The Pause Button: John 11:1-44
Focus Passage: John 11:1-44 (CEV)
Most times I read about Jesus raising Lazarus back to life, I am fascinated at many of the details that are included. However more than just simply looking at the details, I enjoy looking behind these details to themes that tell me more about what God and Jesus are like.
The big idea that challenges me as I read this event directly relates to who Jesus is: Jesus is a Life-Giver. All throughout the gospels, Jesus heals people, restoring them into a new life; He teaches people, helping them begin a new life and relationship with God; and He was trying really hard to train some difficult people (known as the disciples) how to live dependant on God – which was a new life compared with the life they left behind after accepting His call.
Jesus is a life-giver, and because of this, He is not afraid of death. Jesus first describes Lazarus as sleeping, which may give us a clue into what He wanted us to think of death. Verse 11 shares this initial description: “Our friend Lazarus is asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.”However, like what usually seemed to happen, the disciples don’t get what Jesus is trying to say, leading Jesus to talk directly to them a few verses later with the fact that “Lazarus is dead!”(Verse 14)
One thing that challenges me is in this event has to do with how Jesus responds to the news that Lazarus is sick. In verse 4, Jesus responds to the news by saying “His sickness won’t end in death. It will bring glory to God and his Son.” Verse 4 and verse 14 contradict one another, because Jesus said the sickness wouldn’t end in death, but then Lazarus died.
But when we look at what Jesus says, from the perspective He is trying to teach the disciples to grasp, we see something interesting.
For much of His ministry, Jesus was trying to help the disciples understand life from God’s viewpoint. God’s perspective on life looks at it through the lens of eternity, and knowing the whole story, or at least the portion of the story that John shares, Lazarus’ sickness included death as a pit-stop or detour on the path to a new God-given life. Lazarus’ sickness did not “end” in death, because death was not the end of His story.
Instead, Jesus gives us another insight into God’s perspective. From God’s perspective, death is like a sleep. A few verses later, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the one who raises the dead to life! Everyone who has faith in me will live, even if they die. And everyone who lives because of faith in me will never really die.” (Verses 25-26)
There are two directions we could understand Jesus’ words in these verses. We could understand this to mean that those who believe in Jesus will never “fall asleep” like Lazarus did; or we may understand Jesus’ words to mean that those who believe in Him will not have their stories end in death, even if death happens to be a temporary resting place on the path.
Looking at the broad story and how in each conversation Jesus is trying to teach people truths from God’s perspective, and that Jesus begins by pointing us to the big picture by saying that Lazarus’ sickness won’t end in death, I am inclined to believe that Jesus describes what we call death as a sleep. This sleep-death is not the end, but merely a pause on life that will later be resumed when the resurrection happens. Death in Jesus’ eyes is when someone’s future contains no more life in it while sleep in Jesus’ eyes holds the promise of resurrection.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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