#114 Why Did Jesus Weep? The Raising of Lazarus Explained (John 11) + Dr. Eva Bleeker

If I had to spend the rest of my life with only one chapter in the Bible, it would be John 11. And I memorized it word for word while my own dad was dying. Oh my gosh.

I was not aware how deeply this resonated with you, for those who might be unfamiliar. Jesus wept. Chapter 11 of John, what's happening?

We would see Jesus fulfilling a prophecy in the Old Testament that is only true of the Messiah of Israel, which is giving sight to the blind. This isn't just any old miracle worker.

Why did Jesus cry when he already knew that Lazarus was going to come back to life? Hello, hello. Welcome to Biblically Speaking. My name is Cassian Bellino, and I'm your host. In this podcast, we talk about the Bible in simple terms with experts, PhDs, and scholarly theologians to make understanding God easier.

These conversations have transformed my relationship with Christ and understanding of religion. Now I'm sharing these recorded conversations with you. On this podcast, we talk about the facts, the history, and the translations to make the Bible make sense so we can get to know God our creator better.

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Why Jesus Delays Before Raising Lazarus

I'm your host, Cassian Blino, and if you know John, if you know your Gospels, then you've read the story of the death of Lazarus. Now, my question is, that we're going to be exploring today, is why did Jesus cry when he already knew that Jesus was there, that Lazarus was going to come back to life?

You know, Freudian slip, I guess. But in John chapter 11, Jesus receives word that someone he loves, Lazarus, is dying, and instead of leaving immediately and rushing over, he waits not one, but two days.

And then by the time he arrives, Lazarus has already been dead in the ground for four days. So both of Lazarus's sisters confront Jesus with the same words. If you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

He would have lived. And then something extraordinary happens. Jesus cries then. So what I don't understand is that Jesus already knows he's going to bring Lazarus back to life. He already knows that Lazarus is going to walk out of that tomb.

So A, why does he delay? And B, why does he let that time, let that family grieve? And C, why is he all of a sudden, knowing all the things that he knows, crying then? So today I have brought in a scholar, an expert on suffering and chaplaincy and counseling.

I'm so excited to have you on the show. Dr. Eva Bleeker, you are a board certified chaplain. You're a narrative medicine scholar, biblical teacher, and former pastor. You hold a doctorate from Baylor, a master's degree in narrative medicine from Columbia, and two master's degree from Dallas Theological Seminary.

We're going to walk through John 11 today. Welcome to the show.

Thanks so much for having me. Like we said before we started, we're just two girls who love the Bible.

Yeah. Like we said, two girls who love the Bible. Okay, so focusing on John 11, how do you know so much about this verse specifically? Like kind of walk me through why your studies know this part.

John 11 as a Companion Through Grief

Thanks for asking. That's such a nice on-ramp for me. I would tell you, Cassian, if I had to spend the rest of my life with only one chapter in the Bible, it would be John 11. It's that precious to me.

What? I just absolutely love it. And it has been my companion through some very difficult times. So as you mentioned, my background before I came into the academy, before I started teaching seminary classes, I spent about a decade doing bedside care as a hospital chaplain.

And so for a person my age, I have been with death a lot. I've been part of end-of-life care about a thousand times, literally a thousand. And so the time that I have spent contemplating death, witnessing death, being a companion to people who are watching their loved ones die is kind of a high percentage for a woman my age.

And then also, this chapter, John 11, was my personal companion. It was the Holy Spirit just kept bringing it to me again and again. And I memorized it word for word while my own dad was dying. So it was a counselor to me.

This chapter was a counselor to me. And then we preached John 11 at my dad's funeral. And it just, it has proven its value over and over again in my story. And it is like a friend to me. And the places that we're about to go, the things that we learn about Jesus, His power is on display in this story.

His compassion and tenderness is on display. His Godhood is on display. His full humanity is on display. It's just, it is the best friend chapter for me in the entire canon.

Oh my gosh. I was not aware how deeply this resonated with you. I'm so excited to hear this from your eyes, knowing your experience, just kind of looking at the chapter. And since you know it word for word, I'll read it for those who might be unfamiliar.

I'll start with verse 4, actually. And then I would love to have you kind of explain to any listener who doesn't remember what's going on, kind of what's happening, you know, like the TLDR. Chapter 11 of John, verse 4.

When he heard this, Jesus said, This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory that God's Son may be glorified through it. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

And then he said to his disciples, let us go back to Judea. And then if you go down to verse 14,. So then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I'm glad it was not there, so that you may believe it.

But let us go to him. There's a lot going on here.

For those that don't know, what's happening? Well, Jesus and his male disciples are out on the road. They are away from their home base in Jerusalem. And by this time, we have a sense that the house where Martha and Mary and Lazarus live is an important hospitality center.

Jesus has spent time there before. So as we center down in John 11, I would just say to a curious reader, if you flip back to Luke 10, you'll get this fun thing where it says, Martha, a woman named Martha, opened her house to Jesus.

Which is cool. It seems like Martha is like the matriarch of the family. She has, it doesn't say Lazarus opened his house to Jesus. Oh, that's her work. Martha opened her house to Jesus. And so, you know, maybe Lazarus was the little brother by a lot.

Maybe something like that. But the sisters, you know, they are disciples of the Lord Jesus. And they are providing a home for him. We know from that other famous story that's in Luke 10 that, like, hospitality is a major part of what they're holding out to Jesus.

That becomes a thing. Like, Martha wants Mary's help in offering hospitality.

And they even mention it at the beginning of chapter 11, where it's like, oh, this is Martha and Mary. Remember, you guys know Mary, the one who, like, poured perfume on the Lord and liked to sleep with her hair?

Yeah.

Yeah, that's coming up in chapter 12. So, these three, they are like Jesus' really good friends. And so what we see happening here, and a great phrase for us to notice in verse 3, is that when they call for Jesus, they say, the one that you love is sick.

The one that you love is sick. And so, this is so, so important to John, that this is someone who is beloved to Jesus. And so much so that the sisters, Martha and Mary, do not feel presumptive or like they are asking Jesus for a favor that they can't ask for.

When they're like, we need you here. Our baby brother, the one that you love the best, he is sick. He is dying in front of our eyes. We need you here. And they, you know, they're already following him.

They know this guy has got healing in his hands. He is powerful. They believe already that he is an important person in the story of Israel.

And like, what miracles have they already seen Jesus do that they have that faith in? That's such a good question. Like, when they call on Jesus, they're not like, your friend is sick. It's like, hey, your friend, and like, you specifically can heal, because I saw you do X, Y, Z.

Oh my goodness. Well, if we even just turned back one chapter, we would see Jesus fulfilling a prophecy in the Old Testament that is only true of the Messiah of Israel, which is giving sight to the blind.

So when we look at the very beginning of John 9, and Jesus is giving sight to someone who has never seen, this is one of the many ways that John, the writer of the gospel, is telling us like, this isn't just any old miracle worker.

This is the one. This is the only one. This restoring of sight to the blind is a great big deal. Let's see, if we paged back a little bit more, what else would we see happening? We would see Jesus taking a little snack pack, a little Lunchable from a kid, and turning it into a meal for thousands of people.

Like, He is showing—.

But Martha and Mary saw all of that, or were they like hearing of it?

They would know all of this. So these things are all happening in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and Mary and Martha live in Bethany. So this would be like, when you're standing in Bethany, you probably can't throw a rock over to the wall of Jerusalem, but there is nothing in the way of you seeing it.

It is right outside the city.

Like, it's like a mile away?

Maybe a mile. It's close, close. So when all of this happens, for one thing, this would be going like wildfire on their version of social media, right? Did you know this guy, he was in town, and he took the little fish, and he took the little pieces of bread, and he fed thousands and thousands and thousands of us, and there was all of this left over?

And did you know that guy that we've known for his whole life, who has never been able to see, and has been led around by the hand his whole life? Like, he is running around, and he is seeing everything for the first time.

So the enthusiasm around who Jesus is would be well known. This is what everyone is talking about. They can't stop talking about it, because it's miraculous.

Okay. It wouldn't be treated as like a fanatic, or like, you know, a magician passing through doing crazy things. It would be like, hey, things are happening that we believe, and that people are like, knowing about.

Like, what do you think was like the perception about this?

So that's a great question. So, this is the thing. When you heal these people who are locals, the man who's been lying by the pool of Bethesda, the man who has been blind his whole life, you can't fake it.

Yeah. And then they're giving testimony. They can't help it. Their physical body has changed. So, like, even though we're talking about Jerusalem, and it's the capital city, and it's the holy city, it's not giant, right?

Like, it's not 12 million people. It's not Manhattan. It's a place where, within an hour or two, everyone in town would know what's going on. And because Jesus is healing people, restoring people who have been there their whole lives and experienced their limitation, their disability their whole lives, you can't fake it.

Yeah. No tricks. This is the real deal. Totally.

The Delay, the Disciples, and John's Light-and-Darkness Theme

Okay. Well, getting back to the verse, why does, you know, he mentions a few things here, where he already knows it's not going to end in death, but then he waits. Do you have a feeling as to why he waited?

I don't have a good feeling about why he waited, except I will say, in the background, the situation with the disciples is very complicated. Oh. Yes. So, the reason that the disciples don't want Jesus to...

Okay. The disciples do not want Jesus to go to Jerusalem. Because you see in chapter 8, the rabbi, a short while ago, the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you're going to go back? Yeah, so there's nothing but trouble waiting for them if they go back there.

Jesus' life has been threatened in Jerusalem already, and that's where we see, you know, this beautiful thing that happens with Thomas, where he says, well, we should probably just go anyway, and if we die with him, we die with him.

So, as we're moving through the story, and we see Jesus being patient with the disciples' concern, I think that might be a good way to explain the waiting of two days.

He has to just appease their concern of just like, they just tried to stone you, okay, let's give it two days just for the tension to settle down. That's my best guess,.

Is that he's being gentle with these men who know that going back to Jerusalem is life and death.

Is that what Jesus is trying to say? He's being gentle when he's like, in verse 9, where he kind of goes off on this really mystical rant. Are there not 12 hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by the swirls light.

It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light. I feel like I'd be like, what?

Yeah, isn't that interesting? So, it is mystical, and it's lovely, and it's sort of the trademark of John as a writer. John, who wrote the Gospel of John, he loves talking about darkness and light. He opens the Gospel, talking about the light shining into the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.

And a couple chapters ago, when Jesus is healing the man who was born blind, they're celebrating a festival of light, and he's saying, oh, hold on, I am the light of the world. So, there's lots of play with light and darkness in John's Gospel.

And so, I think he's making this decision to just continue that mystery, this way that the light always wins when John is writing, that Jesus is the light of the world. He's bringing all of those themes together in this place, and having them spill out of Jesus' mouth.

Now, the same guy who has said, I am the light of the world, is now saying, you know, we can walk in the daylight. If we walk in the dark, we'll stumble, but we're gonna walk in the light.

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Now, back to the show. Okay, that makes sense from John's perspective. I guess from a Sunday school Christian, when I read this, my initial take is, you know, Jesus hears, he wants to go. They're basically like, wait it out.

And he's like, you're right. I'm going to build the tension a little bit, make the miracle a lot better. So when I show up, it's been two days. And then he says his very mystical thing, which is on par for John's voice.

And then there is this very funny exchange where he's like, our friend has fallen asleep. I have gone, we must go to wake him up. And they're like, doesn't that sound like a good thing? Like that your friend is getting rest, like very funny exchange in my opinion.

But then Jesus says something where it's always like a mic drop where you're like, what is happening? Then it's verse 14. And then he told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And for your sake, I'm glad I was not there.

So you may believe, so that you may believe, but let us go to him. And I feel like that's God being like, our friend's asleep. And they're like, okay, good thing. And he's like, guys, need to pick up what I was putting down.

That's right. To be clear, Lazarus is dead.

Exactly. But then I'm glad that I was not there so that you may believe. Again, I feel like that's him being like, just like this is a good thing that he's dead because God's glory is about to be highlighted.

100%. Okay. It doesn't look good right now.

They don't have a category for how good it's going to be.

Oh, I love that sentence. Whoa.

Category for how good this is going to be. Yeah. They can't imagine what he's capable of. Okay. Before we leave this section, I just love it that, you know, for those of us like you and me, Cassian, who are Sunday school Christians,.

And Thomas... You are not a Sunday school Christian.

Oh, I sure I am. It's just not the only thing I am. We read your credentials. Okay, okay. So, we are hard on Thomas. Are we? Wait, are we? Because he doubts, right? Like, he's doubting Thomas. After Jesus dies, he says, I'm not going to believe unless I see the...

Right, right, right. But look at how he is such like a monstrously brave human being here in verse 16. Then Thomas, also known as Didymus, said to the rest of the disciples,.

Let us also go. He is not doubting Thomas yet, though. He's not.

Okay. So, I'm just saying, like, when we... Totally. ...think about him as a whole round character. Yeah. He is ready to go and die with Jesus right here. He's an amazing guy.

Okay. And also... Just a fun fact. Fun fact and redeemable, you know? Like, we might be, like, I might be my most Christian self right now, whatever, just an example. And then, like, a year from now, be my worst Christian self.

And it's still being used in the story of God. Yeah.

So, Thomas is fun. That's just a little fun fact for another read through the Gospel of John.

Martha’s Resurrection Theology and Jesus as the Resurrection

So, if we move into Martha and Mary... Yes. Basically, they say the same thing twice, but he sees Martha first. And Martha is the one that when he was... When they were hosting Jesus, he's like, Martha, Martha, like, look at Mary.

She's actually sitting at my feet. To me, like, Martha is very proactive. She's very, like, she's the first one to open the door. She's the first one to plan. She's kind of the older sister. Like, I have older sisters and definitely seems like my type-A sister.

And so, she's the first one to find Jesus. And she basically says, if we look at verses 20, when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him. But Mary stayed at home. Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask. I think it's really interesting that, like, I'm curious. A, they say the same thing because then he sees Mary and she says the exact same thing.

But Martha almost is like, if you were here, he would not have died. But, you know, I just want to say, I have faith in you. And she kind of throws in that caveat of like, I don't understand, but I trust.

Yes, yeah. And so, here too, like, Martha, we got to know her in a certain way in Luke's story. And she was preoccupied with being an amazing host for Jesus. But what we see here is someone who has a pretty robust theology, right?

Martha. Martha, right? I know that my brother rise again on the last day. Yeah. Right?

What the heck is that? What is going on there? How do they know about the resurrection? It's a good question.

So, there are a lot of different theologies of the resurrection at this point in the first century. And we don't know exactly what Martha and Mary believed. But if they were sort of like Torah reading people, if they were Bible girls like we are, there are references in Daniel and Isaiah and Ezekiel that give us concepts.

They're not like super detailed, but there are these places in what is their Bible in the Old Testament prophets that indicate that like the dead could rise. Dry bones could rise up and take on flesh.

That the dust of the grave could be redeemed back to life in at least three places in the Old Testament. So, some Jews of the day, of Jesus' day, and it looks like Mary and Martha are among those Jews, believe in a future time of the resurrection of the faithful.

So, there's lots of other theologies of resurrection that are bouncing around in the first century. But it looks like they, you know, they are like Torah believing women, and they have had good teachers who are telling them like, we don't know exactly how this works, but someday the dead will rise.

And so, they haven't put that all the way together yet with Jesus. They are demonstrating to him like, we believe in Yahweh. We believe the Torah. It's true. So, we, look, I know that he's gonna, so then Martha and Jesus get in this thing, right?

Okay. Yeah. You had been here. You could have prevented him from dying. They know this because they've seen Jesus do miracles with his hands. And then Jesus says to her, what? Your brother will rise again.

And she's like, yeah, yeah, got it. I know all the faithful will rise again on the last day. In her head, she's thinking about Daniel. She's thinking like the old Torah. She's thinking about Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel.

But then like, oh my gosh, what Jesus does right here, Cassian, is so beautiful and so powerful because, so let's just get in Martha's head for a second here. She is grieving. She is experiencing acute loss.

The only male in her generation, which it matters in a patriarchal culture, has just died. And she's bringing her grief to the Lord. She has no clue what's about to happen in her theology or in her lived experience because Jesus is there present with her family.

So the first thing that happens is that Jesus centralizes himself in every aspect of her theological worldview. So Martha says, yes, I know Lazarus is going to rise someday. That's, this isn't helping me right now, right?

Like I just buried my brother. And Jesus in essence says, my dear sister, the resurrection isn't something that happens someday. It's me. I am the resurrection. I am the resurrection and the life. He like puts himself right in the middle of every hope of every observant Jew.

He hasn't done the miracle yet. He's just flipping all of her categories so that he's the center. It's not an event someday.

It's me. That is, what is the way you said before, when you said it, it was like predictably unpredictable. There is no category. They have no category for what's about to happen. She's probably like, I don't know what you're saying right now.

Yes, yes. She's saying, in my world, there is a prophecy that will be fulfilled. In my world, death is permanent. And Jesus in a wraparound way is being like, it's me. She's like, what does that mean?

What does that even mean?

She doesn't say that. She says, okay. Yeah, I mean, Sounds good. He's like, do you believe this? And she's like, yeah, but she doesn't know what's coming. Yeah, I believe you're the son of God. You've come into the world.

So she's like, okay, he's dead. He's going to come back. But it's okay. I have faith in the Torah. I know prophecy. And God's like, yeah, because I have arrived. And so now I am here and I am the resurrection.

She's like, totally, totally believe that. Anyways, I'm going to go get my sis. Be right back. Yeah, so comfortable. Right. And then she says, the teacher is here. And he's asking for you, which he doesn't.

Yeah, so there's some part, something that's happened here that we didn't get recorded. Yeah. So here, this is so amazing as we, well, do you want to read some of this before I start going?

No, no, you pick the verse that I, this is like so much better when you tell the story. So much better coming from you.

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Mary’s Grief and Jesus’ Pastoral Presence

Let's look at 28. So Mary goes back to her sister, excuse me, Martha goes back to Mary. The teacher is here. Like you said, she's asking for you. So Mary gets up and she goes to Jesus. So this part, I want to really notice some important things here.

So if we start reading in verse 30, now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. So Martha has like run down the road to see Him. When the Jews, this is so important, when the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

So just to notice,.

While the center of the story is Jesus, Mary, and Martha, there's a whole bunch of other people who are there. They're sitting Shiva with the sisters. They're going through this long grieving process with Mary and Martha, which sort of correlates to your question earlier, Cassian, which is so important that like lots of people are witnessing this.

Lots of people have been part of preparing Lazarus's body, putting him in a grave. And now they're sitting with the grieving sisters. So the whole community has been part of the experience of Lazarus's death and burial.

And now they are providing this beautiful emotional support for the sisters. And they all go. They all go with Mary when she goes. And I just want to note that one, lots of people are witness. And also, it's part of the question that we're headed for, which is, why did Jesus cry?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So, okay. So, verse 32, when Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, like you've noted, exactly the same line as Martha. You can almost imagine they've been saying this on repeat to each other, right?

Like if Jesus had been here. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And then, oh, here's the best thing in the world about our Lord. Verse 33. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

So, we see this emotional response, this human grief from the Lord. He is feeling this along with them. They're in despair for Lazarus. And He just goes right there with them. Empathically, He allows Himself to be affected by their experience.

And then He asks, like, okay, where is He? Where is the grave? Where have you laid Him? And then they all go together. They get to the grave. They get to the tomb. And then Jesus just weeps for His friend.