Are you familiar with the Biblical account of Jesus calling Lazarus forth from the grave? It is given in John, Chapter 11.
1Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2(This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.)
3So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” His very close friend, Lazarus, is sick.
4When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” This is why Jesus heals. He heals so that Jesus is glorified, which brings glory to God. 5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
It was dangerous for Jesus to be in Judea. His life had been threatened there. The disciples didn’t want him to go to Judea. They wanted to protect him. But Jesus is fulfilling the plan of His Father.
9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
Light. Jesus had just recently spoken about Himself, the Light of the World: In John, chapter 8, verse 12, we read that when Jesus was teaching the people, He said,
“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
That light overcomes the darkness. Let’s read on:
11After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
12His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” The disciples, like we women, recognize that sleep helps a person get well.
13Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead,
Let’s go on to verse 17.
17On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18Now Bethany was less than two miles b from Jerusalem, 19and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
21“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Martha is like me – and many of you – thinking we know what the Master is talking about, making assumptions. But . . .
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe . . . Martha believes. She has no idea or inclination what will happen, yet she trusts Jesus, the Messiah. In spite of her grief, she trusts.
28After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Now, let us remember, Mary has been at the feet of Jesus previously, wiping his feet with her beautiful long hair. Mary worships – and she trusts. She responds to Jesus as Martha did – “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Can you relate?
If we had just gone to another doctor, if his medicine had been changed, if the diagnosis had been made earlier, if things were different, if … if… if
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34“Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
35Jesus wept.
Why did Jesus weep? Was it because of His own grief over losing His friend, Lazarus? Was it for the sisters – sharing in their grief? Look ahead at verse 38:
38 “Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.”
Again, we read He was deeply moved, in spirit and troubled.” The King James Version reads, “He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.” The NLT reads in verse 33, “A deep anger welled up within Him – and in the second reference, verse 38, “Jesus was still angry.”
Bible Commentator, Matthew Henry wrote that Jesus “groaned in the spirit” over the state of death to which man is subject. Jesus hates death. He grieves as we do, and He grieves for us because He hates to see us suffer. When you have wept in your grief, have you been angry, as well? Angry that he or she was taken from you? Angry that he or she suffered? Angry that death came?
Isaiah 53:3 tells us that Jesus is a “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” He is acquainted with your grief – with my grief. He knows it. He’s not the one who stops by the funeral home or sends a card and says, I know what you’re going through. No, He truly knows it. Jesus wept with me when my daughter and her husband were arrested. When their children were taken away in the middle of the night. He wept with me when they came before the judge, each facing a lifetime in prison. Jesus wept with me weeks later when my Daddy died and a month later when my Mama died. He wept with me just months later when my grandson was born with developmental problems., with holes in his heart. He wept with me when Luke was diagnosed with a blinding eye disease. He has wept with me for thirteen years now as this grandson does not play like other children, is still in diapers. and considerably deaf.
Jesus wept with Katie when her brilliant son, owner of two successful businesses was stricken with an undiagnosed disorder after Covid, changing his beautiful personality, suffering through months of hospitalizations and demeaning treatments, unable to work. Yes, Jesus wept with her when she woke in torment night after night, unable to pray, unable to quote Scripture, unable to say anything other than His precious name: Jesus.
Jesus wept with Jennifer during her divorce, and with Kelly when she lost her job. He wept with Donna when your husband died. He wept with you when you cried out to Him with your sick child. He wept with Amber when her cancer was diagnosed and with each agonizing test and treatment.
He groans in the spirit. He is deeply troubled – deeply moved. Our Jesus is angry at death, empathizing and sympathizing with me. Friends, when you are suffering, close your eyes and feel His arms around you, comforting you. He records each lament, gathers each tear in a bottle. He doesn’t forget. That’s our Jesus.
Jesus wept with me when my heart was completely broken. Jesus wept with you in your heartache, in your pain.
36Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39“Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
40Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”
41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
Lazarus was alive! Set free! Many of the witnesses believed in Jesus at the point (verse 45) and God was glorified!
Jesus left His grave clothes behind when he rose again, too – when he was resurrected.
Grave clothes don’t belong on the living. They stink. Grave clothes only belong on the dead – those in the grave.
When you were saved, God called you out of that former life, yet sometimes you want to pick up those filthy rags and put them back on. But we have power to live without them. Sometimes we need a helping hand, as Lazarus did. Sometimes God frees our hands so we can remove them ourselves. Either way, we need to drop our grave clothes.
Ephesians 4 tells us that because we are children of Light, we are to put off the stinky rags of our old lives – lying, stealing, laziness, bad language, bitterness, and malice.
Just as our Lord Jesus came to us in the dark of night 2,000 years ago to be our Savior, so He’s with you right now in these troubling times as your Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6 NLT). Whatever you are going through today, may His joy and peace overwhelm your heart and give you abounding hope (Romans 15:13).