Thursday, February 10, 2011

"Let's Go Die With Him, Then" John 11:1-16

The next three days we will spend looking at the raising of Lazarus. For John it is the hinge on which the book turns. The rest of the book is all about the last week of Jesus' life. For John, the raising of Lazarus was "the last straw" for Jesus' opponents and when they decided to set the plan for Christ's death into motion.

Who was Lazarus? He was one of Jesus' inner circle of friends that were not one of the twelve. He is the brother of Mary and Martha. Jesus spent lots of time with the three of them. The sisters send word to Jesus that his beloved friend is critically ill. Jesus responds to that by telling his disciples that his sickness will not end in death...and then waits two more days. The disciples think Jesus is choosing not to go back because of the threats on his life (a wise move from their perspective), But in verse 7, he says, "Let's go back to Judea," which understandably was hotly debated by the disciples.

In verse 9, we have a little more light/darkness conversation and another literal misunderstanding by the disciples. Jesus is talking about "sleep" in the ultimate sense, while they are taking him literally. In other words, "Why take our lives in our hands if we just need to let him get his rest?" But Jesus clarifies that Lazarus is already dead.

In verse 16 we have Thomas' response to Jesus, "Let us go die with him, then." Some have taken this passage as an example of the great faith of Thomas and his willingness to give his life. But in harmony with the rest of the passages involving Thomas, I see blatant sarcasm here. He thinks it is a dumb move to go back into the teeth of Jesus' opposition and let's them all know it.

One of things about a great story like this is that there are several characters: Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Thomas, the mourners, and of course, Jesus. Where do you see yourself in this story? I fear that I may be more like Thomas than anybody else. In the end, he will rock the world of all of them.

No comments: