Lazarus Applications

(1) I earnestly desire for us to realize how, in our natural state, we are in the same predicament as Lazarus.  We are dead.  There is nothing Lazarus could do to please God there in the tomb.  There is nothing Lazarus could have given to the poor.  There is nothing that Lazarus could have offered to advance the Kingdom of God.  We are Lazarus … just before the Savior speaks him to life.  There is nothing we can do or say to God.  In the part of us that really counts, where we relate to God, we were lost, sick, dead, and separated.  But Jesus came to us—to our tomb—and spoke us into life; born again.  If we have not been born again—still in our tomb—Jesus is on His way to where we lie.  He speaks and the elect come to life.  Perhaps this day—Resurrection Day—is the day you hear the Savior’s voice and stir to life, and turn to your neighbor’s to help you shed your grave clothes.  You cannot do it on your own.  Only Jesus can do it for you; and He is willing.  Will you hear His voice today and emerge from your tomb?

(2) I earnestly desire that we realize that there are many kinds of death and Jesus is Lord of all of them.  The dissolved or dissolving marriage.  The dead or dying dream.  The crippling thought (and then behavior pattern) that leads to greater and greater degrees of bondage.  The deteriorating physical body.  The dead-end career.  The disappointment that is sometimes culled but never absent from your days.  The thorns and thistles creeping ever closer and closer to the center of the garden.  The loss of joy in life and perhaps even the will to live.  The darkness that grips your heart and whispers shame and condemnation.  The fear of death, loss, or rejection.  Whatever shape of death that fills each of your shadows and occupies every idle moment—Jesus is Lord of the dead. 

Jesus’ words of committal while hanging on the cross can give us the words of faith in all the in-between “death” places between the cradle and the grave—“‘Father into Your hands I commit My Spirit’ and having said this He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46).  “Father into Your hands, I commit ________.”  “Father into Your hands I commit my marriage, my pain, my dashed hopes, my future, my past, my present, my loneliness, my disappointment, my shame, my guilt, my embarrassment, my failure, my fear, my inability, my pride, my goodness, my wickedness, my sin, my sins, my death, my life, my kids, my parents, my mind, my body, my love.”  And having said this, we breathed our last—like Lazarus—and fall upon the mercy/grace of God.

(3) I earnest desire that we accept that not everyone in the cemetery was called out of his tomb that day in Bethany.  But this is not because Jesus was unable.  It is because Jesus only does what the Father wills.  Therefore, it is a point of maturing faith that says, like Jesus, I only want what the Father wills.  It does not mean we don’t ask, knock, and seek, but if the answer comes back as a “no” I want our trust in the Father’s will to be large enough to accept it as a veiled goodness that will produce more glory for God and more holiness for us.  I want us to have humility regarding the larger perspective to defer back to God’s goodness and wisdom.  Mature belief will not be idle or unprepared, but at the same time it will resist the temptation to scrutinize the Father’s will in unbelief. 

Instead of saying, “If You had been here, my brother would not have died”—which has sincere but limited faith—we will instead say, “You are here, and my brother died.  I don’t understand that, but I trust that You know better than I.  I cannot understand Your ways, but I rest in Your goodness.  Enable me to glorify Your great name even in this period of mourning and confusion; even without the answers to my curiosities … even without my brother.”

(4) I earnest desire to communicate that the gospel is not an embalming technique where we delay decay.  The gospel is not a sin management procedure where we contain and organize our less-desirable tendencies.  The gospel is not a reputation enhancement pep-talk where we improve ourselves and improve how others view us.  No!  Ten-thousand times no!  The gospel says—you are even worse than you thought, but Jesus is better even than you dreamed. 

You are even worse than you thought in that—like Lazarus—you are already past the point of no return, already decaying, already stinking.  You are unable to do anything in the realm of life, unable to reverse death or escape the curse, and certainly unable to please God.  You are dead spiritually.  Physically and emotionally we are still able to move and speak and decide things—so it is not like we can’t do things, but none of those things we try actually help our true situation.  So it is worse than Lazarus, really—at least he couldn’t make his situation worse!  We can and do make our situation worse when we try to live on our own terms and please God and others in our own “zombie-strength.”  But trying our own schemes we only increase our guilt by adding self-righteousness to our wickedness. 

We are even worse than we thought, but Jesus is better even than we ever dreamed.  He is not merely a good man, not merely a clever teacher, not merely a wise sage, not merely a miracle worker, not merely a historical figure.  He is not a “crutch” to psychologically weak people like Freud taught, not “the opiate of the masses” like Marx taught, not “dead” like Nietzsche taught, and not silent, nor irrelevant, nor antiquated like our culture teaches today.  He is not at all a band-aid® on our “ouchies,” not at all a “fire insurance policy,” not at all a social club where we make business deals in the parking lot.  Jesus is the Life who swallows up death by dying.  Jesus is the Resurrection who empties occupied tombs with a spoken word.  Jesus is the Bread who satisfies our deepest hunger.  Jesus is the Light who chases away the darkness.  But Jesus is more than metaphors—He is concrete as well.  He solves our sin problem by dying in our place.  He solves our death problem by raising us to life again and marching at the head of the parade of all who believe and follow Him.  He solves our prejudice problem by breaking down the dividing walls that the world taught us to build and protect.  He solves our significance problem by sending us out in His name on mission.  He solves our selfishness problem by setting us free from the power of sin.

But Jesus is more than the sum of all the descriptions we can compose about Him.  He is Lord of lords.  He is King of kings.  He is the one and only Mediator between God and man.  He is the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life.  He is the All in all.  He is risen.  He is here.   And He is saying to us just as He said to Martha, “Who[ever] believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).