John 11:17-27

Hey everybody. Thanks for joining us.

Happy Monday.

Glad you're back with us as we continue through the Gospel of John.

Find ourself in the 11th chapter.

Really interesting chapter primarily

centered on the story of Lazarus and the experience.

If if you weren't with us last Thursday, might be worth, trying

to go back and pick that up at some point, because the introduction to the story

does provide some context and sets the stage.

We are in the 17th verse

and I'll read, down through probably about verse 27,

and then we'll come back and have some discussion.

When Jesus arrived, he found that

Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days now.

Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews

had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,

she went out and met him while Mary stayed home.

Martha said to him,

Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would have not died.

But even now I know

that God will give you whatever you ask of him.

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.

Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.

And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Do you believe this?

She said to him, yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,

the Son of God, the one coming into the world.

So, to begin with, John sets the context here.

Jesus arrives.

Lazarus has been entombed for days,

and that does a couple of things in the flow of the story.

It solidifies the fact that Lazarus is

dead, has been body has been prepared.

He's been buried or entombed.

And he also then tells us

that there's a crowd of people there because of the proximity with Jerusalem.

Martha and Mary, who seem to be well thought of by many, are visited.

And there is grieving.

I don't know all of the details, Michael, but I know that in the world

of Jesus, in the Jewish world of Jesus, funerals were,

often extended over a couple of days.

There is a period of mourning, a set period of grieving.

There are meals.

There are people coming and going.

This would be a little bit different than probably our experience of a funeral.

And so I think one of the things it helps to know

is that there's a lot happening here.

There's a lot of people, there's a lot of coming and going.

And Jesus joins this crowd

after they're well down that road.

Yeah.

There's a lot of actual cultural elements here

that I think are really important to get our minds around.

Clint, I think that, certainly the first is this idea of,

sort of almost the professor tional grieve or,

you know, that you would have this, this group that would, would come in and,

and maybe even be more animated in the expression of grief that that was

not an uncommon reality in as part of this longer elongated funeral process.

So you've got some of that cultural element type things as well.

I also want to just point out that there's also significance,

not just in the fact that, you know, by day four,

a person is really, really dead, right?

There's there's no questions about whether,

you know, maybe the person was sick or all of that's gone.

But commentators also make know the fact that there's some belief that the soul may

in the stick around in the Judeo context, so that there's this idea

that on the fourth day, death is just it's over.

It's it's the end.

In other words, maybe as a shorthand, Clint, to say,

when Jesus comes back, when Jesus enters into the story with Lazarus four days

in that at this point is a story of Jesus encountering a dead man.

And so that throws into amazing contrast the teaching that Jesus has already given

to us to this point in the text, this idea that those who believe in me never die.

Very clearly, John sets this story up

so that an original reader in the first context would understand

that what we're talking about is a very clearly a clear cut case.

Dead man.

Jesus is now talking about life forever.

And these two things are intended to be contrasting elements.

They're supposed to stick out to us in the story.

You know, there's another detail,

and you have to kind of know a little bit more of the backstory.

But if we're familiar with them, Mary and Martha stories

in the broader context of the gospel, remember that it's Martha who stays busy

while Mary sits at Jesus feet. Here

we have a kind of reversal of that.

Martha comes out, the older sister, to meet Jesus,

while Mary stays at home and

this text gives you

a couple of places where you get to make some decisions about things.

And Mary and Martha are going to represent one of those decisions.

And Martha's words here in this, verse 21,

give us another point where we have to kind of make a decision.

There's a little bit of interpretation, interpretation that happens here.

Martha says to Jesus, Lord, if you've been here, my brother would not have died.

Now, there's a couple of ways to hear that.

One can hear that as an affirmation of faith.

Lord, if you'd been here, I know you could have done something.

I know you could have changed the the reality of what happened.

I know you week. This could have been avoided.

I believe that you could have done something.

The other one is to hear it with a hint of accusation, particularly

because Jesus told the disciples he was going to take his time.

Right.

And so, we don't know that, Mary, that Martha knows that,

other than to say maybe she knows where Jesus was.

It's not clear what she does or doesn't know,

but you can hear in her words, why weren't you here?

If you'd have been here, this wouldn't have happened.

You could have stopped it.

You could have changed it.

Now, I don't know if it's a clear situation

that John wants us to pick one of those over the other.

Maybe he writes it up this way so that we get to hold

both of those things in tension.

It is both the pain of the absence of Jesus

and an affirmation that Jesus could have made a difference.

But but it's an it's an interesting moment

where Mary doesn't even come out to see Jesus.

And Martha says words that might be interpreted

to to be a little bit salty.

I want to dig into that just a little bit more.

Clint, before we move on.

And the point I want to make, very simply is we don't know

what John wants us to do in terms of that interpretive move,

but I think we can say something with 100% confidence.

We do know what John has told us, the reader, up to this point.

And make no mistake about it, John has included on purpose.

This is not accidental.

In a book as carefully written as John, John is included.

When Jesus told the disciples, we're going to wait a little bit.

We're going to give this some time.

So John knows that the reader is aware of that,

and John is presenting to us characters.

I mean, Martha is clearly grieving.

This is clearly caught up in the midst of a funeral.

And only four days into the process of this extended

family ritual is Jesus and the disciples arriving.

Right. These are important people.

And so we as the reader, regardless of what John wants us to choose

about what Martha's feeling, we do feel the tension of that moment.

We do wonder, why is the Messiah, the teacher, the rabbi,

all of these things at the same time?

Why is Jesus not the first one there comforting this family

in the midst of their grief and of course, that creates tension

within us, and it's out of that sort of seedbed of tension

that if you linger there and you go with John, there's going to be

an unbelievable revelation which will then lead to teaching,

which will then lead to greater understanding of who Jesus Christ is,

which is the purpose of this book.

But it's just needless to say, Clint, you're exactly right.

I do think there's this interpretive gap space in the text,

but what we know with confidence is that John isn't going to tie up

all those loose ends at this point, the story, because John wants us hooked

on what's happening here. And John's succeeding.

Yeah.

And, you know, and again, Martha does say here,

I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.

But then later she says, I know he'll

raise in the last day there is some looseness here.

And I think John gives us some chance to navigate that.

So Jesus responds, your brother will rise again.

And Martha's again.

She takes that as good news.

I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.

Now, this is,

an interesting moment because

there is already within Judaism this kind of thing, or within,

at least in Martha's mind, there's this idea of the final resurrection.

But then that statement occasions Jesus.

Fifth, I am, if you're keeping track of the

I am statements, there are seven total.

This brings us to number five.

Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.

And then he he gives these words that I think are well known

in the Gospel of John and believe in me, even though they will die,

they will live, and everyone who lives believes in me will never die.

And he asks Martha, do you believe this?

So Jesus has claimed something important for himself.

I am the resurrection.

I am the power of life and death.

I am the one who calls back from the dead, the living.

I am the one who gives life

either a life that avoids death.

And again, keep in mind, John generally means spiritual terms.

When we're when we're using these words, he has in mind,

yes, physical life and death, which is the backdrop of this story.

But for John, that's always a mirror of spiritual life

and death, which in the gospel is I mean,

I think you could make a case more important.

So Jesus says this I am the resurrection and the life.

Do you believe this? And we've said it.

I don't know how many times, Michael, and not to beat it into the ground here,

but but this is this is the question of John.

I, I am this thing.

I am this one.

I am this power.

I am.

Do you believe this?

And here we have that question not only set

before the reader, but literally set before one of the characters.

So, Clint, this this isn't surprising to you,

but if you've been with us so long for this study, that doesn't mean

that you've been following along with some of the comments on our other videos.

And I'll tell you some of the more common themes of comments we get as people

go on this study, Clint, is they come to statements like this

where Jesus says things like this I'm the resurrection, the life.

Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.

The most common things that we even get today in comments is that's ridiculous.

That makes no sense.

A very literal reading of what Jesus said you can't die and live at the same time,

you stupid people. How do you believe that?

I understand that I understand how people get there.

And to be honest with you, that's a little bit of the trap

that John has laid in this narrative.

Because and this is the genius of it, it's the exact thing

that Jesus is doing to that original audience, the Jews who

who you know, Martha, I don't think maybe you disagree.

I don't think John gives us any reason

to doubt the veracity or the will of Martha in these statements.

They they are statements of faith.

But when compared to the brightness of the revelation of the light,

the life of the world, it they pale in comparison.

And I think to make that point, I would only point out how she responds

in verse 27 when he asks, do you believe?

What she can come to say is, I believe that you're the Messiah,

even the Son of God, which has substantial statement coming into the world,

but not quite the full step to resurrection and the life.

The one who will never die, the one who is the fount of all hope and life.

And then go back through all these I am statements.

What Jesus is claiming is beyond what the characters in this story can comprehend,

because from a very simple, literalist, deterministic viewpoint,

it makes no sense from the lens of faith looking at Christ

and seeing how that re translates the entire experience of the world.

Then suddenly things begin to shift into gear and into clarity.

And I think, Clint, that of course, questions

to characters in this book are questions that come to us.

And I think that each one of us should find some comfort in that,

to be honest with you, because you're we're not going to always

go through seasons of life where faith feels like it goes all the way down.

So sometimes those faith step, those faith statements that we make

are really holding on as strong as we can.

And the truth is, that's rather weekly and I think there's some comfort

that even the people who meet Jesus in their greatest moments,

the the in flesh walking,

standing, hugging, holding them, Jesus,

they, those characters struggle to hold on to him as well.

And so there's some hope and comfort that comes to later disciples

from a text like this.

I want to

I want to say something, and then I want to

kind of put an asterisk on it because it will

it will come up again on one of the very last days of this study,

when when at some point we get to the end of the book of John

in the Gospel of John,

belief isn't simply a mental process

of putting facts together and understanding something.

It's revealed to you. It's seen.

And so Martha expresses a level of faith here.

That is what she's able to process.

But there's more coming at it.

And so, these stories that John tells,

the picture of Jesus doing miracles and, you know,

calling as he's going to do Lazarus back to life.

This reveals to people when they see who Jesus is and what Jesus does,

it responds in the choice to believe and a deeper understanding when.

And so,

this is a tremendous affirmation.

Again, if you think about the other gospels, this is Peter's confession.

You know, in the other Gospels, we make a mountaintop out of Peter standing.

And Jesus says, well, what do you say about me?

And he says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And and Peter gets

somewhat famous for I mean, that's a big deal.

This is no less than that. Yeah.

Martha voices a proclamation

that Jesus is the Messiah.

She just doesn't yet understand the fullness of what that means.

Now she's about to, but she hasn't gotten there yet.

And and John is

just wonderfully helping us

journey along with her as she discovers,

okay, I profess this thing,

but I don't yet understand the fullness of what it means.

And I think it's it.

I say this a lot, and I'm sorry, but it's just it's really, really well done.

You've also uncovered there, and I don't want this to pass by

without pointing it out.

Luke gets a lot of credit.

In fact, we did a whole study of Luke.

And so

if you want a lot of big dose of this, go watch, listen and follow through that.

But Clint Luke gets a lot of mentions

about the gospel for the least, the gospel for the outcast.

But that happens in John.

I meet right?

Jesus goes and spends substantial time,

in the Samaritan

community, he reveals himself to the blind man.

And there's there's multiple chapters dedicated to the conflict

that flows out of that.

Here.

Jesus is receiving one of the great statements of faith

from a woman, which in the original first century culture would have been

a very tenuous witness in a court of law, legally.

So the idea that John is lifting that this up as a,

she is seeing she's responding to revelation.

I do think that, to John's credit,

John is not interested in the bona fides of the people who are the witnesses.

It is literally anyone, regardless of your rank

or station, who who sees the revelation of Christ at work.

If you see it, you are a qualified witness to what God is doing in the world.

And that's an amazing, kind of flavor

that gets worked into this gospel that I think, you know, you left that out.

I think that's 100% fair.

I might even go so

far as to say, Michael, that with a couple significant exceptions,

Nicodemus and arguably one other one in the later part of Mark.

The further you are up the ladder, the less chance you have

of seeing who Jesus is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There is a kind of reversal that's not just John that that's

kind of inherent in all of the Gospels, but certainly we see it in John.

All right, so here's the thing. Tough truth.

I know we didn't get far today, but there's a lot in this text.

It's a deep text, is a deep story, and it has a lot of resonance.

So we're glad that for the time that you spent with us,

if it's been encouraging to you, if it's been challenging you,

if you've learned something in it,

give this video a like it will help others find it their own studies of John.

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Thank you for your time.