MESSIANIC MIRACLE IV: LAZARUS!

I always wondered why Jesus waited so long to go see Lazarus when they told Him he was sick. And then wept too when He got there 🤷🏽‍♀️. The story is recorded in John 11. It was Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha who sent the message. They sent the messenger to say, ‘The one you love is ill’, as if to excite some special favour or urgency. Jesus did the opposite. Jesus stayed where he was for 2 more days! [I wonder what the disciples were thinking 😂]. He finally gets up and says ‘Guys, let’s go back to Judea.’ By now Lazarus was already dead, and Jesus knew. He told the disciples, ‘Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep. I’m going to wake him up.’ Jesus must have been lowkey annoying to his disciples at certain points, because in this particular instance, the disciples thought Lazarus was actually merely asleep, not dead. They actually tell Jesus in response: “only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?…Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better”😆 [v. 8 & 12]

So Jesus tells them plainly: ‘Lazarus is dead.’ [v.14]. And then He adds, ‘And for your sake, I am glad I wasn’t there, because this will give you another opportunity to believe in me.’ Listen, Thomas wasn’t having iiit!😂 He didn’t start doubting now😂 Upon all Jesus was saying about raising Lazarus and they believing in Him, Thomas was thinking about how they were about to die, ‘cos these same Jews had tried to stone Jesus not long ago [v.8]. John made sure to insert it in verse 16: ‘Thomas, nicknamed the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too– and die with Jesus.” Thomas must have thought, ‘since He’s volunteering to die, we all must as well prepare our minds to die too’!😂

So they get to the entrance of Judea, and by now Lazarus has been dead for 4days. Martha knows Jesus is coming, so she goes to meet Him. She weeps bitterly when she meets Him. I imagine that it may have been because this could have been an avoidable death. If only He had shown up earlier! But it was too late now, because it had been four days! Why was that such a problem?

Because the Jews believed that when a person died, his spirit wandered around the tomb for three days looking for an opportunity to return into the body. They called it the ‘days of weeping’. By the fourth day, when the body begun to decompose, the person’s spirit would give up and finally leave.

So on the 4^th day, they would gather and lament for another 4 days. That was why they still had so many Jews around them at the time Jesus arrived. And so even when Jesus said Lazarus would rise again, Martha didn’t get it. She said she knew he would at the resurrection. But if Jesus had healed him, or had appeared before the 4^th day, then this wouldn’t have happened! The funny thing is, upon all of this lamenting, Jesus still hadn’t even entered the town!🤦🏽‍♀️ Martha goes home, finds Mary and tells her the Teacher is around. She goes running, and the Jews who were consoling her run after her for fear that she was going to the tomb to weep more. [v.31]. She finds Jesus still at the place Martha met Him. When Jesus saw his friends in their sorrow, He wept.

Some of the Jews said, “This man healed a blind man. Why couldn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?“

They were talking about Jesus’ exhibition of another Messianic miracle! [read here]

They didn’t know He was about to blow their minds again! So they go to the tomb, and Jesus says, ‘Roll the stone aside’. Clearly Martha hadn’t realized she was about to experience a messianic miracle, because she was still talking about how it had been four days and the body would be smelling by then. When the stone was finally rolled, Jesus looked up and said:

“Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of these people standing here, so they will believe you sent me.”

There are so many layers to this prayer that show in themselves that Jesus was the Messiah, but let me not digress. After this prayer, He called Lazarus out in a loud voice, and guess who came walking out with his face and arms and legs wrapped up?! [Think about how he must have been walking!🤣 This whole scene would have been waaay too creepy for me!]

Now, remember that these Jews had tried to stone Jesus in this same town not long ago. By then, all they had seen and heard were the things Jesus had to say about Himself and the non-messianic miracles of walking on water, multiplying food, etc. But by the time He raised Lazarus, they had seen or at least heard about Jesus healing a man blind from birth in fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah. Now they were seeing Him raise a man whose spirit had already left earth per their beliefs!🤯 The result as verse 45 puts it is that many of the Jews who saw it believed in Jesus.

Fast forward 6days before the Passover Feast in Chapter 12, Martha, Mary and Lazarus throw a dinner for Jesus. I’d have thought He’d ask them to fast and pray after that massive miracle, but nope Jesus attended! [Take that all ye stuck-up saints!😝] What’s interesting is that 12:9 says a large crowd showed up not only because they heard Jesus was there, but also to see Lazarus who had been raised from the dead! [Look who’s become a star just by dying!🤣] Jesus’ popularity was increasing, because 12:17 says the crowd that was with Him when He raised Lazarus from the dead continued to spread the word, and many people went out to meet Him because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign.

This was not just a miracle, it was a miracle that proved that Jesus was the One spoken of by the prophets of old, who existed before the foundations of the world, whose kingdom and reign would last forever! And this was a problem for the Jewish leaders. Chapter 12:42-43 says that at these signs, many of the Jewish leaders believed in Him, but were too scared of the Pharisees because they loved praise from men more than praise from God. So they sat back as the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in Him [12:10-11].

When I finally understood these miracles and their relevance to the people who saw them with their very eyes, it gave me an understanding of how Jesus handled the culture and systems of the times in which He lived. He was a wise man; very wise. I never quite understood the gospels, all the weird answers Jesus gave, and why He told them not to tell anyone about these miracles. I always thought, dude, why do them then?🙄 But understanding that they were messianic miracles helped me understand that it was to establish that He was Messiah but at the same time buy Him more time before the Jews declared Him an imposter and killed Him. It situated the gospels in context and clarified so many other scriptures to me. A typical example is Luke 7:22 when John the Baptist got upset and sent his people to ask Jesus if He was the One or they should expect another. Jesus’ answer always irritated me a little. What did the blind seeing and the dead raised have to do with your cousin who was dying in jail and probably was expecting you to use your messianic powers to bust him out of jail so he could continue doing the work of God? Now I understand that his response did answer the question; that it was a coded message that was backed by dozens of Old testament prophecies of the Messiah being fulfilled. And it gives me joy that after reading the scriptures over and over, there will always be something new to discover that blows my mind!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this series as much as I have. If you missed the other episodes, catch up on them here and here. Like, comment, follow and share!!

Love,

⭐ RAD! ⭐