John 11:1–44
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’
But when Jesus heard it he said, ‘This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’
The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?’
Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.’
After saying these things, he said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.’
The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.
Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’
So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’
Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’
Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’
She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’
When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, ‘Where have you laid him?’
They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’
Jesus wept. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’
But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?’ Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’
Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?’
So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.’
John 12:1–8
Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag he used to help himself to what was put into it.
Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.’[p 91]
A sign that was also a parable
John 11 records the final sign of a series of seven that were written, according to John, ‘so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ (20:31). So this miracle of the raising of Lazarus has that general function; but what specific function is it meant to have?
I suggest to you that one of the functions it was deliberately intended to have was a very practical one. Christ was going away. This is the start of what would be his final visit to Jerusalem. He would be crucified, buried, then raised again and ascend into heaven. Even the apostles, let alone those who had believed on him throughout the land, were not really expecting him to die. When eventually he said to them in the Upper Room, ‘I’m going away, and sorrow has filled your heart because I say it’, they could scarcely believe it even then. He had to tell them, ‘It is expedient for you that I go away.’ Chapters 13–17 tell us the reason that was so. His going away was essential for their sanctification, which depended upon the Holy Spirit’s coming; and he would only come after Christ went away.
So he was going. What would happen all down those years when he was away? What was the programme? How would they continue to believe in him, in his love and care for them while he was away and the harsh realities of life, particularly death, rolled in like storms on the sea?
The matter is touched on right from the very beginning of chapter 11. This family from Bethany that we meet—Martha, Mary and Lazarus—was very much attached to the Lord. It was the same Mary who would anoint the Lord’s feet with ointment (11:2; 12:3), which we will consider shortly. It was a family with whom Christ had stayed on occasions: witness Luke’s record of it (10:38–42). When Lazarus grew sick, the two sisters sent a letter to our Lord saying, ‘he whom you love is ill’ ( John 11:3). Notice the tact of the letter. It didn’t say, ‘Lazarus is sick. Please come as quickly as you can and get here!’ No, you don’t talk to friends like that, do you? It just informed him that Lazarus ‘whom you love’ is sick. They expected that the love our Lord had personally for them and for Lazarus would be enough to move him to come. But he didn’t attempt to come. In fact, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days (11:6).[p 92]
Healing at a distance
If you think of the story of the palace official’s son (4:46–54) that we thought of in our previous chapter, you might find this a little bit disconcerting. We recall the record of that miracle was that this man’s son was sick and at the point of death, and he had come to our Lord to ask him to heal his son. He believed that Jesus could heal him, but Jesus had been down at the feast at Jerusalem and there was no way of contacting him. Then the man heard that he had come back up to Galilee. Now there was a chance! Jesus was in Cana of Galilee, so the official came from Capernaum down by the lake, and up over the hills to Cana and asked him to come and heal his son. And Jesus said to him, ‘The trouble with you people around here is that unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.’
And the man, if I may paraphrase him, said, ‘Lord, look, my son is desperately sick; don’t stop here and talk theology. We can talk theology later on after he’s better, but he’s desperately sick. Please, if you don’t mind, come at once! Lay your hands on him!’
And our Lord said, ‘My good man, you have misunderstood me. Your son is already better.’
‘My son is already better?’
‘Yes. You asked me to heal him, didn’t you? I’ve healed him.’
That put the man on the spot, because he could not see that the boy was well! And now Christ was demonstrating a thing that we hadn’t been told before in John: that he could heal at a distance. The man had to decide whether he would believe Christ or not. To his credit, he believed and got up and went home; though he didn’t get home until the next day, apparently. It wasn’t until he got home that he actually saw the evidence. Yes, the boy was well. And to satisfy his curiosity he said to the servants, ‘But tell me now, just what hour did he begin to get better?’
And they said, ‘Oh, it was yesterday about the seventh hour.’
He worked it out. It was at the very moment when (and this becomes important), ‘when he believed’? No, it doesn’t say that. It was at the moment ‘when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live”’ (4:53).
It was a miracle that shows that Christ could heal at a distance. And if you have been listening to that miracle, you will say, ‘Well, it’s obvious what he’s going to do in the case of his friend when he gets[p 93] a note from Bethany that Lazarus, whom he loves, is desperately sick. He doesn’t need to go. He can stay two days in the place where he was because he can heal at a distance! He’ll just say the word and Lazarus will be healed. Simple, isn’t it?’
But two days later he said to the apostles, ‘Lazarus has fallen asleep.’
And they said, ‘Oh, Lord, he’ll do well if he’s fallen asleep, because he’ll recover.’
‘No,’ he said, ‘what I mean is he’s dead.’ Then he added, ‘I’m glad I wasn’t there.’
What on earth is he saying? If he could heal at a distance he didn’t need to go, but he could have healed him!
You might say to yourself, ‘Oh well, he didn’t heal him, but now he’ll speak a word from a distance and raise him from the dead.’
He didn’t do that either. Instead he said, ‘Let’s go to Judaea.’
Martha and Mary react
When he got to Bethany in Judaea, Martha came out to meet him. Her first words were, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died’ (11:21).
Our Lord responded, ‘Your brother shall rise again.’
‘I know that’, said Martha. (She was a good Pharisee, in that sense. Like them, she believed in the resurrection.) ‘I know he shall rise at the last day, Lord. But that’s a bit irrelevant right now, isn’t it? If you had been here, he wouldn’t have died to start with!’ What she was implying was, ‘Why didn’t you come?’ Yet Martha’s faith remained triumphant. She said, ‘Lord, even now I believe that whatever you ask from God, he will give you.’
When Martha was done talking to Christ, Mary came out. She wasn’t the theologian that Martha was. As she collapsed at his feet, all she could manage to get out were the words, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’
Our Lord was moved when he saw her tears, and those of the other mourners. The crowd knew that he loved Lazarus, yet some of them said, ‘He could heal a blind man. Why couldn’t he have healed this man and kept him from dying? He was supposed to love him, wasn’t he?’ He groaned in spirit because now it raised the question of whether he really did love Lazarus.[p 94]
The timing of the resurrection
Of course, we know that he did raise Lazarus from the dead. But that miracle of bringing him back was, like the other miracles, a sign. The multiplying of the loaves and fish, for instance, was a sign that Jesus is the bread of life (6:35). What do you suppose this miracle of raising Lazarus was a sign of? It was a sign, in the words he explicitly said to Martha, that Jesus is ‘the resurrection and the life’ (v. 25).
When is the resurrection going to take place? Is it going to happen every other day, or every other century? No, the resurrection will only happen when Christ comes back! He is not going to stage it in his absence. The rest of the New Testament insists on this point. The resurrection will take place at ‘the coming of the Lord’. The resurrection of the believer will not take place in our Lord’s absence. He will not sit on the throne of heaven and suddenly speak the word, and then all the dead will rise.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thess 4:16–17)
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (1 Cor 15:22–23)
The raising of Lazarus is a sign of the great reality of the resurrection and the reuniting of the living and the dead when the Lord comes. And so we have the demonstration of Martha and Mary sending the letter to him, which said, ‘He whom you love is sick.’ It was a prayer for Lazarus’ recovery, for healing from his sickness. And our Lord stayed away and let Lazarus die. But he then raised him when he came to them! What a simple parable that is, though it is also a miracle. It is put here to prepare the Lord’s people for his going away after he was crucified, had risen from the dead and ascended back to heaven.[p 95]
Those who have fallen asleep
What happens now, during this time when Christ is away, when his people’s loved ones get sick? Well, we send a message to the Lord, don’t we? ‘Lord, dear brother so-and-so has been taken into hospital with a heart attack.’ And if it pleases the Lord he will give him recovery, and often he does. But ultimately he doesn’t, does he? Am I not right in saying that, since the Lord ascended to heaven, most believers have died? I’m not denying that sometimes the Lord answers our prayer and heals our loved ones when they are sick; he does do that. But ultimately, until the Lord comes, we shall all die.
There’s no need to get upset about it. Look at the pattern. The dead will be raised and reunited with the living when the Lord comes. This sign for Martha and Mary and Lazarus was also a parable for us so that we should not be disturbed when our Lord, in his absence, allows our loved ones to die. It holds out the promise of his second coming. He will come again! And it is delightful to see that he did come again after he had raised Lazarus.
Jesus therefore six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there . . . (John 12:1–2 RV)
Allow your imagination to dwell upon that brief moment in history. Here were Martha and Mary, plus the disciples, plus the Lord, and Lazarus—now raised from the dead, and they made the Lord a supper! There shall come another supper, shall there not? When the dead are raised and the living changed, along with a host of the disciples of all the ages, there shall be a supper. It will be the Lamb’s bridal supper (Rev 19:6–9).
So the sign in John 11 is meant to stand for the comfort and encouragement of every believer all down that age when our Lord is absent and does not yet come. This is our Lord setting the programme by this parable, by this miracle, so that we shall not be upset down through the years. He was preparing his people—Martha and Mary and Lazarus, and all who would follow—for his going away and his eventual coming again.
And yet, helpful though his preparation of his followers would prove to be, it was the fact that those who had come to believe in him[p 96] were about to face his going away; and not only his absence, but first his death. For him to raise from the dead a close friend was marvellous, but what would it mean for all of their hope if the one who claimed to be the resurrection and the life himself died? Preparing his followers to face that challenge to their faith would require another lesson.
Prepared for his own burial
As far as God is concerned, death is a stain and defilement on his universe. Death is an insult to God the creator, a stench obnoxious to God. It was God who made humans in his own image, so a dead corpse going to corruption is as obnoxious to him, and more so, as it is to us. And in the Old Testament he taught his people that those who approach him must be cleansed from every stain and smell of death. (See, for example, Lev 21.)
As we journey through John’s Gospel, we come to the time of the great Passover, and we see the people as they are going up to Jerusalem to purify themselves from the stain of death. All unknown to them, here comes the great Passover Lamb. By his death he shall remove every stain of sin and grant all who believe in him new life— life in Christ, the very life of God, a life that shall never die—and enable them to come to God in spirit and truth. They can approach into the very presence of the incorruptible and immortal God. That is the setting of these chapters. And they open with the scene that unfolded at the supper prepared for our Lord in the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany.
While they were gathered there, he announced that he was about to be buried. Far from being afraid to come to Jerusalem because he might die, he announced that he was going to be buried. Except maybe for Martha and Mary, that was news to his disciples. Though they had been told many times, they just couldn’t get it into their heads that Jesus was going to die. Not until they actually saw him dead could they take it in. They thought that he was going to reign immediately as king. Yet here he was, before he came as king, announcing that he was going to die.
It was not only that he would die, but that he would be buried. When someone objected to Mary anointing his feet with expensive[p 97] ointment, Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial’ (12:7). That is an important part of the gospel, for the gospel is that, ‘Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures’; but also, ‘that he was buried,’ as literally as you or I might be one day, and ‘that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures’ (1 Cor 15:3–4).
It was Judas who objected, and when he did, Jesus said, ‘The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.’ This was how he defended Mary’s pouring of the ointment on him. She had given him an anointing with nard, worth more than three hundred denarii. In those days, a labourer got one denarius a day. Since they didn’t work on the Sabbath, three hundred denarii would have been the yearly wage of a day-labourer. Let’s put it in modern terms. She spent an entire year’s wages on Christ all in one go! Christ’s first justification for her action was that he was about to die and be buried.
Judas said it was irresponsible, and a sign of religion gone fanatical. It ought to have been sold and given to the poor! ‘What kind of a testimony would it be to the world, if they were to see us wasting it when there are poor folks who haven’t got enough money to buy the next crust of bread?’ There are modern Judases who talk like that too. Of course, he was a thief, and if that nard had ever been sold, he was looking to pocket some of the interest, if not the capital, out of the proceeds of the sale.
If one of your family members, say a daughter, were to demand a holiday in Spain in January, then another in Portugal in February, and various clothes to go with these holidays, you might say, ‘Well, yes, I do love you, but is this not a bit extravagant?’ But if your daughter had terminal cancer and you knew she would likely be dead in a year, you might ask if she had a last wish. If she said, ‘Yes, I would like a world cruise, and the doctor said it would be okay,’ would you still say, ‘That’s too extravagant’? If it were your last opportunity to show your love to your daughter, you would give every penny you could lay your hands on.
If the apostles had understood that Jesus was about to die, and this was the last opportunity they would have to show their gratitude, love and respect for him, how could any of them have found it in their heart to criticize him?
His second justification of her action was, ‘so that she may keep it for the day of my burial’. This was going to be the burial that would wipe out death forever.[p 98] Suppose you had one million pounds, and you also had a fatal disease. Imagine then that someone came along and said, ‘I guarantee that I can cure you. It is expensive medicine, and I will have to charge you nine hundred thousand pounds for it, but if you don’t take it you will be dead in six months.’ Would you say, ‘I can’t afford that’? Surely you would say, ‘What’s money to me if I’m dead? If you can cure me and it takes nine hundred thousand pounds, I’ll give you a cheque right now. What’s money compared with life?’
If those apostles had woken up to the fact that Jesus was dying to deliver them forever from death, there wouldn’t be anything too big for them to give him. Mary had begun to understand what that burial would mean for Christ, and what it would do.
You might say, ‘She didn’t actually use it for his burial—she wasn’t there.’ Of course she wasn’t; instead of giving it to the poor she now gave it to Christ while he was still alive. He wouldn’t need it when he was buried.
The custom of using perfume to anoint the body of departed loved ones was done for practical purposes, to overcome the stench. Corruption did its ugly work when Lazarus was put into the tomb. Martha was right when she said that after four days in the tomb, Lazarus’ body would have begun to stink. But when Jesus was laid in the tomb he would see no corruption. That would be the end of the whole process of death; he would rise again! As David said in the Psalms, ‘you will not . . . let your holy one see corruption’ (Ps 16:10). He would not need ointment to mask the stench of his death. Mary, along with Martha, had perceived it, and instead of waiting until he died Mary used her money, while she had the chance, in order to show the living Lord how much she valued him.
In the face of all her detractors and critics Christ issued a comment, ‘Leave her alone.’ John had used the same Greek verb in the story of Lazarus. When Lazarus came out of the tomb, bound with his grave clothes, Christ said, ‘Unbind him, and let him go’ (John 11:44). No longer was he to be bound by death, nor the fear of it. Now he says of Mary, ‘Leave her alone’ (12:7). ‘Take your hands off; let her be free. Instead of giving it to the poor she has kept it against the day of my burial.’
Here is the command that tells us to get our values in life the right way round and in due proportion. We have a duty to the poor,[p 99] and no amount of hymn singing will compensate for it if we neglect our duty to them; but let us get our values right. Do you really believe that Jesus died for you in order to break the power of death, to bring you out of the very grave, and to give you a glorious eternal life? If you do, what would you not give him, and what value would you put on him? Would anything be too extravagant?
Let me give you some advice at this moment. Don’t wait too long, for when we ourselves are dead we can’t give him anything. My advice would be, do it now while life gives the opportunity, so that we may get our proportions right. Mary anointed our Lord Jesus with ointment in preparation for his burial because, along with her sister Martha, she had discovered him to be the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world; the resurrection and the life. She didn’t wait until he had died and was buried before she anointed him, but spent her vast sum on him beforehand.
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