65. Raising Lazarus from the Dead (John 11:1-57).

by Wesley Blackburn

My best friend is a guy named C.J. Stephens. C.J. and I met in college, and we were roommates for a year before he got married. I was the best man in his wedding a few years ago. After graduating last spring, C.J.'s now the worship minister at a place called Milford Christian Church in Ohio. This year, as I go back and forth from the Region to Cincinnati, Ohio every week to finish up some classes for school, I'll be staying at C.J. (and his wife Ami's) home in the Cincinnati area.

It might sound kind of morbid to say, but I don't know what I would do if my friend C.J. died. Obviously, it'd be a tragedy since he's only 22, but even beyond that, just as a friend, I really value his presence in my life. I know I'd get emotional. It would be a huge loss, even though I would be happy because I know C.J. would be in a much better place.

That's kind of what I imagine Jesus feeling and experiencing in this story. One of his best friends, a man named Lazarus, had died, and Jesus was quite moved by the sight. John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the Bible, but is packed with incredible meaning: "Jesus wept." Sometimes we have this tendency to see Jesus as a man who was only concerned with very "spiritual" or "religious" matters. But Jesus was a man of incredible passion and emotion as well. Jesus had a heart, that's for sure. I don't know that anyone could ever make an argument otherwise.

But beyond showing us Jesus' incredible emotion and care for those He loves (good news: that's all of us), it shows us some other stuff. Number one, Jesus has power over all things... even death. Over the past century, we've seen a lot of advancements in the medical world. A person's average life span here in the United States is over 70 years. But even with all those advancements, I don't hear anyone saying that we'll be skirting death anytime soon. But Jesus can. Just ask Lazarus.


I think the other thing that this passage shows us is what faith looks like. As Jesus came to Lazarus' home, he was met by Lazarus' sister, Martha, who said that she wished Jesus would have been there, so Lazarus wouldn't have died. But then, she utters an incredible statement of faith: "But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask" (John 11:22). Do we really believe that like Martha? In her context, Lazarus was dead... and dead people don't normally come back from that condition. But even then, Martha still believed. She knew that Jesus was the Son of God and that He could do anything. Imagine the situations that we would quit fretting about if we truly believed that... that God can do anything we ask for, even when that's impossible. I know that there are a few areas of my life where my attitudes would probably change.