GOOD NEWS FROM ST. JOHN
Meditations in the Gospel of St. John
St. John 11:7-16
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HE actions of Jesus in this chapter are for the purpose of leading his disciples, and all believers, to a deeper understanding of who Jesus is, and to a deeper faith in him as Lord and Saviour. The inexplicable delay of Jesus in going to Mary, Martha and Lazarus, when he heard Lazarus was sick, is explained by this fact, and we see how the purpose of Jesus unfolds through the chapter, culminating in the raising of Lazarus from death.

Our faith and understanding is built up in two ways from these few verses before us. The first way our faith is built up is in the rather enigmatic illustration or answer Jesus gives in verses 9 and 10.

Jesus had just told his disciples that he was going back to Judea, and the disciples sought to remind him how dangerous this was, as the Jews were seeking to kill him (v.8). Jesus justifies his resolve to go back into apparent danger with this illustration about day and night, although he speaks of day as walking in this world’s light, and as night as stumbling in darkness.

There is no problem about understanding the illustration. It is perfectly true that in the light of day, we can walk safely and not bump into obstacles, or fall over cliffs, but that if it is night, when we can’t see the dangers ahead, we may well fall into danger. The problem is what Jesus is seeking to teach by this, in the context of the problem concerning the danger in Judea.

It is plain that Jesus is seeking to assure his disciples that nothing can harm him when he goes back to Judea on this occasion, and so he must be still in the daytime as far as his life is concerned. The night has not yet come. With this in mind, surely what Jesus is saying is that he was walking in the light of God’s plan for his life, and so he could not stumble for he was in the light of that plan. What God plans, no one can overthrow, and no harm can come to Jesus while he is in the plan of God.

Apart from placing Jesus, with his ministry and work, into the context of God’s plan of salvation, which God would make sure was accomplished, we also learn this wonderful truth, that God has a plan for all his people, and to live in the light of that plan will mean we are safe in the hands of God, and nothing can harm us until God’s plan is completed. By the same token there is nothing we can do to prolong our life when the plan of God for our lives has been completed. The important thing is to be seeking only God’s plan for us, and to live in the light of that plan and purpose.

This brings us to the other great truth, which is such an assurance to us. Jesus knew Lazarus had died. Jesus had waited for his death to take place. But instead of saying Lazarus had died, Jesus speaks of Lazarus as having fallen asleep, and that he was going to wake him up. When the disciples remark that if Lazarus is sleeping he was going to get better, Jesus tells them plainly that when he spoke of Lazarus as asleep, he meant that he had died. Jesus then goes on to say that he was glad that Lazarus had died, because through his death the disciples would come to believe in a way they had not done before (v.14).

This brings us to the great truth about our safety in Jesus in the face of death. When the purpose of our life is over, nothing can stop us dying, but this is not to be feared as dreadful for the one who is believing in Jesus. In the section Jesus speaks more clearly and fully in verse 25, but let us now take to heart the blessing of how Jesus speaks of death.

Jesus spoke of Lazarus as having fallen asleep. This is precisely what death is for the believer in Jesus. Death is falling asleep at the evening of this life, with the expectation of a waking in a new and more wonderful morning in the heavenly realm. The Bible tells us nothing very much about the state of believers between the time of our falling asleep in Jesus, and the return of Christ and the general resurrection, but this does not alter the wonderful comfort of the assurance we have here of death being falling asleep in Jesus.

Whether we wake in Paradise in a bodiless state until the resurrection, or whether we sleep until the resurrection, when body and soul is raised together, from the experience point of view there will seem no delay, and indeed there will not be any delay, in our waking. One minute we will have fallen asleep, and the next we shall wake in that glorious heavenly realm where we shall see Jesus, whom our soul loves. When we fall asleep at the evening of this temporal realm, we enter the eternal realm, where time has no more relevance.

So we have these two great assurances. While we are living in this life, and seeking to live in the plan of God for us, we are safe in God’s plan and protection, until that plan is completed. When that purpose of God for us is over, we cannot escape physical death, but it is simply to fall asleep in Jesus, in order to wake up in the morning of the eternal glory.