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Christendom seems to be unaware of a huge problem or
challenge in the account of Yeshua resurrecting Lazarus. - site author
Weeping for Lazarus?
The Lazarus Problem
Updated: 01/18/2021
Death of Lazarus Passage
John 11:1-10 And a certain man was sick, Lazarus of
Bethany, the village of Mary and Martha her sister. It was the Mary
applying ointment to the Lord and wiping his feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Master,
behold, the one you love is sick." Upon hearing this Yeshua said, "This
illness is not for death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of
God may be glorified by means of it."
Now Yeshua loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard
that he was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.
Then after this he says to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."
The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were now seeking to stone
you, and do you go there again?" Yeshua answered, "Are there not twelve
hours in the daylight? If any one walks in the daytime, he does not
stumble, because he sees in the light of this world. But if any one
walks in the darkness, he stumbles, because the light is not with him."
Commentary:
It should be clear that Yeshua, using the sickness of his dearest friend Lazarus, was setting up this whole
scenario. Upon hearing the news that his friend was seriously ill, he
deliberately stayed away until Lazarus had died. When the disciples
tried to give him advice–imagine giving advice to the creator of all
things–he found an oblique way of suggesting to them how inappropriate
that was.
This is Yeshua's way of
telling them, who didn't know what they were doing (walking in the
darkness), to listen to him, who did know what he was doing (walking in
the light), and not try to tell him what to do.
John 11:10-16 These things he spoke, and then he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has
fallen asleep, but I am going that I might awaken him." The disciples
said to him, "Master, if he has slept he will recover." But Yeshua had
spoken of his death, yet they thought that he spoke of slumber in
sleep. Then Yeshua told them plainly, "Lazarus has died; and I rejoice
for your sake because I was not there, that you{pl} may choose to
believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, called the Twin, said to his
fellow disciples, "Let us go, that we also may die with him."
Commentary: The above passage again makes it clear that he deliberately stayed away
until Lazarus had died. Notice the negativity and defeatism that
characterized the thinking of Thomas, arguably the most educated and
intelligent of the immediate disciples.
Yeshua Talks with Martha
John 11:17-22 Upon coming, Yeshua found him being
held in the tomb already four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about
two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to be around Martha and
Mary that they might console them concerning their brother. When Martha
heard that Yeshua is coming, she met him, while Mary was sitting in the
house. Then Martha said to Yeshua, "Master, if you had been here, my brother
would not be dead, because I still know that whatever you ask from God,
God will give you."
Commentary: This
is a pretty straightforward accusation. The sisters had sent notice to
Yeshua in time for him to come and heal their brother, something that
they had no doubt that he could accomplish. And here he has come now when it
is too late. Martha couldn't understand this, and consequently she braced
him with this heartfelt complaint. Which one of us would not feel this
way? What is the point of having a "friend" that can heal if he won't
pay attention to healing your dear brother and his own dear friend when
he has the chance?
John 11:23-27
Yeshua declares to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha says to
him, "I understand that he will rise again in the resurrection at the
last day." Yeshua said to her, "I AM the resurrection and the life
source; the one who believes in me [choosing what to believe within what
he said or believing in his total credibility], though he be finished
dying, yet shall he live, but anyone LIVING and believing me in
no way shall die ever. Do you believe THIS?" She said to him, "Well,
sir; I HAVE believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes
into the world."
Commentary: With this predictable plaint from Martha, the pieces are now in place for a
great revelation. So he assures her that her brother will live, and she
gives him the predictable response because she has been taught to
believe in the "resurrection at the last day". Yeshua now gets very plain
and clear
and tells her that anyone now living and believing in him "in no way
shall die ever", and then asks her point blank if she believes this.
Given that Yeshua had ALREADY demonstrated that he WAS the Son of God
and that Martha accepted this and readily confessed it, WHY didn't she
show an eager interest in the potential resurrection of her brother, or
even more the proffered immortality? Why would she unreasonably have
believed so firmly that God could NOT have been offering the very thing that
she wanted the most? Why wouldn't she have been
intensely interested to hear the words that the J-person spoke? This IS the SIN
problem illustrated in Martha, highlighted to the ultimate degree!
How typical that she goes into a deflecting mode, and
gives him a sop. COME ON MARTHA, answer the question! Are you going to divert, try to "handle" the
creator and avoid giving him a straight answer? Which obviously would
have been, "No, I don't believe that!" We do so much lying to ourselves
that we think we can lie to the Originator of the universe? How pitiful! How
pathetic! How mind
numbingly tragic!
Yeshua Talks with Mary
John 11:28-37 Having said these things, she went
and discretely called her sister Mary, saying, "The Teacher is here and
calls you." And as she heard, she rises quickly and comes to him. Now
Yeshua had not yet come to the village, but was in the place where Martha
met him. Then those Jews being with her in the house and consoling her,
seeing that Mary quickly rose and went out, followed her, gathering that
she goes to the tomb that she may weep there.
Then Mary, when she came to where Yeshua was and seeing him, fell at his
feet, saying to him, "Master, if you had been here, my brother would not
have died." Then Yeshua, as he saw her weeping, and the Jews who came
with her weeping, himself seriously agitated in spirit and deeply
troubled, said, "Where have you{pl} put him?" They say to him, "Sir,
come and see." Yeshua wept, so the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"
But some of them said, "Was this one, opening the eyes of the blind, not
able also to arrange that this man should not die?"
Commentary: Now we come down to it. After suffering the same accusation from Mary as her
sister pronounced, and experiencing everybody mourning and weeping,
Yeshua himself wept. So very much has been made out of this shortest
verse in the King James Bible numbering system. I have heard sermons
drone on about how touching it was, but I have never heard someone say,
"Wait a minute! Yeshua can't have been a crybaby or prone to weeping in front
of other people."
So Yeshua himself wept. BUT Why?! WHY?! WHY?! He can't have been weeping for
Lazarus, for not only was Lazarus not suffering any more but he was a couple of
minutes away from being resurrected and reunited with his family. He
can’t have been weeping for the pain of the sisters and the other mourners, for they
were a couple of minutes away from being thrilled and overjoyed.
Could it be that he was weeping because it was now apparent that even
with his closest friends, they were not going to believe what HE said
about some of the ultimate issues, he was not going to be able to
stimulate their volition into believing the best about God? That his
closest friends and disciples were not going to let even him give them
the different-from-what-they-believed yet true account of God's intention
and plan!
It
should be obvious that Yeshua came into this world not to die, but to
usher in the age of healing and justice, to bring a wonderful resolution
to this age of woe, this veil of tears, and a resolution to all things wrong.
Oh, he obviously came PREPARED to die, but he is not a person to be
suicidal, and there is no greater-than-god law or system that demanded
his death. Plan A was to inspire belief in the best and go forward into a
glorious eternity with real believers reversing the demeaning belief in
the Originator that
led to the fall. Could it be that he was weeping partly for himself?
That he had now come to the conclusion that he was NOT going to find or
engender real faith/belief on the earth, that this world of woe was going to
have to continue indefinitely and that he was going to have to go all
the way to the crucifixion and grave to make the ultimate statement
about the character of God? And that the whole universe would now have
to wait until someone SOME DAY gets it?
Lazarus Resurrected
John 11:38-44 Then Yeshua, again deeply troubled in
himself, comes to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying on
it. Yeshua says, "Lift the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man,
says to him, "Master, by this time he stinks, for it is four days."
Yeshua says to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see
the magnificence of God?"
Then they lifted the stone from over where the dead man was laid. And
Yeshua raised his sight upward and said, "Father, I thank you that you
heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this because of
the group standing by, that they may choose to believe that you sent
me." After saying these things, he cried out with a loud voice,
"Lazarus! Here! Outside!" And the one having died came out, his hands
and feet bound with sheets, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Yeshua
says to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."
Commentary:
This whole passage and scenario raises some serious and even troubling
questions, the greatest of which are:
Did Yeshua do Lazarus a favor? Did
Yeshua raise Lazarus only to have him repeat the process of dying, either
through accident, disease, or the "normal" process of dying from that
most insidious, "inevitable" process, aging?
I am not sure that I would
want that kind of favor from God. In fact, upon reflection, I am sure
that I would NOT want that. If I have finished the process of dying,
however that may have taken place, don't set me up to go through it all
again. Just wake me up at the "resurrection of the last day"!
More questions
How could
Yeshua justify doing that to Lazarus and using him this way?
If Lazarus didn't die again, what DID happen to him?
Was this whole
experience a springboard for the three siblings to finally come awake?
Were they part of the first fruits that were gathered to a better
situation?
If so, what about the rest of us?
Why don't we get treated to
a wonderful, tangible exposition of God's power and life-oriented
intention like they did?
How are we expected to believe the best when we haven't even
had the tangible experience of Yeshua, much less such a dramatic
demonstration of life-restoring power for a family member?
Is this the time
and place to mention what Yeshua said to Thomas in the upper room after his
resurrection?
"Thomas, seeing, NOW you believe? Blessed are those who
believe and who do not see."
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