

 In my discussion of John 5:20-29 I referred to Jesus speaking of a sign at which they would all ‘marvel’ after which He proceeded to talk about the dead hearing His voice and passing from death to life. I believe there is a strong argument for saying that this resurrection of Lazarus is the exact sign about which He was speaking, and a visible demonstration of ‘the glory of God’. 
 
Not only this, but to see God’s ‘glory’ in the physical resurrection of His people further supports why Jesus, in chapter five, said that a future time was coming, and ‘now is’, when the dead would hear His voice and live. In chapter eleven such a ‘glory’ in clearly expressed in a physical manner. The ‘glory’ had come. It will come again, as Lazarus was only the sign.
We should not take lightly that the physical resurrection of God’s people is described as ‘the glory of God’. Why elevate another doctrine that we think is implied in Scripture (going to Heaven when we die) when that which is clearly expressed gets such a title?  

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days 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, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly, “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.” Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. (John 11:5-17)

It is noteworthy that, when discussing Lazarus’ state, no reference is made to any other conscious experience he may be having. I believe that the rest of the text clearly portrays an atmosphere of hopelessness in the present, including the reaction of Jesus. Why is the Lord not said to be exuding a joy, why does He later weep, if He knows that Lazarus will be raised that very day? Is it not that He is appreciative of the reality of death, and particularly so when it is the death of a loved one? One could understand that, even if souls did go to Heaven at death, Mary and Martha would still be weeping: they had lost their brother after all. But the faithful, wise Son of God, knowing death for what it is – even despite its brevity for Lazarus – is not presented to us as a Man who trusts that His friend is happily in the presence of God. Jesus weeps, and I think this is very telling about what he knows of death. 

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 11:18-24)

There seemed to be no surprise when Martha heard that her brother would rise again. Because she was not expecting his resurrection to be immediate her natural response was to think that Jesus meant the ‘resurrection at the last day’. Such a statement illustrates the hope of the Jews. When set against the silence of what Lazarus was ‘experiencing’ at that moment, I find it telling that Martha’s only comfort was in something that would happen in the future. Her reply suggests that the biblical hope of an ‘afterlife’ is first dependent upon physical resurrection, and that this only occurs ‘at the last day’. There is no chastisement of Martha for saying this, no correction for omitting that Lazarus was ‘safe in the presence of God’. 

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)

These verses always seemed self-contradictory to me. ‘Though he may die, he shall live’ fits the context of physical resurrection and satisfactorily describes this biblical doctrine. ‘And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die’, however, suggests that the one who ‘may die’ won’t! The latter statement does not make sense at all.

However, by referencing Young’s Literal Translation and finding a Greek version of John chapter eleven it becomes evident that the translators of most English versions omitted some words from verse twenty six.

...and every one who is living and believing in me shall not die -- to the age (Young’s Literal Translation)

To which ‘age’ is Jesus referring and why were these words (εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα / eis ton aióna) left out? There is surely a big difference between saying that someone who is living and believing in Christ ‘shall never die’ and that someone who is living and believing in Christ ‘shall not die to the age’. If ‘the age’ refers to a time yet future then the entire verse can once again be understood within a bodily context. We all die in this age, but in the coming age the faithful in Christ will not die then. Given that Martha’s previous statement regarded ‘the resurrection at the last day’ (v24) I find it reasonable that this ‘age’ – omitted by our translators – is crucial to our understanding of verse twenty six. 

It is here, in the context of physical resurrection, that such immortality becomes a theme. Though I cannot find references to a present-day indwelling ‘immortal soul’ in the Bible, I can see a reference to immortality in light of the physical resurrection of the faithful. It is only here that we can start to develop an understanding of immortality.

The rest of the account contains elements of what I have already discussed (‘the glory of God’ in physical resurrection; the hopeless language used by those who mourned for Lazarus, including the mourning of the One who would resurrect Him; the parallels with Jesus’ words in John 5:20-29):  

She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’ And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, ‘The Teacher has come and is calling for you.’ As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, ‘She is going to the tomb to weep there.’ Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’ Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.  And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!’ And some of them said, ‘Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?’ Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.’ Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.’

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