“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.” (John 11:1-6, ESV)
Moving from chapter 10 to chapter 11 of John we see a
transition in content. Up to this point John had largely focused on Jesus’
public ministry, but with the beginning of chapter 11 we see that Jesus leaves
public ministry and begins to focus on His disciples in preparation for His
leaving. The occasion for His leaving is the distress of two women that He
loved as a result of their brother being deathly ill.
We don’t know for certain how they met. It may have in Luke
10:38 when Jesus arrived at Bethany (about two miles east of the temple in
Jerusalem) when Martha invited Him into her home. It was on this occasion that Jesus began to speak to His disciples while Martha was busy serving them. Her
sister Mary was there also, and she pulled close to Jesus’ feet and began to
listen. This did not sit well with Martha because she saw herself doing all of
the work while Mary did nothing. It was then that Martha went to Jesus for some
support saying, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?
Tell her then to help me” (John 10:40). This is so familiar, as it is with
anyone who has more than one child. One always seems to do more or at least
sense that they do more and as such they feel that things are not quite fair
leading them to complain.
In our home my tendency is to tell the other child to get up
and help, but Jesus knew that His time was drawing close and His response to
Martha concerning Mary was different. He told her, “Martha, Martha, you are
anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has
chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke
10:40–42, ESV) He told Martha that the kinds of things that she was engaged in
even for good reasons are the kinds of things that will always be there. They
are here today and they will have to be done again tomorrow. But what Mary was
doing was taking the time away to worship. She might also have known the tasks
that were before them, but she sensed that the most important thing she could
do at that time was to be with her Lord.
It is these two sisters who send word that their brother is
dying and they ask Jesus to come to them. John writes again with the benefit of
the perspective of time, saying that it was Mary who had anointed Jesus’ feet
which was an event that had not yet happened (see chapter 12). But by adding
these things John helps to knit these incidents together, which is especially helpful
when you look at the number of Mary’s mentioned in the New Testament. In their
sending for Jesus they spoke of their dying brother Lazarus as one that He loved, again emphasizing the depth of their existing relationship.
Verse 6 tells us because of Jesus’ great love for the three
of them that He stayed two more days were He was. My tendency at that point might
have been to drop everything and consider how I might be able to respond, but
this is not what Jesus did when He heard about His dear friend and the distress
of his sisters. Jesus was not panicked. He knew that He did not have to drop
everything, but could finish up the details were He was before He left
at the proper time to go see His friend.
Knowing why He was sent He knew that
even if Lazarus were to die that He really would not die. We can all know this
because of the promises of God’s Word where we read that all who believe are
saved and are given eternal life. But Jesus knew more than that. He knew that
Lazarus not only would receive eternal life, but He also knew the number of
Lazarus’ days. He knew that his life in the body was not finished yet either.
It was not his time, and Jesus knew it. He knew that through Lazarus’ illness
(and death) that God was going to be glorified. In this sense the last major
miracle that John records for us before Jesus went to the cross was demonstrating the
power of God to give life to those who had lost it.
It was only in chapter 10 that we read, “For this reason the
Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” (John
10:17, ESV) Jesus has absolute power over life, and through Lazarus and before many witnesses
He was preparing to demonstrate it.
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