05/26/2026
Today’s post takes us to Bethany, where a man has died. The dearly loved brother of Mary and Martha by the name of Lazarus. Lazarus was Jesus’ friend and he had, no doubt had many meals and pleasant conversations with him. But Lazarus became extremely ill and passed away. Jesus had not gone to him when he heard he was ill, a response that people did not understand. But Jesus knew something that everyone else did not... Jesus knew he would not remain dead. Jesus had made a promise: this sickness would not end in death.
At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus had an emotional response. Jesus was deeply moved and troubled. He wept. Why? Jesus knew what was going to happen, he knew the promise. Jesus is the resurrection and the life; he has certainty in the face of the uncertain. He knew Lazarus would be alive again in moments, and yet he wept. Christopher Smith says, ‘He wept because knowing the end of the story doesn’t mean you can’t cry at the sad parts.’ Having faith doesn’t mean an absence of pain. Jesus, deeply moved by the situation, knows the promise. No matter the pain we go through, the tough things we experience, we can have a faith in God that he is the resurrection and the life. Faith does not mean we do not see, feel, or experience the pain of our own and others’ circumstances. Faith means we always know how the story ends.
“When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”
John 11:33-44 KJV
