8 THIS WORLD'S LIGHT

8

This World’s Light

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."

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

Then he said to his disciples, "Let us go back to Judea."

"But Rabbi," they said, "a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?"

Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up."

His disciples replied, "Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better."Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 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. John 11 :1-21

Jesus and his Disciples have gone away from Judea because he has been stirring up the religious leaders in Jerusalem and they have threatened to kill Him and it isn't yet time. Now they are in Perea. The name means "beyond Jordan" and it lay along the east side of the Jordan River and in what is now the country of Jordan. This was once the territory occupied by the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh. It was also the land occupied by Moab and Ammon until King David conquered them. During Solomon's reign it was called Gilead and was the homeland of the prophet Elijah. It fell in and out of Israel's hands and in Christ's time was part of the kingdom of the Herods, assigned to Herod by Augustus Caesar. It was within this area that John the Baptist ministered, and according to Josephus, where he was imprisoned and executed.

I don't know exactly where Jesus was staying in Perea at the time Lazarus died, but it certainly wasn't too far to walk in a day or two. The border of Perea is approximately 20 miles east of Bethany and Bethany is two miles from Jerusalem. If Christ was due east of Bethany and could have gotten across the river directly, it may have been a five or six hour walk. If he went by the ford of the river at Jericho it would have been a forty-five mile walk at least. This distance could be walked in 11 to 12 hours if a person could keep a steady pace; or it could have easily been covered in two days. We'll discuss this distance and time a bit further along.

Martha and Mary sent a messenger to Jesus to inform Him that Lazarus was sick. They say, "Lord, the one you love is sick." We are told in the next paragraph that Jesus loved Lazarus and the two sisters. But Jesus acts a bit strange in showing that love. He makes a statement about the sickness not ending in death and that "God's Son may be glorified through it". How does it glorify anyone by Lazarus being sick? And then he doesn't do anything. You'd think, here is someone He loves and He can heal sickness, why doesn't he command the disease to cease or at least hurry to His friend's side. Instead, He stays put for two days.

Then a-sudden he tells everyone, "let's go back to Judea."

The Disciples don't see this as a good idea at all. They just had some nasty business back in Judea, where a bunch of angry religious leaders were about to stone Jesus. Their reasonable advice is to stay where they are.

Jesus replies to this with an odd statement: "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world's light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light."

Whether the Disciples took any note of this quote or thought about it at all is not recorded. They don't say anything. Jesus just continued to tell them Lazarus had fallen asleep.

In typical, 'we-just-aren't-quite-getting-it' fashion, his Disciples kind of say, "so what. If he's sleeping, he's going to get better." You would think their first question would have been, "how do you know he's sleeping? Did another messenger arrive we didn't see?"

Can't you just see Jesus rolling his eyes in frustration with these guys? He has to spell everything out to them before they get anything, and even then they don't quite get it all. "Lazarus is dead," he tells them, "and for your sake I am glad I was not there..."

Why was he glad he wasn't there? Because if Jesus had been in Bethany when Lazarus got sick, He would have healed the man and what Jesus wanted His Disciples to learn would not have come from a simple healing. Note the reason He was glad He wasn't there, "so that you may believe." See, His Disciples still had some faith problems.

Jesus then says, "let us go to him."

Thomas rallies the troops (surprised it wasn't Peter jumping in with both feet as usual) and says, "let's go die with him."

Well, they knew there were people in Judea willing to kill them and Jesus had started talking about his own death lately, so Thomas probably figured this was it and we might as well all die together.

It wasn't going to happen because while the Light was with them, they wouldn't stumble. But in a short time that Light was going to be snuffed out and then these fellows would have to walk in the night. Can you remember John 8:12? If not, this is what it says:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

They had nothing to fear yet. Jesus the Light of the World was with them and if they followed Him, they wouldn't stumble. He was going to revel more about the power of the Light, but it had to be certain that Lazarus was "positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably Dead; not only merely dead, really most sincerely dead".

When they get to Bethany they will find Lazarus is not only dead, but four days dead and buried. His death is beyond doubt. This is why the two-day wait. Consider it, when the messenger left to find Jesus, Lazarus was alive, but sick. If it was a day’s journey to where Jesus was, then Lazarus died while he was traveling. Jews buried their dead on the day of death and burial had to be before sundown. Jesus waited two days, and then a day's journey to the grave, thus four days. If the journey was two days, then it is the same, except Lazarus died sometime in the later part of the messenger's trip. Jesus knew, of course, when His friend died. He had the timing down pat.

And when he did get to Bethany, it got very interesting.