John 11 - When Jesus Doesn't Show Up
We expect an immediate response when we cry out to God, but what happens when He doesn't respond?
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John 11 (ESV)
1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.
2 It was Mary who
anointed the Lord with ointment
and wiped his feet with her hair,
whose brother Lazarus was ill.
3 So the sisters sent to him, saying,
“Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
4 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.”
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill,
he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
8 The disciples said to him,
“Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you,
and are you going there again?”
9 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.
10 But if anyone walks in the night,
he stumbles,
because the light is not in him.”
11 After saying these things, he said to them,
“Our friend Lazarus
has fallen asleep,
but I go to awaken him.”
12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.”
13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death,
but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep.
14 Then Jesus told them plainly,
“Lazarus has died,
15 and for your sake
I am glad that I was not there,
so that you may believe.
But let us go to him.”
16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples,
“Let us also go,
that we may die with him.”
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
18 Bethany was near Jerusalem,
about two miles off,
19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.
20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went and met him,
but Mary remained seated in the house.
21 Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord,
if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
22 But even now I know that
whatever you ask from God,
God will give you.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to him,
“I know that he will rise again
in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her,
“I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me,
though he die,
yet shall he live,
26 and everyone who
lives
and believes in me
shall never die.
Do you believe this?”
27 She said to him,
“Yes, Lord;
I believe that you are
the Christ,
the Son of God,
who is coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private,
“The Teacher is here
and is calling for you.”
29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him.
30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him.
31 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.
32 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.”
33 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.
34 And he said,
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept.
36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37 But some of them said,
“Could not he
who opened the eyes of the blind man
also have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus,
deeply moved
again,
came to the tomb.
It was a cave,
and a stone lay against it.
39 Jesus said,
“Take away the stone.”
Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him,
“Lord,
by this time there will be an odor,
for he has been dead four days.”
40 Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that
if you believed
you would see the glory of God?”
41 So they took away the stone.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you that you have heard me.
42 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.”
43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out.”
44 The man who had died came out,
his hands and feet bound with linen strips,
and his face wrapped with a cloth.
Jesus said to them,
“Unbind him,
and let him go.”
45 Many of the Jews therefore,
who had come with Mary
and had seen what he did,
believed in him,
46 but some of them
went to the Pharisees
and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said,
“What are we to do?
For this man performs many signs.
48 If we let him go on like this,
everyone will believe in him,
and the Romans will come and take away
both our place
and our nation.”
49 But one of them,
Caiaphas,
who was high priest that year,
said to them,
“You know nothing at all.
50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you
that one man should die for the people,
not that the whole nation should perish.”
51 He did not say this of his own accord,
but being high priest that year he prophesied
that Jesus would die for the nation,
52 and
not for the nation only,
but also to gather
into one
the children of God
who are scattered abroad.
53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
54 Jesus therefore
no longer walked openly among the Jews,
but went from there
to the region near the wilderness,
to a town called Ephraim,
and there he stayed with the disciples.
55 Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand,
and many went up
from the country
to Jerusalem
before the Passover
to purify themselves.
56 They
were looking for Jesus
and saying to one another as they stood in the temple,
“What do you think?
That he will not come to the feast at all?”
57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders
that if anyone knew where he was,
he should let them know,
so that they might arrest him.
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Previous DIG DEEPER posts on John
John 11 Summary
Mary & Martha do everything right in the desperate situation they faced as their brother lay dying. They immediately turn to Jesus, who's not just one of their closest friends, but also their Lord (v27).
So it's almost shocking to read that Jesus holds back, almost as if He's ignoring them.
After all, how many times hasn't Jesus healed people whom He had no previous relationship with, but when His friend is in need, Jesus holds back. The sisters call Jesus out on this when He finally arrives - after Lazarus has been dead for four days. They both say the same thing:
If you had been here, my brother would not have died (v21 & 32).
While it may seem like Jesus didn't care enough to go, He gives the actual reason He stayed away in v42: so that the people standing there (as well as the people who would read this thousands of years later) may believe that the Father sent Him.
Not only does Jesus not get angry at the sisters' anger with Him, but He enters into their pain. The two words of v35 are the shortest verse in the Bible:
Jesus wept.
Isn't it an amazing comfort to knows what it is to feel the anger, sadness and loss so many of us experience?
However, the biggest theological lesson in this chapter isn't Christ's intercession and experience of human emotion, rather it's the awesome fact that Jesus has authority over all things - even death!
Dig Deeper
Inflection makes such a difference in what the words we speak actually mean. Take Thomas' quote in v16 for example, responding to Jesus' decision to go back to the city where the establishment wants to kill him:
So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples,
“Let us also go,
that we may die with him.”
Did he say this in bold solidarity with Jesus, as in:
“Let us also go,
that we may die with him.”
Knowing what we know about Thomas, it's more likely he said it somewhat sarcastically:
“Let us also go...
that we may die with him.”
What about you? How do you respond to calls to follow and serve the Lord? Is it with bold solidarity or is it with a 'woe is me' sarcasm?
AAA Prayer :
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who through His Son listens to our anger, but who has shown His glory by overcoming death (v40-41)
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will boldly and gladly respond to God's call in your life.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
