When God Cries
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jeremy_1_12-16-2025_123602: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith. These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts. We are working our way through the Gospel of John. We are in chapter 11. We're concluding a story that we've been looking at the last few weeks, this story of Jesus and his dear friend Lazarus, who dies.
Jesus doesn't make it there in time, and by the time Jesus shows up, Lazarus has been dead for four days. And today we're gonna see Jesus' full humanity, meet his divinity. We're gonna see Jesus show a lot of emotion. A lot of his humanity is gonna come through in this story. And so we see this in John chapter 11.
Beginning in verse 28, then she returned to Mary. This is Martha. She called Mary, aside from the mourners and told her the teacher is here and wants to see you. So Mary immediately went to him. Jesus had stayed outside the village at the place where Martha met him.
When the people who were at [00:01:00] the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus's grave to weep, so they followed her there. When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not. Have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him and he was deeply troubled. Notice the emotional response Jesus has when he hears this news, of how they process it. And he sees it not only in Mary, but he sees the other people who are mourning.
He's very moved. In fact, the way the New Living Translation says there's a deep anger welling up inside of him. He's greatly troubled in his spirit as he watches them react to this. And it reminds me of something we read a [00:02:00] while back, actually in the first chapter in John chapter one, verse 11. We learned something about the people that Jesus came to, and that verse says this, that he came to his own people and even they rejected him.
But notice he's back among his own people here. These are friends and family and very close acquaintances, and as he watches them mourn for Lazarus, he is so moved by that.
It implies that he thought highly of their reaction to his friend Lazarus, of how they are mourning this man's death. Now in Jewish culture, there was a belief that when a righteous man dies, the world suffers a loss. Because there's this scale, right? There's the balance of righteousness versus evil.
And when a righteous man died, it tipped the scale the wrong way that it felt like evil had won. And so as this community is [00:03:00] celebrating the life of Lazarus and mourning the loss of him, Jesus seems to be very moved by how he sees them carry this out. Verse 34. Where have you put him? He asked them.
They told him, Lord, come and see. Then Jesus wept. The people who were standing nearby said, see how much he loved him? But some said, this man healed. A blind man couldn't heal, have kept Lazarus from dying. Now, I used to read that last line as a criticism that these people are mocking Jesus. In light of the context of this story, I see it more now as legitimate confusion that they're legitimately going, Hey, this was his friend and we know that Jesus can heal blind men.
So why could Jesus not heal his own friend? I think they're legitimately confused by this because we ask the same questions [00:04:00] today. God, we believe you can do these things. Why? Are you not doing them? Why are you not healing? Every single person we pray about, why are you not involved in the way that we would expect you to be involved based on what we believe about you?
And then verse 38, Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb again. See all these emotions he's displaying here. A cave with a stone rolled across his entrance. Roll the stone aside. Jesus told him Now he's the only one who knows what he's about to do. Everybody else is totally in the dark, has no idea what's about to happen as we see in the next line.
But Martha, the dead man's sister, protested Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible. She's like, Hey, um, I, I know you just wanna like see his body, but like he's been in there. [00:05:00] For four days, like the decomposing process has already started you missed your window. This is going to be bad.
Is dead.
jeremy_1_12-16-2025_123602: Now what you may not realize is that in first century Israel here, these Jews would've buried people twice. The first burial was what just happened to Lazarus. They would wrap the body in cloth and they would place it in a cave a burial cave for a while to let the body decompose.
And then after an amount of time after the body had decomposed, they would collect the bones. And they would put the bones into what is called an ossuary. And you can see these today, they have, a number of these that they have found from ancient Israel, that is the more permanent resting place of a person.
And so they would let the body decompose, and after that had happened, they would move the bones into an ossie. And Lazarus has begun the first part of this, right? So they're just leaving his body in this cave to [00:06:00] decompose. Verse 40. Jesus responded, didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?
So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and he said, father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all those, all these people standing here so that they will believe you sent me.
Then Jesus shouted, Lazarus come out and can you just imagine that moment? I mean, you can imagine everyone going what? Is he really doing this? These people who have been mourning for days, and then they hear Jesus call him out by name. You can only imagine the anticipation they had as they all looked to the tomb and they just wondered, is this. Going to work.
There's a big difference between mostly dead and [00:07:00] all dead.
jeremy_1_12-16-2025_123602: Jesus shouted Lazarus come out and the dead man came out. I've always wondered how long that took. His hands and his feet bound in grave clothes. His face wrapped in a head clot. And Jesus told them, unwrap him and let him go. So the dude comes like either hopping out or kind of like limping out.
'cause he is all tied up. He's all wrapped up and they have to unwrap him and he can you imagine the look on Lazarus's face of like, what is going on? And John just ends the narrative there. Like we don't know all the other details, all the other questions we might have of how did this happen and what was said.
John just wraps up the story there and we're gonna see some of the bigger reactions that they have in next week's passages. But some have noted that the way Jesus does this. Is probably an indicator of his culture. It's another nod to his humanity, the way in which [00:08:00] he brings Lazarus back to life.
It might go well. What do you mean? The way in which he does it? Well, when you understand some of the culture and some of what is in the Old Testament, you see what may have been shaping Jesus and the way he did. For example, in numbers chapter 19, verse 11 says, all those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.
So Jesus may not have wanted to walk in and touch a dead body. Now you may be thinking, well, yeah, but he's gonna heal Lazarus. So it doesn't really count as a dead body. But remember, there were probably other bodies decaying in this cave. This is what they used the cave for. So there could have been various bodies in various stages of decay, and perhaps Jesus didn't want to accidentally touch one of those bodies inside of a dark cave to go and figure out where Lazarus was. So instead, he beckons Lazarus out and the dead man comes walking to [00:09:00] him.
So what do we learn when we see Jesus' divinity meet his humanity and we see this very human side of Jesus? I'm reminded of this quote from an early church father named Athanasius. He said, God became the bearer of a body so that we, human beings might be bearers of the Spirit.
And when we see Jesus's humanity, I think it's a reminder for us that our humanity meets God's divinity as we allow the spirit. To work in our lives. So just as we see Jesus cross over, if you will go, wow, this is God doing really human things. We as humans can do things through the spirit of God when we tap into the same power that raised Lazarus from the dead, and this is the invitation for you and I to live with that same spirit in our lives today.
I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
