Title: Mystery of God's Glory, March 13
John 11:17-44
Mystery of God's Glory
Lazarus in Luke and Lazarus in John
The characteristic of the Gospel of John is not only the fact that it takes a dialectical approach compared to the Synoptic Gospel, which approaches the story of Jesus as a relatively descriptive report, but also that there are many parts independent of the synoptic gospel in the selection of materials. Today's text, the story of Lazarus, is also well known, but the Synoptic Gospels are silent. Why? Could it be that only the synoptic writers were unaware of this fact? Or maybe you knew it, but decided that it wasn't that important? Of course, the story about the famous Samaritan woman (John 4) is also not told by the synoptic writers, so it seems that something happened that we do not know well.
Interestingly, however, the name ‘Lazarus’ appears in Luke 16:19 and below. It is a name from Jesus' parable about a rich man who lived with ignoring the poor. Here, while Lazarus was a beggar who lived on crumbs falling from a rich man's table, and was embraced by Abraham after his death, the rich man who was lavish in this world fell into hell.
death
The background of today's text is the death of Lazarus. This story of Lazarus, which begins in 11:1, accurately points out the existence and pathos that lie in our human lives. Lazarus' sisters are the famous Mary and Martha. I don't know if there were only three children living there, as the Bible says nothing about their parents. Something serious has happened to them. Lazarus was seriously ill. These brothers and sisters, who were usually close to Jesus, reported this news to Jesus in another place. Lazarus must have already died before this news was delivered to Jesus. In verse 6, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was ill, he waited two more days and then left for Bethany, where the brothers and sisters were living. When Jesus arrived, it is said that four days had passed since Lazarus had been buried in the tomb (verse 17). The fact that there were many mourners in the portrait means that their families were quite good. In any case, Jesus came unexpectedly late to Mary and Martha, who are deeply saddened by the loss of their loved ones.
After hearing the news that Jesus was near, Martha, the older sister of the two sisters, was the first to meet him (20). Martha said to Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (21). Of course, he continued, “But even now, I know that whatever the Lord asks for, God can make it happen.” , but this latter part is not that important. Martha went into the house and sent her sister Mary to Jesus. Maria also says: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (32). Martha and Mary say the same thing.
First of all, these words must mean their sorrow for the death of their older brother. That's what I want my brother not to die. Have you ever experienced the death of a close person, family member or friend? I lost my mother when I was in the first grade of elementary school, and I lost my father in my mid-thirties. When I lost my father, I was able to handle it as it was because I had a certain age in the world, but when I lost my mother, the pain continued for the rest of my life. If it were true that Maria and Martha did not have parents, their brother's death would have been a greater sorrow for them.
Their words also implied another meaning and a much more essential meaning. This saying that my brother would not have died without Jesus means that I will already accept my brother's death as a reality. No matter how bad a disease you are, if you say it is before you die, you will do all kinds of treatment and fast and pray, but there is nothing you can do after you die. This death is our decisive fate and existence, from which no one can turn. Karl Barth once expressed this problem of death like this:
“It is clear that death is near to some, far away for others, but is drawing nearer to us. <Time goes, death comes.> Death comes to us and time departs from us, so no matter how hard we try to avoid this fate, it means nothing. The possibilities of life that remain with us diminish, the obstacles in life we encounter continue to become more and more serious, our hopes, expectations and plans fall into a more serious relative state, far more limited and much more clearly dismantled. walk the path of The more tense this situation becomes, the more quickly we run towards the freezing point. Whether we think about it or not, the situation we have to deal with doesn't change at all. A situation in which we ourselves have to return to the very place we came from” (Karl Barth's Meditation on Faith).
Lazarus, come out.
It is said that Jesus wept when he saw Mary and Martha complaining of despair and resignation due to the death of their brother (35). After this, Jesus' actions proceed in a way that goes beyond our usual expectations. When Jesus tells him to remove the stone door of the tomb where Lazarus is buried, Martha replies that the body has already begun to decompose. Regardless of the answer, Jesus had the stone removed, prayed to God, and cried out toward the tomb. “Lion, come out” (43). Then Lazarus, who was said to be dead, came out of the tomb, his hands and feet tied with sackcloth, and his face wrapped with a towel. Jesus said to the man, “Set him free and let him go.” and said (44).
What do you think of as you read these words? Are you interested in such an event that Lazarus died and came back to life? Was Lazarus really resurrected? Even if he died and came back to life, he is not resurrected. He did not change into a spiritual body that would never die again, but because he was still alive again with a mortal body. Sometimes there are people who say that they died and then came back to life. There are also books that describe in detail the kingdom of heaven experienced after death. I don't have to go out of my way to say that they do, but I can assure you that the Christian faith is not a concrete description of life after death.
Take a good look at the last moment of today's text event. Jesus told us to release Lazarus from the tomb, but he does not mention whether he actually did so. Moreover, Lazarus, who was resurrected from the dead, does not say a word about his experience. Lazarus plays no role in the passage where it is reported that the high priests were planning to kill Lazarus (12:10). This means that the case of Lazarus is not central to this story. The dramatic event of death and resurrection may arouse curiosity, but it is not at all of the Bible's interest. The writer of the Gospel of John is interested in something else.
Jesus Representing God's Glory
The overall structure of the Lazarus story today does not unfold so naturally. It is true that when Jesus heard that Lazarus was stricken with a fatal disease, he hesitated for two days. Even if he foresaw that Lazarus would rise again, it was not so natural that he was ignorant of the terrible sorrow that Lazarus's family would experience in the meantime. And the conversation Jesus had with his disciples before the death of Lazarus was not so natural. Look at verse 15. “Lazarus is dead. Now that's what you'll believe, it's good that I wasn't there Let’s go there.” At that moment, Thomas says something absurd to the other disciple. “Let us go together and live and die with him” (16).
There is another small unnatural expression. In the scene introducing Martha and Mary, the author describes Mary as follows: “Mary was a woman who once anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped His feet with her hair” (verse 2). However, the incident of wiping the Lord's feet does not actually happen until chapter 12. Perhaps the author and readers already knew what kind of woman Mary was before hearing about today's text event. In the end, the author, John, was interested in something different, not the facts of what happened then in this case of Lazarus.
It is the 'glory of God'. After hearing Martha's reply that Lazarus' body had already begun to decompose, Jesus said: “Did I not say that if you believe you will see the glory of God?” (40). When he received the message that Lazarus was ill, Jesus had already said this. “It is not a disease that will die. Rather, it will reveal the glory of God, and the Son of God will be glorified” (11:4). Glory is already mentioned in the introduction to the Gospel of John. “The Word became flesh and was with us, and we beheld His glory. It was the honor that the only son received from his father. He was full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
The Greek word translated “glory” has several meanings. glory, splender, grandeur, power, kingdom, praise, honor, brightness, brilliance, revealed presence of God, God himself, glorious heavenly being and so on. After all, 'glory' refers to God Himself, any condition or event associated with His manifestation.
If so, it means that this event in which Lazarus died and rose again is God's work and points to his power and his reign. John's interest was in the glory of God. Other factors were incidental. I'm just saying this because there was no event at that time that showed the glory of God more clearly than that the dead were brought back to life.
But what is even more important here is the fact that this glory of God was brought about by Jesus. There were already many events that revealed the glory of God in the Old Testament, so the glory of God alone does not have the characteristics of the Gospel of John. That the glory of God arose from a man called Jesus is the core of what John was trying to say, and it was the core of the faith that early Christianity, especially the John community, believed. In this respect, the prayer Jesus prayed before raising Lazarus can be said to be the confession of faith of the John community. “But now I say this so that those around me will believe that the Father has sent me” (42).
The glory of God that today's text tells us through the story of Lazarus, who died and rose again, was the glory of Jesus. It says that death, which nothing can overcome, was overcome through Jesus. In this respect, the unity of the glory of God and the glory of Jesus is the mystery of the Christian faith. Our faith today must focus on this very event, the glory of God through Jesus. That faith was the faith of the John community 2,000 years ago, and it is also our faith today.