Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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1st Century Jewish Funeral
Jewish funerals in the first century were quite a bit different than our funerals today.
We might have special music, and some hymns or choruses.
In first century Israel, they had professional mourners.
flutes were especially good at playing a sad dirge
the more wealthy the family, the more musicians would be present
We might try to hide emotion, or we might cry.
In first century Israel, your display of emotion was a meaningful way to express your loss.
People were hired to simply mourn, cry, and give an example for the kind of loss that was felt due to the passing of the deceased.
We embalm and bury our dead.
Taking the time to plan a funeral properly.
They did not embalm, and so they buried the dead on the same day that they died.
(sometimes they weren’t even quite dead yet, and very rarely they might make a sound or a noise, and then be found to be alive.)
Why do I tell you all of this?
Because I want for you to have some understanding for the context of .
This is the chapter in the Bible where we read about the well to do family with the siblings Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
Lazarus was incredibly sick.
The sisters sent word to Jesus that he was going to die, and that Jesus should come as quick as he could.
But Jesus was in Northern Israel at the time, approximately 150 kilometres away, and on foot.
The average healthy person could have travelled at a rate of 40 to 45 kilometres a day.
That means that by the time that the messenger got to Jesus, the message was already 4 days old.
But Jesus didn’t leave that day for Bethany, where Lazarus was.
Instead he stayed where he was for another 2 days.
He says to his disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again”.
The disciples immediately think of what happened the last time that they were down south.
“Rabbi, just now the Jews tried to stone you, and you’re going there again?”
He says, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.”
But Jesus is confident that he is obeying his Father, God.
He is confident that what will happen in Jerusalem will bring God glory.
He says, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m on my way to wake him up.”
Now that is an interesting thing for Jesus to say.
His friend Lazarus, who is a 4 days journey away, is sleeping, and so he is going to travel all that way just to wake him up.
Seems silly, right?
But if you read on in , you know that Jesus knew that Lazarus was dead.
Let the 4 day journey begin.
Jesus arrives along with his followers.
It turns out that he was right, Lazarus was dead.
The musicians were playing their sad songs.
The mourners were wailing.
Friends and relatives had come to Bethany to be with the family.
The
One of the disciples must have let Martha, Lazarus’ sister, that Jesus had arrived, but was not yet in town.
She came out to the place where Jesus was.
John 11:
What faith she has.
She trusts Jesus.
She hopes in Jesus.
She is in the middle of mourning her brother, but she has Jesus.
Martha sends for Mary.
Mary gets the message that Jesus is calling for her, and she gets up to go out and meet him.
All of the mourners who are there consoling her thought that she must be headed out to the tomb to go cry their.
And so they went with her.
She got to where Jesus was, and she fell at his feet.
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
She’s not mad at Jesus.
Don’t read anger into her words.
His love is not in question.
She’s just wishing that he could have been there 4 days ago, instead of this day.
But do the math with me.
Lazarus had been dead for 4 days.
Jesus had received the message, waited 2 days, and then started on the 4 days journey.
There was no natural way that Jesus could have been there before his death.
He was always going to be at least 2 days late.
Why the delay?
Jesus had a plan.
Mary just didn’t know what it was yet.
But there she was, fallen at his feet, mourning the loss of her brother, Lazarus.
Why the anger?
Why the raw emotion from Jesus?
I’m going to venture a guess here, and say that he’s not mad at the mourners, and he’s not mad at the sisters.
I think that Jesus anger has to do with death.
Death is ugly.
Death seems so wrong.
It takes loved ones away.
I think that Jesus is angry with death itself.
I think he is angry at what sin does to people.
How it robs them of the life that God created them for.
But Jesus, the son of God, is a worthy opponent of death.
He goes to the cave where Lazarus was laid to rest four days ago.
John 11:39-
John 11:
That is why the delay was necessary.
So that the glory of God would be on display.
What Jesus was about to do would not be mistaken for anything, but an act of God.
That’s why he waited the two days.
It was to give glory to God, no one would think that Lazarus had been mistakenly buried.
What was about to happen, would point these people, and all who heard the story, to God.
Lazarus was buried in a cave.
There was a stone that had been rolled across the opening.
There would have been an indent in the ground for that stone to sink into.
So that it wouldn’t accidentally go away.
That is the stone that they rolled away.
Now the tomb is open.
The stage is set.
What is Jesus going to do?
He starts off with prayer.
And after Jesus prays, he shouts out, “Lazarus, come out!”
Lazarus would likely have been laid to rest on something like a stone shelf in that cave.
He had been dead for days.
He was without natural hope.
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