Do you believe this? - 2
John 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.
For me this is a great place to start the passage. Jesus knows our pain! Jesus knows that death is no fun. Even if a serial killer is put to death, it still is sad. There is still no real closure, it does not bring the ones who he was killed back to life. One of the important themes in Ecclesiastes is that death is the leveler of all things. Good and evil, strong and weak, rich and poor, etc. Death is sad. Now imagine the death of a loved one, someone whose life has been closely intertwined with yours. That person is gone. Death now looks so much more evil. This is the kind of scene that Jesus finds himself in.
John 11:34-36 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
The sadness of death moves Jesus (the God man) emotionally. Knowing the future or even him being the resurrection does not prevent him from experiencing the emotion. Jesus is able to sympathize with pain, but is also a problem solver. Most of us tend to lean one way or the other at different times in our lives, but Jesus was able to do both perfectly.
John 11:37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”
Here is man again trying to tell Jesus what he should have done. There is something in all of us that tell us that we know what is best. What is worse we tend to tell that to God too. Who are we to give God counsel (Romans 11:33-36)? Not only is this irreverent, it also shows we have a lack of faith. I have been through many hard times in my life. But every time i come to a bigger problem, there is part of me that doubts whether God can get me through it. Sure he can get me through the small things, but even problems as big as the one i am facing? Sure Jesus can heal the blind, but death? Can that be overcome?
John 11:38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
John emphasizes again, that Jesus has no shortage of emotions for the physical death of someone he loves. As Christians we are called to mourn with those who mourn and not be stoics!
John 11:39-40 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”
Two weeks ago, this blog discussed the conversation between Martha and Jesus. Martha responded to Jesus in a strong faith. If Hebrews 11 summarized the saints of the New Testament, Martha would have been mentioned for her faith in Jesus, even in the face of death of a loved one. Martha had the strong Jewish expectation of a future resurrection (Daniel 12:13). Jesus claiming to be that resurrection causes Martha to confess that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one whom they all have been waiting for and who will resurrect the faithful ones of the past. But a mere declaration of belief was not enough. Jesus pressed Martha to believe it. Now again in John 11:40, Jesus presses Martha to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, this would mean for Martha not to question the request for rolling away the stone.
I wish i did not have to stop here because what comes after is exciting, but this is long enough. It is a good place to ask ourselves where is our faith. I am sure we all believe in the existence of God and that we know that he has revealed himself to us through the scriptures. But do we find ourselves doubting God's ways and timings? Do we in our minds trump God ways using the world's philosophies (false religions, conservatism or liberalism)? Do we give God advice (we even do this by not taking what he says seriously)? Or are we able to, even in the face of death, confess that Jesus is Lord? Are we able to accept his ways from our hearts without questioning them?
