The Deep and Confusing Love of Jesus

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 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.”

5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Mary and Martha and Lazarus are siblings. Lazarus is ill, the sisters inform Jesus through a messenger, and Jesus makes a decisive declaration: “This illness does not lead to death. This illness is for the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Surprisingly Jesus then waits a few days before informing the disciples that they are going to Judea, to Bethany. The disciples aren’t thrilled about this; the last two times Jesus was in that region, crowds tried to stone him for blasphemy, because he was claiming that he was equal to God (John 5:18). But Jesus insists that they must go, because Lazarus has died and they need to go see him. Reluctantly (and perhaps with some gallows humor), the disciples go with him.

When Jesus nears the town, Martha comes to meet him while Mary remains at the house with the large group of mourners. Martha expresses some hopefulness that God can still hear Jesus’s prayers, and Jesus declares himself to be the resurrection and the life. He then summons Mary to see him and she comes and falls at his feet weeping. Jesus is deeply moved and greatly troubled by this, and he himself weeps, and they all go to the tomb together.

When they arrive at the tomb, Jesus orders the stone to be removed (over Martha’s objections). Jesus then prays out loud and then cries out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” And the dead man lives.

The unfolding of the story leads us to identify with the confusion of the disciples and Mary and Martha and the crowds. Because their expectations are not being met. Notice the sources of confusion and disappointment:

1) “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (11:3). What’s implied? “Come heal him! We know you can heal, so come do it.” And yet Jesus delays. It’s confusing.

2) The disciples fear returning to Judea, where the Jews had just threatened to stone him. Why go back now? It’s confusing.

3) Jesus seems to speak in riddles. “Lazarus has fallen asleep but I go to awaken him” (11:11). Is Jesus talking about sleep or death? It’s confusing.

4) Jesus’s emotional responses are puzzling. To his disciples: “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there.” And then, he is deeply moved and troubled in his spirit. He weeps. If he’s glad, why is he weeping? It’s confusing.

5) Jesus’s request is puzzling. “Take away the stone.” He’s dead, Jesus. Why remove the stone now? It’s confusing.

6) There is one central thought hanging over the whole episode.

Martha (11:21): “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Mary (11:32): “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

The mourners finally explicitly raise the question that haunts this whole story (11:37): “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

I highlight that confusion because it’s where most of us live. Whether it’s illness (cancer, stroke, unexplained sickness, chronic pain), whether it’s the death of someone we love (parent, child, sibling, friend), whether it’s persecution, opposition, or enmity, whether it’s anxiety, doubt, depression—here’s what we know:

1) Jesus is able to fix this.

2) In his compassion, Jesus has fixed these sorts of things for others.

3) Jesus loves me and has compassion for me.

4) And yet, the illness is still here, the death still happened, the persecution has intensified, and the darkness has not lifted.

This is where we live–in the long days between our message to Jesus—“The one whom you love is ill”—and his confusing arrival a week later. And yet John insists from the beginning, “Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.” So where is the love of Jesus in this story?

The love of Jesus waits. The most shocking word in this entire story is two letters long. “So.” Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. So, when he heard about the illness, he stayed two days longer. Some Bible translators can’t handle that reasoning. They say, “Jesus loved them, and yet, when he heard, he stayed two longer.” But that’s not what John wrote. John said, He loved them, therefore he waited. The love of Jesus waits.

Second, the love of Jesus weeps. When Jesus weeps at the tomb of Lazarus, they say, “See how he loved him!” (11:36). And in this, we see the amazing complex and righteous emotional life of our Lord. On the one hand, he’s glad that he waited. And then, when he gets there, he weeps. More than that, he is deeply moved. He sees the effects of death on those he loves, and he joins them in their grief and their anger.

The love of Jesus raises the dead. After he waits, and after he weeps, he tells them to roll away the stone. And then he looks at the tomb and calls out, “Lazarus, come forth!”

And Lazarus comes forth. The church fathers noted how important it was that Jesus said the name Lazarus. Had he not, had he simply said, “Come forth,” all the tombs would have emptied and the general resurrection would have happened right then and there.

The love of Jesus deepens our faith. Pay attention to what Martha knows. Martha runs to Jesus with some vague hope that Jesus can do something. “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” And so Jesus takes her deeper. “Your brother will rise again.” “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” This is a general belief in the future resurrection. And so Jesus takes her deeper. “I am the resurrection and the life.”

This is where Jesus has been taking Martha. “Do you believe this?” With your brother lying in a tomb, knowing that I could have prevented it, Martha, do you believe this? And Martha says, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is coming into the world.”

And so Jesus stands before us today. We live in those long six days. And on this Lord’s Day, because he loves us, he says to us, “Do you believe this?” When the cancer is still there. When the illness is still unexplained. When the headaches won’t stop. When the pain is still oppressive. When the opposition won’t let up. When the darkness hasn’t lifted. When the doubts still weigh us down. When the body is still in the grave. When Jesus is not yet here. At that moment, he says to us, “Do you believe this?”

Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. And he loves you. And because he loves you, he may wait. He may take you through unimaginable suffering and loss and pain. And when he does, because he loves you, he will weep with you. And someday, because he loves you, he will raise the dead. He will wipe away every tear. And in the meantime, because he loves you, he deepens your faith.