On speaking to the disciples concerning Lazarus, Jesus says,
“our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going to Bethany to wake him up.” Yet the disciples just thought Lazarus was
sick and needed to sleep; they didn’t understand Jesus’ words, so he said in
language plain to them, “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.”
— John 11.11-15, my
paraphrase
Spending a year away from the kingdom of America was one of
the best things that I have ever done. I
don’t think we realize how much our environment can truly affect us, especially
when we’re born into it, raised into it, and live life in it for so long. The concerns and worries of life in the
States attack us on every front that we unconsciously become disillusioned to
the spiritual realities around us. For
me and many others, God had to take us ‘out’ in order to ‘bring us in’ (Deut.
6.23). I say this meaning that He had to
draw us out of our life of complacency in an attempt to birth us out of it and
into something greater, the Kingdom reality, a spiritual reality that we’re
foolishly and indirectly taught is no more than an idea or theory. I say all of this out of great humility
because I’m realizing the difficulty of living this lifestyle of ‘radicalism’
in the States. In the last several days
I’ve found myself overwhelmed with the worries of this life, with trying to
figure out how to make ends meet and pay the bills.
But I refuse to neglect what God’s done in my life.
I love this chapter of John where Jesus goes and raises
Lazarus from the dead. There are truly
two perspectives on the story: the way Jesus sees Lazarus (asleep) or the way
that the disciples see Lazarus (dead).
Like I said, here in America we’ve been born into a reality that sees
the physical and in many ways everyone all across the world is. We’re born into the flesh, born into the sin
and corruption of this world, and we’re limited by our sight. We have to allow God to capture our hearts in
such a way that it draws us into a greater reality where the scales fall off our
eyes (such as the blind man in Jn. 9) and we begin seeing things for what they
really are.
The world looks at Lazarus and sees him dead. For years on end I read this passage of
Scripture and I couldn’t help but be overcome at the thought that Lazarus was rotting
away in the grave – DEAD! And I thought
it was marvelous because Jesus walks into Bethany bearing Life and he lets it
loose on Lazarus’ lifeless body. The
thing is that I saw no differently than the disciples did. They couldn’t see past the physical problem
(death) to the spiritual problem (a silent slumber). And to no surprise, when Jesus got to
Bethany, it was no different. Mary,
Martha, and the whole town were overcome and grieving because if Jesus had been
there, “Lazarus’ sickness would not have resulted in death.”
And Jesus wept.
This is where we might differ on interpretation, but I
believe that Jesus wept not just because he loved Lazarus so much, but I
strongly believe that Jesus wept at the unbelief of those that he was
surrounded by, that no matter how long they had been with him they still weren’t
seeing things the way that he was seeing them.
They couldn’t see the unseen because they were too focused on the visible
realm. They weren’t operating out of
faith in the greatness of who God the Father is and what He is capable of.
My favorite part is
what Jesus did next though. He told them
to take away the stone, to essentially remove the thing that was binding
Lazarus to the grave. And then Jesus
says to them, “I told you that if you believed cool things would happen,
right? Watch this…” and he looked up to
heaven, did some pleading with the Father, and simply said, “Lazarus – come
out!”
And he did – in grave clothes and all.
Jesus told the people standing around Lazarus gaping in awe
to take the grave clothes off of Lazarus and to let him go, to free him from,
again, the things that bound him. To the
world, Jesus raised a man from the dead, and to the angels of heaven, Christ
merely woke one up.
I look at this passage of Scripture and I can’t help but
think of the Church in America. I’ve
said several times in the past that I love what Bono says of our Church in the
States, that we’re the “sleeping giant.”
And I’m filled with hope because I see a generation rising up, a group
of radicals who are being stirred at the voice of the Lord, a voice that’s
beaconing them to movement to pull themselves out of bed and to get on their
feet and walk. The best part is that
their voices aren’t silent either – they’re also provoking one another to
movement.
Our heart is to ‘raise the dead’, but our heart can also be
said to ‘wake the dead’. I think for too
long we’ve been binding ourselves as a Church with labeling each other as a
hopeless cause, as just another sinner saved by grace, and we’ve been clothing
ourselves with death instead of Life.
Jesus has called us to remove those things from our life that stand
between the way of us and him… and we have to help each other through it. Lazarus wouldn’t have been walking out of the
grave had others not been willing to move the stone for him; we have to be
willing to fight for each other. Lazarus
wouldn’t have seen the world clearly a second time had others not unraveled him
from his funeral garb; we have to be willing to clothe others with the likeness
of Jesus. And Lazarus wouldn’t have been
walking had the voice of God not been bellowing out from Jesus’ mouth; we have
to be willing to speak the words that God gives to us – they’re words of Life!
So let’s unite together as ONE Church where divisions don’t
stand and right and wrong don’t exist.
Let’s acknowledge the different workings of the body and let’s all raise
a battle cry that’s going to wake up the rest of this 42nd
generation, that’s going to set into movement an army that’s equipped with
Life, an army that’s going to go change the world.
May the ‘sleeping giant’ no longer sleep, but storm the
gates of hell to see Kingdom come.
