Lazarus, come forth!
As kids in Sunday School we learned that the shortest verse in the Bible comes from this narrative in John’s Gospel: “Jesus wept.” That was it — a factoid to be learned for Bible quizzes.
Yet this remarkable story — the bringing back to life of Jesus’ close friend Lazarus after a mortal illness — is one of the most detailed incidents in the New Testament, a full chapter of profound theological import. Perhaps in no other gospel story do we see God-human relationships brought into such full and powerful focus.
At one level this local drama also seems like a kind of movie trailer, a preview of Jesus’ own death and final resurrection that was to happen very shortly in Jerusalem on a much larger stage.
In nearby Bethany, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, three siblings, were Jesus’ intimate friends. It’s clear that the Lord was at home in their home, a frequent guest. Hold that thought of loving relationship in mind. Then listen as John tells us how Martha and Mary were puzzled and distraught at what happened in their time of crisis.
The writer of Hebrews confirms a principle of God’s faithful friendship: “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you.” The sisters had sent word that their brother was deathly sick, but Jesus hadn’t come right away. Why did he wait? What was he thinking?
When he finally arrived and the sisters asked him about the delay, Jesus’ response felt oddly unsatisfying. He seemed to be talking in universal rather than personal terms about living and dying and rising again. But what about their immediate crisis? Lazarus was four days dead. The sisters knew that Jesus was a miracle worker. Why had he waited?
Perhaps he is saying, “You’re viewing your lives in terms of a few short days, frustrated by having to wait for an answer. You have time rather than eternity in mind.”
Or is a deep personal conundrum at work? It seems to me that both sides of Jesus’ God-man nature are in collision here. As a man with “like passions as we are,” he was “deeply moved,” weeping with his friends, irate at what their brother’s death had done to them.
Yet he had deliberately delayed coming so that they would all “see the glory of God.” In this dramatic incident Jesus’ humanity seems to clash painfully with his deity. His personal emotions conflict with his larger, life-giving purpose for the whole world. He had come to bring resurrection life that would encompass the whole world.
And then, of course, in the appointed time, he made it happen: “Lazarus, come forth!”
Luci Shaw