UNCONVENTIONAL

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (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.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When 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.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days, and then He said to His disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone You, and yet You are going back?”

Jesus 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. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.” After 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.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” (Jesus had been speaking of his death, but His disciples thought He meant natural sleep.) So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”

John 11:1-16

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There is the conventional way of looking at things. This would be seeing life through the lenses of the world.

And then there is the unconventional way of looking at things, a way that defies reason and changes how people understand the things that happen in and around them.

Herein was the rub that often caused a buffer between Jesus and those He was trying to teach. Even His own disciples had extreme difficulty comprehending that their divine Leader could make things happen that no one else could, things like healing a man blind from birth by spitting on the ground, making mud, and packing it on the man’s eyes before commanding him to rinse the mud off in a pool and gain sight (see John 9:1-12).

As John 11 opens, we find Jesus getting word that His very dear friend, Lazarus, was sick. This news was sent from Bethany, a village slightly to the south east of Jerusalem, but Jesus and His disciples were north of there, having left Jerusalem to avoid an angry crowd of Jews bent on stoning Jesus and going “across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days” (John 10:40).

Where did John baptize in the early days?

We need to go back to chapter 3 of this gospel where we find this:

“Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized.” John 3:23

Aenon was on the west side of the Jordan River and it would have been quite a journey to Bethany. Indeed, as we read on in this chapter, we learn that when Jesus and His disciples arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead and in the tomb for four days. This should give us an idea of the length of time it took, even with Jesus delaying two days in Aenon before heading south. As we see in a lot of Bible travel, getting around took time, sometimes a lot of it.

Of interest, Jesus wasn’t feeling the same sense of urgency that His disciples were regarding the matter. He already knew what was going to happen and what part He was going to play in a miraculous resurrection. We’re reminded that Jesus works on a different timeline than what we might expect. The difference between His timeline and our expectations is that He is always perfect while we aren’t.

Going back to the scriptures, we find Jesus telling His disciples the following after receiving the report on Lazarus’ poor health:

“This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Jesus provides a foretaste of what’s to come through His words, showing His power to know the future before events happened. He knew Lazarus was going to die from his sickness but He also knew He was going to raise him from the dead to bring glory to God and again show that He and His Father were one.

So was Jesus in a big hurry to head south to Bethany?

Not exactly, for we read that He stayed near Aenon for two more days before telling His disciples it was time to head for Judea, a proposition they thought was crazy.

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone You, and yet You are going back?”

Indeed, it had been only a short time since Jesus had been talking to a group of Jews near Solomon’s Colonnade and narrowly escaped being stoned by them after He told them that He and God were one. The Jews considered this blasphemy, only recognizing Jesus as a mere man and in no way like God at all. The disciples were afraid that given a second chance, the Jews might kill Jesus but He was undeterred, reasserting His intentions once again:

“Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

Now Jesus was referring to Lazarus’ death state as being comparable to being asleep, a very unconventional (and maybe even unbelievable) thought. But the disciples weren’t on the same page with Jesus. They took His words literally and were trying to make sense of them. They were thinking, “surely if Lazarus is just resting, then he will get better. After all, sleep is good for someone when it comes to recovering from illness.”

Knowing their thoughts and seeing that they did not get what He was saying, Jesus just gave it to them point blank, saying:

“Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

The disciples were still thinking on conventional terms. Despite what Jesus had done in their presence and in spite of all the miraculous things they had seen Him do, the disciples hadn’t learned yet that when you hang out with Jesus, the most unconventional things can happen. The impossible becomes possible. Through His words, we see that Jesus’ intent was to continue to help His devoted followers know that He could do anything, even raise a dead person to life.

How did the disciples respond to Jesus’ call to go back to Judea?

We see through the words of Thomas, who here showed no doubt but trusted that Jesus knew best and if He was going to die through wanting to go and do something good, then the disciples were willing to die right by His side.

They may have not understood Jesus’ unconventional ways but they trusted in Him, and that was a good platform to build on.

Today, many people are like the first century twelve that Jesus first called. We have the luxury of having the scriptures to read and study with multiple accounts of what Jesus did during His ministry. Accompanying this is more than 2,000 years of history where Jesus has been very much alive and still moving powerfully through the lives of those who place their hope and trust in Him. Miracles are just as much a part of our world’s tapestry today as they were in the thirty three years that Jesus walked the earth. Unconventional events are still happening and they are happening every day.

Are we, as twenty first century disciples, willing to accept that Jesus can do all things that He wills to do?

Or are we still not sure, but willing to walk with Jesus, and even die for Him, while our faith is being refined so that we can learn to expect and embrace the unconventional as we live in a conventional world?

I know where I stand. How about you?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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