The Sign of His Power over Death • John 11:25-27; 38-44
By Clay Anthony
Reader, you and I have never met. You know nothing about my life and vice versa. Chances are we have very little in common outside of our love of Jesus and attendance in a Baptist church. Even though all this is true, I can with certainty guarantee that there is one part of our lives that mirrors each other’s. We have experienced the sting of death. We have all smelled the sweet fragrance of flowers of a funeral spray either for loved ones or friends. As you read these words you might be thinking back to those specific moments of loss and sadness. That is not my intent. We as believers have the only answer to that sting that awaits us all.
John uses several movements in a funeral scene to show another sign for proving Jesus as the promised Messiah. His friend Lazarus has passed away and Jesus finds Himself surrounded by people that are feeling death’s sting in real time. Not only that but it also seems that everyone else in this scene has no idea what comes after one dies. Sure, there is an after-life, but you get a sense of finality when both of Lazarus’ sisters scold Jesus for His absence (21, 32). Further up in the scene we find that even His disciples were thinking that nothing could be done as Thomas seems to resign himself to certain death (16). Of course, the Jews were piling on Jesus as well with their disbelief that He could help Lazarus (37). Not one person in this entire scene truly believed Jesus’ claim to be what Lazarus needed (25-27).
To be fair, it did seem that Jesus was powerless to help Lazarus. Not only was he dead, but he was already in his tomb for four days and furthermore had begun the decomposing stage of dying (39). For that reason we must offer grace to those watching this event unfold. Our hindsight is 20/20 and we know the outcome of the story. We get to see Jesus work from a distance. We can read and teach others just how the story ends. For Martha, Mary, the disciples and even the Jews, getting to witness Jesus’ work in real time took instant faith. He had said prior that Lazarus’ death was for God’s glory. This is reminiscent of His words elsewhere when dealing with the lame and blind. Their infirmities were for the purpose of God receiving glory in their lives. To us, death is the final act in our lives. After that, there is not much that can be done. Yet, Jesus uses even our greatest enemy as a mere tool in His hand to bring people to Himself.
This action of bringing people to Himself was the whole reasoning behind all that Jesus was doing in this scene. He knew that Lazarus was sick, even going so far as to wait until death had taken His friend before He stepped into action. Again, with our ability to know the full story it would make sense for Jesus to just go to Bethany and heal His friend back to health. This is the Jesus we are accustomed to. Thus far in John’s gospel, Jesus has displayed power by using water, food, crippled legs and blindness, but this is death itself. Again, all the ones noted earlier knew in their hearts that death was death and there was simply no coming back from that.
If we need to be gracious to those that could not see the whole story in Jesus’ day, here is where they must be kind to us in our understanding. What would it have been like to see what happens next? Not a single person could possibly expect Jesus to help a four-day old dead man. Imagine seeing Thomas’ face or hearing the exclamations of the Jews or the embrace experienced by two sisters and their once dead brother. These men and women saw firsthand the answer to the question of, “What can Jesus do with a dead person?” Can you imagine the reports that went throughout the region that day? Can you imagine the conversions of unbelievers that occurred in that graveyard that day? Many were no doubt still skeptical that Jesus could do anything after death had taken over. Reader, this is another part of our lives we have in common. As believers, we know that in just a week’s time, Jesus was going to answer all doubts concerning the power of death.
Anthony is Missions Pastor at Harrisburg Church, Tupelo.
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