We did an experiment during our science lesson yesterday called “The Lazarus Experiment”. It involved an insect, a bowl of water and some salt. In the video our shouts of excitement and surprise show how amazed our family was by the results!
It got me thinking about the original Lazarus “experiment” documented in the Gospel of John. I love this story of Jesus’ power and the miracle of how He brought His dear friend back from the dead! As I re-read the story in John 11 again this morning I was struck by a few other big ideas found there.
1. Jesus has complete trust in the plans of His Father: When Jesus finds out that Lazarus is gravely ill, He doesn’t rush to the bedside of His beloved friend. He knows through His intimacy with the Father, that God has a much bigger plan! He knows that God’s glory is about to be revealed and He understands His own part in that revelation. “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (vs.4)
1. Jesus has complete trust in the plans of His Father: When Jesus finds out that Lazarus is gravely ill, He doesn’t rush to the bedside of His beloved friend. He knows through His intimacy with the Father, that God has a much bigger plan! He knows that God’s glory is about to be revealed and He understands His own part in that revelation. “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (vs.4)
Even in the face of darkness and death (“On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days” vs.17) Jesus speaks in authority and assurance to Martha: “Your brother will rise again.” (vs.23) Our status as adopted sons and daughters of God the Father gives us the same access to this power; this goodness. We are blessed with the same assurance given to Martha over 2000 years ago! Do I trust that the Father is who He says He is?
2. Mary and Martha recognized Jesus as God incarnate: These two women show their faith and understanding of who and what Jesus is by their first reaction to their brother’s illness: “…the sisters sent word to Jesus. ‘ Lord, the one you love is sick.’ ” (vs. 3) They didn’t send for the town doctor or seek out the village healer; they went right to the source of all healing: Jesus. Even after Lazarus had passed away and was buried for four days, once Jesus showed up Martha rushed to Him. He still saw Jesus as her only hope,her hero,her Savior! With her grief still salty upon her cheeks, she exclaims: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (vs.21) This might be interpreted as a rebuke or a hysterical cry from a woman in mourning! But, she goes on to say in verse 22: “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Mary comes out and says the same words to her Lord: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (vs. 32) These women get it! They realize they are in the presence of glory! They are pointing the bystanders to the fact that this story is not over yet! I want that kind of unshakeable, contagious faith…a faith that recognizes and gives testimony to the truth: that apart from Jesus there is only death.
3. The world doesn’t know how to handle God-sized power: I try to place myself at the scene. As Mary and Martha are talking with Jesus and the three of them are walking toward the gravesite what am I doing? Do I follow? Am I confused when this Jesus gives the command: “Take away the stone.” Do I really want to stick around and be assaulted by the sight and smell of a four day old corpse? Now Jesus is saying: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” What is this? Do I have any inkling what is about to transpire? “Lazarus, come out!” (vs.43)
I imagine at this moment, you could have heard a pin drop. Then, as the shadowy figure appears in the opening of the tomb…a collective gasp of surprise? terror? disbelief?
News spread far and wide among the towns and into the inner circles of the religious elite. This is too much…too big…too dangerous! “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him…” (vs. 47) “So from that day on they plotted to take his life.” (vs. 53)
Are we really any different today? As adopted sons and daughters of God the Father through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have access to the same power! We are called to walk upright in that knowledge and step forward to claim our divine inheritance! Why then am I so often crawling along the edges of my faith, clutching on to my filthy graveclothes like some perverse security blanket when Jesus is inviting me to take off my grave clothes and GO!?!
As the Church, how are we doing at releasing this power throughout our families, our communities, and to the nations? There is a harvest out in the world that is waiting for the wave of that power to reach them…they are desperate for it…they are dead without it!
The excitement and wonder at the science experiment our family conducted is miniscule compared to what John has written down. Just a small taste of what our Father is offering at His banquet table. Will it inspire you to conduct your own experiment? Will it reach something deeper within you that has been buried for too long and is being called back to Life? How do you respond to the Lazarus experiment?
