Letters to the Prison - Week 127

Hello, everyone.  Be sure to ask for a Bible if you need one.  We’d love it if you joined our study of John.
Remember a few weeks back, we talked about “polite” people who go to funerals and say things like “well, they’re in a better place.”  What if we did the opposite?  What if we wailed and cried and carried on as if the person was gone forever… with no hope?  How would that go over?  That’s what’s happening at Lazarus’ funeral as we continue our study.  As Mary meets with Jesus, she is accompanied by wailing mourners (some of whom, according to cultural tradition, might have been paid professionals who weep and wail at funerals).  Here we see an entire group of people behaving according to their beliefs.  They’re mourning Lazarus as if he’s gone forever because they don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead.
Jesus is “greatly troubled” (John 11:33) by this behavior because, after having seen and heard everything Jesus has done so far, these mourners still don’t believe in him.  Ironically, these same unbelieving mourners have something very revealing to say in a few moments.  As he approaches Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:34), Jesus weeps (John 11:35).  In those two words, we could find books and books and books of things to talk about:  Why exactly did Jesus weep?  What does it show about his humanity?  About his deity?  We’ll ponder this until our last day.  
Meanwhile, look how the Jews react:
•“See how he loved him!” -John 11:34
Jesus did indeed love Lazarus… and yet was that the only reason Jesus wept?  Surely not.
And then, we see this most ironic response:
•37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”-John 11:36
Interestingly, these words reveal more about the people speaking than they do about Jesus.  For example, the people who marvel at Jesus’ love for Lazarus might be assuming that’s the only reason Jesus is crying… they can’t see past the presumed superficial grief of Jesus to the greater truth of their own unbelief --a far more upsetting reality than Lazarus being dead.
The second response is worse:  Here we see a people who find it convenient to weep and wail in their unbelief about the resurrection of the dead, and yet then turn to criticize Jesus from a perspective of belief in him.  They believe Jesus restored the sight of the blind man, and, from that belief, then choose to criticize Jesus for letting Lazarus die… and then they weep and wail as if Jesus can’t do anything to help Lazarus now.  Here is a group of people who choose to believe when it suits them and then choose not to believe when it suits them.  Do we see this willfully fickle belief in our own culture today?  Do we see this behavior in ourselves today?  
This is a dire question that merits careful consideration and an honest answer.  What do we truly believe?  And how firm are those beliefs?  Do we abandon them when they become inconvenient?  Do they change based on the company we’re in or the circumstances?

Dean A.