Morbid Curiosity

Letting Jesus be the master of life and death

03/26/2018

John 12:1-11 Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.  Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, "Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?" He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. So Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." The large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.

I would argue one of the most fascinating figures in the New Testament has to be Lazarus of Bethany. First let me say three things about his extraordinary life and death, and then draw a couple of practical conclusions for us today.

First of all, Lazarus was not the only dead person Jesus brought back to life (there were two others), but he was the “most dead person.” The first miraculous healing was Jairus’ twelve year-old daughter who had just died (Luke 8:40-56). She was still in her bedroom, on her deathbed, where she had expired. Another instance was when Jesus was entering the town of Nain in Luke 7:11-17. This young man had been dead a little longer because they were carrying him out for burial. And by contrast, Lazarus has been dead for four days, he was wrapped in burial cloths, and his sister, Martha, observes alarmed there will be a stench if Jesus raises him from the dead. (Sisters always worry about how their brothers smell). A skeptic might argue that in the first two cases the individuals might not have been completely dead – maybe in a coma – but that was impossible to suggest with Lazarus. He was definitely dead.

Secondly, where did Lazarus’ soul go for four days? I do not think it is possible he went to heaven. Why? Jesus had not risen from the dead and his resurrection was the key that unlocked the gates of paradise. Lazarus, therefore, could only go to one of two places after death: either Sheol (the abode of the dead, what we would call purgatory), or to Hades, which is hell properly-speaking. All the Old Testament greats – Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Deborah, Ruth, etc. – remained in Sheol waiting for Jesus to open the doors of heaven, like we wait for Ed to open the church doors every morning. Most likely, therefore, Sheol-purgatory was were Lazarus spent those four days.

And thirdly, and this may explain why Jesus did not raise more people from the grave, each of these three people would have to die again. The exact moment of death is a mystery because it is when the soul separates from the body and no one knows that precise moment. It is a spiritual event. Modern medical science can study the symptoms of death – loss of brain function, ceasing of heart beat, etc. – but science cannot tell you when someone dies; it can only approximate that spiritual event. But Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, and the widow of Nain’s son all had to endure that spiritual event called death twice (not just once), and I do not think it was very enjoyable. Maybe that is why Jesus does not raise people from the dead more frequently in the gospels: he knows what they must endure.

My friends, modern Americans suffer from a morbid curiosity about death these days that I am not sure is a very Christian curiosity. We are fascinated with death; maybe bordering on obsession. Could this by why we have so many movies about zombies and popular television shows like “The Walking Dead”? Bookstore shelves are lined with stories of near-death experiences and what people saw after dying. The rising popularity of euthanasia – so-called mercy killing – is a desire to become master of the moment of death. We will leave this world on our terms, when we decide, and make the Grim Reaper make an appointment on our calendar. But I do not believe any of these attitudes offer us a very faith-filled outlook on our final exit from this life to the next.

Rather, I suggest we look to Lazarus for an example of faith and trust in God’s love over our life and our death. We are not the master of our own life. We did not get to choose how and when we entered this world (when our soul infused our body) and we should not demand authority to choose how and when we will leave this world (when our soul leaves our body). We cannot utter the final word about our own life and death, only Jesus can. And in the case of Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son and his close friend, Lazarus of Bethany, Jesus may say with a shudder, “You must die twice.” The shortest sentence in the Scripture is John 11:35, where we read “Jesus wept” before raising Lazarus from the dead. Maybe that is why he wept.

Praised be Jesus Christ!