Message delivered at Smith Hill UMC, Carley Brook Charge. 3/13/2005
Again, the Scripture reading for this Sunday was rather long:
John 11:1-45 (Living)
Do you remember Mary, who poured the costly perfume on Jesus' feet and wiped them with her hair? Well, her brother Lazarus, who lived in Bethany with Mary and her sister Martha, was sick. 2 3So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, "Sir, your good friend is very, very sick."
4But when Jesus heard about it he said, "The purpose of his illness is not death, but for the glory of God. I, the Son of God, will receive glory from this situation."
5Although Jesus was very fond of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6he stayed where he was for the next two days and made no move to go to them. 7Finally, after the two days, he said to his disciples, "Let's go to Judea."
8But his disciples objected. "Master," they said, "only a few days ago the Jewish leaders in Judea were trying to kill you. Are you going there again?"
9Jesus replied, "There are twelve hours of daylight every day, and during every hour of it a man can walk safely and not stumble. 10Only at night is there danger of a wrong step, because of the dark." 11Then he said, "Our friend Lazarus has gone to sleep, but now I will go and waken him!"
12The disciples, thinking Jesus meant Lazarus was having a good night's rest, said, "That means he is getting better!" But Jesus meant Lazarus had died.
13 14Then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. 15And for your sake, I am glad I wasn't there, for this will give you another opportunity to believe in me. Come, let's go to him."
16Thomas, nicknamed "The Twin," said to his fellow disciples, "Let's go too--and die with him." 17When they arrived at Bethany, they were told that Lazarus had already been in his tomb for four days. 18Bethany was only a couple of miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19and many of the Jewish leaders had come to pay their respects and to console Martha and Mary on their loss. 20When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed at home.
21Martha said to Jesus, "Sir, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. 22And even now it's not too late, for I know that God will bring my brother back to life again, if you will only ask him to."
23Jesus told her, "Your brother will come back to life again."
24"Yes," Martha said, "when everyone else does, on Resurrection Day."
25Jesus told her, "I am the one who raises the dead and gives them life again. Anyone who believes in me, even though he dies like anyone else, shall live again. 26He is given eternal life for believing in me and shall never perish. Do you believe this, Martha?"
27"Yes, Master," she told him. "I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one we have so long awaited." 28Then she left him and returned to Mary and, calling her aside from the mourners, told her, "He is here and wants to see you." 29So Mary went to him at once.
30Now Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. 31When the Jewish leaders who were at the house trying to console Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus' tomb to weep; so they followed her. 32When Mary arrived where Jesus was, she fell down at his feet, saying, "Sir, if you had been here, my brother would still be alive." 33When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jewish leaders wailing with her, he was moved with indignation and deeply troubled. 34"Where is he buried?" he asked them.
They told him, "Come and see." 35 (NIV) Jesus wept.
36"They were close friends," the Jewish leaders said. "See how much he loved him." 37But some said, "This fellow healed a blind man--why couldn't he keep Lazarus from dying?"
38And again Jesus was moved with deep anger. Then they came to the tomb. It was a cave with a heavy stone rolled across its door.
39"Roll the stone aside," Jesus told them.
But Martha, the dead man's sister, said, "By now the smell will be terrible, for he has been dead four days."
40"But didn't I tell you that you will see a wonderful miracle from God if you believe?" Jesus asked her.
41So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "Father, thank you for hearing me. 42(You always hear me, of course, but I said it because of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.)" 43Then he shouted, "Lazarus, come out!"
44And Lazarus came--bound up in the gravecloth, his face muffled in a head swath. Jesus told them, "Unwrap him and let him go!"
45And so at last many of the Jewish leaders who were with Mary and saw it happen, finally believed on him.
Message:
I remember as a child, in Sunday school, being taught about the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. That’s about all I remembered for many years. It was the shortest verse in the Bible. In later years, I read the verse in context and thought how nice it was that Jesus loved Lazarus enough to cry when he died.
Then years later, I wondered why Christ was crying when He purposely delayed His trip, allowing Lazarus to die before He got there. Jesus already knew that Lazarus was going to die and already knew that He would raise him from the dead, so why the tears?
Now, more years later, I am beginning to understand why Jesus wept. He was not just crying about the death of Lazarus. There were many reasons why the eyes of Jesus filled up in tears. Christ was feeling the human sense of loss through Mary and Martha. He was crying because of the result of sin being death. He was crying because of the lack of faith and understanding of those around Him. His Disciples did not understand what He was doing. Mary and Martha pretty much blamed Jesus for letting Lazarus die. They didn’t understand.
How sad Jesus must have been. But this is not the first and only time that Jesus wept. In the amazing book of Isaiah, we read in one of my favorite chapters in the Old Testament a prophetic description of Christ.
Isaiah 53:3 (Living)
We despised him and rejected him--a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we didn't care.
Jesus was well acquainted with sorrow and with rejection. Everywhere He went, He saw sadness and heartache in the people He was trying to save. He saw what sin had done to His people.
Luke gives us another account of Jesus weeping.
Luke 19:41-42 (Living)
But as they came closer to Jerusalem and he saw the city ahead, he began to cry. [42] "Eternal peace was within your reach and you turned it down," he wept, "and now it is too late.
How His heart must have broken. Again His people had the chance for eternal peace, but they rejected it, they rejected Him.
Then there is the account of Jesus praying in Gethsemane. This story does more to show the human side of Christ than any other in the Bible. This was a short time before Jesus was to be crucified. He went into the mountain and prayed for many hours asking God to change His mind. He was asking God to take this cup from Him or to work it out so He would not have to die on the cross. Jesus did not want to die.
All the pictures we see of this prayer at Gethsemane show a serene, calm Christ looking to the heavens with His hands folded in front of Him. Unfortunately, all these pictures are wrong. Christ was praying hard and long and arguing with God. He went back and prayed three times. He prayed for hours and hours. He must have been shouting and swinging His hands in the air. His hair would have been messed up and stringy with sweat. We are told that He prayed so long and so hard that blood began to mingle with His sweat. His face would have been twisted in pain and sorrow. He was pleading and begging. He was not calm.
In Hebrews we read:
Hebrews 5:7 (Living)
Yet while Christ was here on earth he pleaded with God, praying with tears and agony of soul to the only one who would save him from [premature] death. And God heard his prayers because of his strong desire to obey God at all times.
God heard His prayers. God saw his agony. God saw His tears. But God loved us so much that He was able to calm Jesus to the point where He finally said “Not my will, but yours.” When I picture this whole scene at Gethsemane, I can imagine the eyes of God filling up with tears also. Here He was, sending His only Son to die. He knew the suffering and pain that his son Jesus would have to bear just because we chose to live in sin.
Jesus wept. And I can imagine that every day since then He has wept some more. I can imagine Jesus weeping every time we turn away and do something wrong. I can imagine Jesus weeping when the twin towers were struck down on September 11th. I can imagine Jesus weeping when we sent our troops away from their homes and families to be in Afghanistan and Iraq. I can imagine Jesus weeping when a child is beaten and neglected. I can imagine Jesus weeping whenever someone kills or steals or lies or commits adultery or becomes an alcoholic or uses drugs or gossips about his neighbor and on and on and on.
I can picture Jesus standing next to us with tears running down His cheeks, shaking His head in disbelief at all the things we do. He died a horrible death on the cross just to give us another chance. A chance to do what is right and righteous so that we could spend eternity with Him and the Father. And what do we do with this second chance?
How much peace is there in your life today? How much happiness is around you? How much love did you feel this past week? Most of us would say “Not enough.”
That can all change. We can change. We can not force others around us to change, but we can change. We can begin to let Jesus lead our lives. We need only ask Him and trust Him to guide us in the direction we need to go. By really and truly letting Christ work in your life, an amazing thing will happen to those around us. Your peace will become their peace. Your happiness will become their happiness. Your love will become their love. Alone, we can not do anything. With Christ we can do everything.
Individually, you and I can keep Jesus from weeping. Many of us have been Christians from childhood. Some of us have just recently found Christ and acknowledged Him as our Savior. Most of us consider ourselves saved. But that is not enough. We must renew our commitment to Christ time after time after time.
Otherwise we become too complacent and forget about how we felt when we first made that commitment and finally said I believe to Him. Do you remember that time? That was a wonderful feeling. We finally knew what true peace was. We finally knew what it felt like to be in the arms of Christ, safe, warm and comforted. But we lose sight of that moment. We forget.
Close your eyes for just a moment. Imagine walking up to Christ this very minute and taking a soft tissue and wiping away the tears that are running down His cheeks. Softly wipe away those tears and say that you will not be responsible for making Him weep today. Say that you will try your very best not to make Him cry again. Just tell Him that you are sorry for all that you’ve done..
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And if we try our very best not to make Jesus weep again, He has promised so much for us.
Rev. 21:4 (Living)
He will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. All of that has gone forever."
Jesus wants nothing more than to have us come home. And home is in heaven with Him and His Father and the Holy Spirit and all the hosts of angels and saints that have gone before us. He doesn’t beat us up or twist our arms to come home. He calls softly and tenderly.
If you are having doubts or just feel the need to renew your commitment to Christ, please talk with Him during the next hymn. Just sit down and ask Him to sit beside you in your seat. Wipe away His tears and He will wipe away yours.
Amen.
