John 18 Chapter 11 The Seventh Sign

[HKHaugan]

The signs we have seen so far:
1. Jesus changes the water into wine at a wedding feast (Ch.2)
2. Jesus heals an official's son (Ch.4)
3. Jesus heals a crippled man afflicted for 38 years at the Bethesda Pool (Ch.5)
4. Jesus feeds 5000 (Ch.6)
5. Jesus walks on water (Ch.6)
6. Jesus heals a man born blind (Ch.9)

Now we come to the 7th sign. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. It doesn't get any deeper or more profound than this. Jesus shows His mastery over death. We have seen His mastery of life in the first six signs but now it really comes down to our terminal condition. We all die. We all are terminal. The younger we are the less the subject of death tends to impact us unless we know we are going to face an illness, war or other dangerous life threatening possibilities.

All the signs up to this one have dealt with life, its sustenance, its protection and its maintenance. But death is final. Most of our activity as human beings is centered around promoting life, extending it and enjoying it. Death we put off as long as possible. Yet it is the one experience mankind has not found curable, postponeable and stoppable. It is an irreversible reality appearing to all people in all cultures in all of what we call time. For everyone there is a beginning and there is an end. When 'the chips are down,' when 'the cards have been played,' when 'the dice have been cast' and 'our number is up,' the imagery the word 'death' brings does not bear good news.

Now the idea here is not to dwell morbidly on something that saddens us, wishing we could change the subject or even deny its reality. It is about the good news that what has been impossible, irreversible, unchangeable and inevitable has found its nemesis in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, a non-descript Jew from a non-descript place in a basically non-descript culture. Jesus, the messianic question, ascended the throne of Messianic reality when the world powers crucified Him and showed He was not only The Messiah but God the Son, God in the flesh, when He rose from the dead. He lifted the concept of human individuality and unique personal being to a dignity, significance and purpose unknown in the world at that time, in fact in all time since. Physical bodies may cease to exist but the images of God in them, the personal spiritual realities we are, continue eternally.

In Jesus spiritual reality trumps intellect and its philosophical speculation. Religion is replaced by relationship, spiritual insight replaces hindsight and the motivation to action is forward looking trusting the Spirit for each next event and moment.

The invisible is revealed and the visible is but a temporary structure to exhibit its truth. Jesus brought the invisible to visibility, the unseen into the seen, exposing evil's corrupt dark prince hiding in the darkness of man's sinful self-obsession struggling to gain a foothold in Creation. Jesus stands in complete contrast as He openly reveals His faith, grace, truth and love with a moral precision that sends the proud to their knees and the humble lifted above the devil's secular agenda. The person of Jesus lights up the mind, heart and spirit with a moral precision that has become the eternal standard for right thinking, right feeling and right action.

This is eternal life we're talking about and death is the devil's attempt to keep us each from experiencing that life not only in the now but in eternity as well. That is what makes the 7th sign the critical and final exhibit of the Messiah's purpose, to give everyone who believes in Him eternal life in a relationship with Him. Thus when news comes that His close friend Lazarus is dying He follows His Father's will step by step which is in complete contrast to the expectations of the culture around Him.

Ch.11:1-16 It's time to define names and terms here. Lazarus is Lat. for Heb. Eliezer, help from God. Bethany means house of unripe figs or dates. Mary has no definite meaning except it is associated with bitterness in the sense of experiences. Martha is really Aramaic for mistress or female head of household. However we can apply these terms to the meaning of the passage will depend on the insights we receive in the reading.

What is important here is to see the steps Jesus takes based on His Fathers' leading. He wants His disciples to continue seeing things from His spiritual perspective. This means differentiating between cultural agendas and a spiritual agenda. There are six steps.

First, we find Lazarus is a close friend as are his sisters Mary (anoints Jesus with perfume, 12:3) and Martha. Friendship is important but trusting Jesus to define how they function comes first. The disciples need to question their past conditioning.

Secondly, Lazarus is sick so the sisters send that word to Jesus with the cultural agenda nudger, “the one you love is sick.” The sisters' expectations of Jesus are based on friendship, despair and religious duty not on Him. They expect Jesus to drop everything and come immediately. They see Jesus through the lens of their culture. He wants the disciples and the sisters to see life, sickness and death from His perspective.

Thirdly, Jesus ' reaction is unexpected, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it.” Everything Jesus says and does has a different purpose, a spiritual purpose. So even though He loved the sisters He stayed two more days after He heard the news (that's three days). His disciples don't question His decision. Focus on Jesus not on cultural expectations.

Fourthly, on that fourth day He tells His disciples, “Let's go back to Judea.” Their response is one of fear since that is where the Jewish leadership tried to stone Him. But Jesus is relentless in His mission. “Day is when you can see. Take advantage of that. Darkness is when you stumble and fall because there is no light.” Jesus is reminding them of His initial revelation that He is the light of the world. If they follow Him they are always in the light. Fear is walking in the darkness. Following Him let's them see regardless if it is day or night (Ps.139:12). The surrounding world is always placing its fears before us but faith in Jesus overcomes fear. “Greater is He that is in you than he who is in the world (1Jn.4:4).”

Fifthly, Jesus informs the disciples that Lazarus has fallen asleep but He is going to wake Him up. They don't understand so they say if Lazarus sleeps he''ll get better. Jesus was telling them Lazarus is dead but they just didn't get it. One can be worldly awake but spiritually asleep, seeing but not seeing, hearing but not hearing. Physical death points to spiritual death which the disciples must be made aware of.

Sixthly, Jesus tells them plainly that Lazarus is physically dead and for their sake He is glad He wasn't there so that they could believe. The key to both life and death rests in personal belief, personal trust and personal faith in Jesus. Thomas still can't grasp this so he tells the rest of the group that everyone should go so that they all could die with Lazarus. Was he saying that in the sense of “Sure let's all go so we can sleep with him and be healed like Jesus healed others?” The six steps mark the needs in the still unsure disciples and the general belief that death is final (by the way, whose number is 6?). The 'Hereafter' remains an incompletable mystery. They've seen how He deals with life but what about death? Jesus has a plan.

Ch.11:17-37 There are more steps to ponder here, steps that involve the whole community. Jesus arrived and found Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. When a Jew died he was buried as quickly as possible within 24 hours. Jesus was notified on one day. He waited two more days knowing Lazarus would die. That's three days. He left on the fourth day and went the 16 miles from the other side of the Jordan where baptisms took place and arrived in Bethany to find Lazarus had been dead 4 days and, of course, already in the tomb. Because of Bethany's proximity to Jerusalem many made the 2 mile trip to comfort the sisters.

The first step here is to give assurance to the sisters, Mary and Martha. Martha responded as expected that if Jesus had been there Lazarus would not have died. Why didn't He come right away? Jesus told her that her brother would rise again to which she replies, “I know he'll rise in the resurrection on the last day.” A proper reply out of respect and religious understanding but filled with disappointment.

Step two is when Jesus tells her that He is the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in Him will live even if he dies. Does she believe this? Who do we really trust in the unseen?

Step three is when she replies that she does and then adds, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” Belief is the key and it has to be said openly.

Step four happens when she tells her sister Mary that Jesus wants to see her. She leaves quickly and is followed by the mourners who assumed she was going to the tomb to mourn. Jesus, still not quite in Bethany, receives Mary who states her sister's concern about His not being there where Lazarus' life could have been saved. She too needs to do what Martha has done, deal with personal belief and to openly state it.

Step five comes when Jesus sees Mary and her fellow Jews weeping and He weeps with them “deeply moved in spirit.” The community needs to see the compassion of Jesus for those sickness and death.

Step six takes place when Jesus asks “Where have you laid him?” to which they reply, “Come and see” which causes Jesus to again weep. He is personally grieving and visibly moved causing some to say how Jesus must have loved Lazarus while others jibed that if He had healed a blind man why not Lazarus? Again the number six and its shadowy figure come into play.

It takes six steps to uncover the varied emotional and faithless undercurrents that make up the atmosphere of despair and resignation when death hovers about. Jesus wants and takes the time for them to be vented because the seventh step will remove any doubt as to the question of His identity, behavior and power. Jesus is being completely and totally obedient to His Father's will.

The first six steps (Ch.11:1-16) were to teach and prepare His disciples to preach the new life in Jesus. The second six steps (Ch.11:17-37) were to show the whole community what they really believe about sickness and death and restore the hope built into their heritage, the true Messianic hope that Jesus came to fulfill, the hope of everlasting life. It will be the seventh step Jesus takes that will reverse the irreversible, death, and bring the ultimate reality of eternal life through faith in Him. It's the seventh sign of His being proven Messiah. The seventh step is for both groups, disciples and the community.

Ch.11:38-44 Jesus arrives at the tomb a fully emotional man. He feels what the family and friends feel. But there appears to be more in Jesus. The Greek word is embromenos, groaning within. As the Son of Man He is feeling not only Lazarus' death but perhaps the anticipation of His own? Death is a stone sealed tomb challenging His full humanity and each next moment before it He is also fully God the Son. Both as man and God His faith is being called upon to obey the Father's will.

“Take away the stone,” He said. Martha reluctantly reminds Him that Lazarus' body has been in the tomb four days and there will be an awful odor. Jesus unhesitatingly reminds her what He already told her (vs.25), if she believed she would see the glory of God. So the stone is taken away at which point Jesus lifts His gaze above and prays to His Father for the family, the disciples, the friends and all who came to pay their respects. Each word reflects His totally submitted mind, heart and spirit and each word is a moment of perfect faith said for the benefit of those present. Why? That they might believe the Father sent Him for this moment and, in fact, for every moment of His life on earth.

When the stone was taken away Jesus raised His voice for all to hear, “Lazarus, come out!” When he came out he was covered with the strips of grave clothes all around him and the napkin about his head probably stumbling and trying to figure out what was going on. Now Jesus speaks to the assembled people, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” The seventh step and the seventh sign, He raises Lazarus from the dead as Lord of life and Lord before, over, above and beyond death.

Ch.11:45-57 But there is much more here. When He said that they should take off the grave clothes and let him go He was giving them a ministry to follow the mission of sharing Him with others. The ministry would be to see the cultural coverings of misused intellect, broken emotionality and religious speculation as grave clothes to be discarded. New life in Jesus brings the new clothes of the Holy Spirit, the clothes of grace, forgiveness, love, truth, faith, hope, patient compassion and spiritual gifts. These are the every next kairos moments in the new life, eternal life, that Jesus brings into the world.

But this stupendous earth shaking event instead of being the good news of the arrival of the Messiah, agitated the hostility and fear already infecting Jewish leadership. Now the conspiracy of 'principalities and powers' rapidly takes shape and Jesus will be faced with His own death. The devil and his spirit of fear unite and ignite the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees and the priesthood against Jesus because “the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation (vs.48).”
'Our place' meaning authority, power, recognition, status, social standing and economic survival. 'Nation' meaning the destruction of their culture, religion and heritage and those who presently are subservient to and dependent on them.
This is a microcosm of all groupings ethnic, national and social. Jesus comes to free all people from the idolatry of sin-enslaved service and to take off the grave clothes that keep sinful human nature from being healed and personally at one with God.

Inadvertently, Caiaphas, as high priest, prophesies (vs.52) that it is better that one man to die for the nation and the scattered people of God to unite them (Is.49:6). The conspiracy now takes on a life of its own fueled by the devil and his spirits. Jesus no longer goes public but takes His disciples and stays in Ephraim (Heb., double fruit). Personally, I would say the double fruit is them spending time in prayer and worship as Jesus anticipates His expected arrest and sentencing to death on the Cross.

Step seven and sign seven will merge as one final statement of faith when Jesus is crucified and then rises from the dead. When God the Son commits to serve by dying once and for all for all mankind in every generation His work as Messiah will have been completed (Jn.17:4).