THREE PICTURES OF JESUS

John 11:1-15, 34-44 (NET)

I have been to a lot of funerals and memorial services — here and in several countries all around the world. The one passage of scripture that has been quoted and used for a funeral meditation more than any other has been Psalm 23. I think the reason so many choose that passage is that it helps us to concentrate on Jesus as our good shepherd. That picture of Jesus is comforting because it helps us to rely on Jesus and to know that he is going to take care of us throughout our lives and beyond. He is our shepherd, and we shall not want.

But I chose a different text for today’s message because I want us to look at three other pictures of Jesus. I want us to look at John chapter 11.

¹ Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. ² (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) ³ So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, look, the one you love is sick.” ⁴ When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory, 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 sick, he remained in the place where he was for two more days. ⁷ Then after this, he said to his disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples replied, “Rabbi, the Jewish leaders were just now trying to stone you to death! Are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks around at night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹ After he said this, he added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going there to awaken him.” ¹² Then the disciples replied, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” ¹³ (Now Jesus had been talking about his death, but they thought he had been talking about real sleep.) ¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, ¹⁵ and I am glad for your sake that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Here we see a picture of Jesus Waiting (1-15).

I think it is very important that we see Jesus as he waits here. He does not rush to be at Lazarus’ side even though he knows he is sick. He loves his friend Lazarus, but he does not drop everything and rush to heal him.

There will come times in our lives when we pray — and pray earnestly — and it will seem like nothing is happening. We will be tempted to think that God is mad at us and that he is punishing us by ignoring us. That was not what was happening here. Jesus wanted to be at his friend’s side immediately, but there was a greater good that could only come about if Jesus waited to intervene.

A similar thing happened with Jairus. He came to Jesus pleading for him to heal his daughter, and Jesus agreed to do so, but before they got to his house, Jairus was told not to bother the teacher anymore. His daughter was dead. Jairus thought that it was too late. But it is never too late for Jesus to bring life back to the dead. That little girl was dead, but all it took from Jesus was the sound of his voice to make her alive again.

Jesus is waiting today. He waits on the edge of his throne for the time when he can come back and rescue all those who are imprisoned in death. He has a key in his hand. It is the key to that prison. No one else can unlock it. But Jesus has the key, and he is waiting to use it. We can trust him with our loved ones, the same way Mary and Martha learned they could trust him with their brother.

Let’s read on…

³⁴ He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They replied, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ Thus the people who had come to mourn said, “Look how much he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “This is the man who caused the blind man to see! Couldn’t he have done something to keep Lazarus from dying?” ³⁸ Jesus, intensely moved again, came to the tomb. (Now it was a cave, and a stone was placed across it.)

Here we see a picture of Jesus Weeping (34-38).

Jesus Wept. Oh, what an amazing thing that God’s own son would love a mere human enough to weep over him. He is everything, and we are nothing compared to his magnificence. Yet he has compassion for us and cares for us.

Some believe that nature is all there is — cold and heartless and unmoved nature. But the Bible tells us of a God who so Loved the world that he gave us his Only Son. And it tells us that the Son gave himself for us because he cares. We know he cares. The most natural pose for Jesus is the picture of him weeping. When the people of Bethany saw him weeping, they said “Behold how he loved him!” As he walked to the grave the Bible says he was groaning in himself.

Jesus is in heaven today, but he still feels the loss of one of his own. Before he ascended, he told us that he would be with us wherever we went, until the end of the age. He’s with us today. We do not weep alone.

Let’s read on…

³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, replied, “Lord, by this time the body will have a bad smell, because he has been buried four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you that you have listened to me. ⁴² I knew that you always listen to me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, and a cloth wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”

Here we see a picture of Jesus Winning (39-44).

Jesus wept at his friend’s tomb but that was not because death was the end. Death is real, and it is an enemy, but it is an enemy that can be defeated. Jesus demonstrated his power over death that day by calling out the name of Lazarus and telling him to come out of that tomb.

The Bible says that ” The one who had died came out.” We are here today not to say goodbye forever but to say, “God be with you until we meet again.” The same Jesus who called Lazarus out of his tomb promises to do the same thing for all of us. He said, “Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out.”

The apostle Paul said We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

The picture of Jesus winning over the death of his friend Lazarus in John 11 is a picture we need to keep with us because it will help us through all these days of temporary death and defeat. When Jesus showed up, Lazarus could not stay in the grave. When Jesus comes back, neither will we. He’s coming back.