Spirituality Column #782

November 9, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Out of Focus

By Bob Walters

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” – Romans 8:5

Mary, Martha, the mourners, and the disciples all presumably gaped in astonishment when four-days dead Lazarus came out of his tomb (John 11:44).

I doubt anyone was more surprised than Lazarus himself – if in fact he somehow knew he had been dead.  Along with death’s physical fact of rapid bodily decomposition, a common Middle Eastern cultural and religious notion was that the human spirit left the body after three days.  Jesus tarried so all would know Lazarus was really, truly, dead.

As an aside, that makes me wonder, four days on, was Lazarus already in paradise, and maybe cognizant, when Jesus called him back into, as Shakespeare put it in Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech, “this mortal coil” at a tomb outside Bethany?

If so, what a truly, truly rotten deal for Lazarus.  Maybe that’s why Jesus wept.

But in all seriousness, let’s notice two prominent scriptural realities, one before Lazarus returned to this life, and one after.

In John 11:1-40 as the story of Lazarus is told, all except Jesus were focused on the death of Lazarus and the absence of Jesus.  Jesus could have done something right now but instead delayed his arrival to make a point, and everybody missed the point.

And the point was, Jesus’s identity as the Son of God, not the miracle of Lazarus’s revival.  All of Jesus’s statements in the story reveal his intention to lead His flock to the knowledge and faith in His true identity.  Everyone else points to Lazarus.

Even Jesus’s wonderful, out-loud prayer to God in John 11:42-43 is, “for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

Next Lazarus (v44) is called out, comes out, and (v45) “many put their faith” in Jesus. Then I notice something oddly missing from the story; there is no celebration.

Granted the point isn’t whether there was a celebration, but the scriptural fact is that whatever reaction there was, it is left for us to imagine. Jesus tells Lazarus to get dressed and go; that’s it.  Some “got it” and came to faith; maybe we should, too.

Jesus doesn’t say anything else.  Martha, Mary, and the others don’t say anything.  The disciples are quiet.  In the entirety of the Bible, Lazarus never does say anything. He came back illustrating Jesus’s identity … and later died another death.

The Bible is so wonderfully and vividly written that we often focus on the characters in its stories – Lazarus, the Sinful Woman, the Prodigal Son, and so many others – perhaps because we can relate in the flesh of real-life to their situations of sickness, sin, despair, failure, rejection, pride, greed, hopelessness, and confusion.

But that’s on our worst days.  On our best days we read these stories and instead focus on and relate not to the dismal fleshly failures of our own fallen lives, but on the soaring spiritual hope and truth of the identity of Jesus Christ and His restorative gift of our salvation.  We then live in the comforting truth and peace of the Holy Spirit.

Not everyone finds Jesus just because they are hopeless; many find Jesus because they read the Bible, experience the church, focus on Jesus, and are hopeful.

It’s a matter of setting – and focusing – our minds on the right Spirit.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) saw the church, read the Bible, and “got it.” Amen.