When I worked for the federal government more than 11 years ago, I frequently flew to Washington, DC, for the workday. While in the city, I used the Washington Metro subway system, an efficient way to move about. Different colors marked the segments of the subway system. Four segments met at L’Enfant Plaza. From that station, a traveler could go in one of four directions or return to where they had begun. But once you chose, you were committed to seeing things through.
Today’s segment of our journey with Jesus to His resurrection reminds me of traveling to L’Enfant Plaza. Today, many segments of Jesus’ journey come together at one point, which is a critical decision point. It is the point of seeing things through. This would be true for Jesus, Jesus’ disciples, and the Jewish high priest and ruling council. The point of intersection was not Jerusalem or Rome, places of power, but in a cemetery and a home in a village called Bethany on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. Today, the village of Bethany has an Arabic name, al-Azariya, translated to English as “The Place of Lazarus.”
Few stories in the Gospel of John are more powerful than the story of Lazarus, yet we know very little about Lazarus. We had never heard of Lazarus until his sisters, Mary and Martha, told Jesus that Lazarus was severely ill. We have no words from Lazarus. We are told that Lazarus was a disciple of Jesus and that Jesus loved Lazarus, but we know nothing about Jesus’ relationship with Lazarus. We don't know anything about Lazarus’ character. We only know about his sisters, Mary and Martha, yet everything about Jesus’ journey to the resurrection will turn on a man named Lazarus.
When the story of Lazarus began, Jesus and his disciples had left the area of Jerusalem because the Jewish ruling council was seeking to arrest and kill Jesus. Jesus had returned to the River Jordan, where He began His public ministry after being baptized by John the Baptist. While there, messengers came to Jesus from Martha and Mary saying, “Lord, the one you love is sick” (John 11:3b). The sisters asked nothing of Jesus. They left it up to Jesus how to respond to the news.
Jesus responded, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). Jesus’ response should not surprise us. When Jesus encountered a man blind from birth, His disciples wanted to know, “Who sinned, the man or his parents?” Jesus said, “3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3). After Jesus had changed water into wine, John said it was to reveal God’s glory. At the heart of Jesus' mission was to show the glory of God. Jesus' saying that Lazarus’ illness would be used to show God’s glory is no surprise.
Two days passed after receiving the news of Lazarus’ illness, and Jesus told his disciples it was time to return to Judea. In protest, Jesus' disciples reminded Jesus that the Jews in Judea wanted to stone him. Jesus said they must go, as Lazarus was now dead. Jesus added, “For your sake, I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him” (John 11:25). Whatever Jesus planned to do would benefit His disciples. Jesus and His disciples were moving forward to the critical intersection point in the village of Bethany.
Upon arrival in Bethany, Lazarus’ sisters Martha and Mary met Jesus. To Martha, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). On His journey to the resurrection, Jesus made several claims.
- To Nicodemus, Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of Man and claimed, “Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:14b-15).
- To the man crippled for 38 years, Jesus cured him and claimed God’s power to heal.
- To the high priest, Pharisees, and crowds in the Temple at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus said, “38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:38).
- To the man born blind, Jesus said before he healed him, “I am the light of the world” (John 9:5).
To all these claims, Jesus added, “I am the resurrection and the life” and, “The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. (John 11:25-26). Each step of Jesus' journey to His resurrection expanded Jesus’ claims and showed God's glory and power in ever greater dimensions. Now, on the outskirts of Bethany, Jesus commanded His disciples and mourners to go to the cemetery where Lazarus was laid.
John wrote, “38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 ‘Take away the stone,’ he said. ‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days’” (John 11:38-39). The details here matter. Lazarus was dead for four days. Religious scholars tell us the Jews believed the spirit of the deceased stayed near the body for three days and then would depart. Historians tell us that tombs were left open for three days before being closed in case the individual had not died. The three days of an open tomb prevented accidentally burying someone alive. It was now four days. There is no doubt among Martha, Mary, and the mourners that Lazarus was physically and spiritually dead. Lazarus’ body was undergoing rapid decay in the Judean climate. Against these concerns, Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” Lazarus was dead, to be sure, but Jesus claimed belief in Him as the resurrection and life would result in seeing the glory of God.
John wrote that the protests about the odor ended. “41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’ 43 When he [Jesus] had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 44 The dead man [Lazarus] came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face” (John 11:41-44). The magnificent glory of God was displayed, restoring life to the body of a man who was dead and decaying and restoring the man’s spirit to that revived body.
Joy overwhelmed the mourners, and belief in Jesus exploded among the witnesses, including many people close to the Jewish high priest, setting off a panic among the Jewish ruling council. Jesus’ foes on the council shouted with a sense of danger, “48 If we let him [Jesus] go on like this, everyone will believe in him [Jesus (and not us)], and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation” (Jesus 11:48). For Jesus to be recognized as greater, they would have to become lesser. This Jesus’ foes would not do.
The same is true today. Jesus’ foes will not agree to become lesser in the presence of Jesus. We spoke of this last week. The issue is one of autonomy, not of the body but of the will. This is a belief that absolute security can be gained by one’s efforts through the accumulation of wealth, fame, and good works. To be a believer requires submission of our will to Jesus, following Him, serving others, and walking humbly, all of which speak to becoming lesser so that Jesus can be acknowledged as greater. Today’s nonbelievers will not yield their spiritual autonomy, and neither would significant members of the Jewish ruling council, even with the evidence of God’s glory displayed through Jesus.
A man named Yosef bar Caiaphas entered the mounting hysteria of the people in power. In English, we would say the man’s name as Joseph the son of Caiaphas. In Scripture, he is known as Caiaphas, the high priest, the most recognizable man in the leadership of the Jews at the time of Jesus. Caiaphas was the high priest for 18 years between 18 AD and 36 AD. His tenure as high priest overlapped the rule of Judea by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate for the 10 years between 26 AD and 36 AD. Caiaphas and Pilate understood how power worked in Judea and how to keep the delicate balance between the Jews and the Romans. To the Pharisees, upset as Jesus' rapidly rising influence with the raising of Lazarus, Caiaphas thundered, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish” (John 11:49b-50). “53 So from that day on they [Jewish ruling council] plotted to take his [Jesus’] life.” The chief priests also “made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him” (John 12:10b-11). The die was cast. The chief priest, on account of what had been happening with Jesus and what happened in Bethany with the raising of Lazarus from the dead, decided that he and his colleagues could no longer win against Jesus. Whoever this Jesus was, the chief priest was always second to Jesus. The chief priest knew he could not afford to lose, otherwise he would be useless to Pilate. And so, Caiaphas decided to prevent a loss; he would kill Jesus and perhaps even Lazarus.
There would be one final segment to the intersection of Jesus, his disciples, and the Jewish authorities in a small village called Bethany. John described in Chapter 12, “1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:1-3). Jesus said, Mary did this because, “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial” (John 12:7a). Upon the occasion of celebrating life, the life of Lazarus, Jesus, aware the Jewish council was plotting his death, confirmed that He would soon die. It would be from the village of Bethany, to the east of Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, that Jesus would spend his last days. He knew that and plainly told his disciples he would soon be killed.
Mary’s anointing announced Jesus' death. Mary wiping the perfume with her hair caused the whole house to be filled with the smell of the anointing. No one who entered the house could avoid asking why the scent of nard was there. The reply would have been, “The Master said He has been anointed for his death.”
In the little village of Bethany, Lazarus’s raising from the dead, the disciples' following of Jesus, the Jews' decision to kill Jesus, and the anointing of Jesus for his death intersected. At this intersection, the people celebrated Lazarus’ death, ending in life, the high priest plotted to murder Jesus, and now Jesus talked about Him going from life to death.
What do we do with this scene from Bethany? We must realize that our lives have a starting point, many intermediate stops, and an endpoint. This is true for everyone. None of us had any choice in our starting point. We did not decide when our lives would begin or to whom we would be first held. We were just born. Throughout our lives, we make decisions that determine our intermediate stops. Those decisions might involve where we go to school and work, who we associate with, and what we may accomplish. And then there is the endpoint. Someday, our lives will end. This is true for everyone.
We must also realize that God chooses to move through each person's life. Why does God decide to touch our lives? Who are we that God should bother with us? Scripture tells us that God moves through our lives because God loves us. God does not love us because of our decisions and accomplishments. God loves us because we have a starting point, a birth. God loves you because you were born and possess His image within you. God loves you as well because you have an endpoint. And God knows that unless He does something for you and me, our endpoint is an eternal death without Him. This is true for everyone.
Because God loves you, God sent His Son, Jesus, to change your life, to give you and me words of life, and to invite us to follow Him to a new endpoint, not of eternal death but of eternal life. But here is the thing. To make our endpoint eternal life and not eternal death, Jesus said something extraordinary. Jesus said, “I must die so that you can live.” Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead so that we would know Jesus’ words are true, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live” (John 11:25a). Caiaphas, the high priest, chose to plot Jesus’ death believing that it was better for one man to die than all. “51 He [Caiaphas] did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God” (John 11:51-52a). Mary anointed Jesus with nard. Jesus said, “She saved this perfume for the day of my burial” (John 11:7). These three points intersected in a little village called Bethany, and pointed to the truth of Jesus’ statement, “I must die so that you can live.”
We will participate in the Lord’s Supper in a few moments. We will take the bread and the cup, symbols of Jesus’ body and blood. They are another way of Jesus saying to you, “I must die so that you can live.”
What is your endpoint? Jesus came into your life and died for you. His work is complete. Have you done your part to change your endpoint? Have you accepted His death, and do you live for Him? Let us pray.