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Love

Teaching Text: John 11: 1-44

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.” 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.”

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

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have 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 (also known as 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. Now 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. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God,who is to come into the world.”

After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 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.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind manhave kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

Friends of God | The Kingdom of God Moving Along Lines of Friendship in the Life of Jesus
Martha and Mary of Bethany - The Miracle of Seeing the Coming of the Kingdom of God

Formation

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

What do your friends think about identifying as a Christian in this moment?
What about our faith seems absurd?

What do you find you listen to most that shapes your worldview?
What do you do with your grief?
What of value do you offer to God in worship?
Martha and Mary of Bethany, and the 3 times Mary ends up at Jesus’ Feet
Luke 10: 38-42
- So this is the first moment: we find Mary at Jesus feet | Listening.
  - Martha says “Dont you care”
The second moment #2 I want to call your attention to is in the much longer and more dramatic account of the sister brother Lazarus dying
- John 11: 32-35
  - And so here again we find Mary at Jesus’ Feet | Grieving
The last moment #3 I want you to notice comes in the very next chapter.
- John 12: 1-8
- Its a compelling scene for many reasons but once again we find Mary at Jesus feet | Worshipping
So we have seen Mary, this friend of Jesus, at Jesus’ Feet listening, grieving and worshipping.
In the first instance, it is not just that Mary is not pitching in with the chores, it’s that by sitting at Jesus’ Feet she is taking the position of a disciple.
- She broke convention and took the place of a Rabbi's disciple.
In the second instance, both Martha and Mary think if Jesus had been there, their brother would not have died.
- Mary falls down and weeps.
  - But this leads to a miracle
  - It’s a miracle that locks Jesus in as a target. If it was dangerous before, they are all out coming for him now.
  - Jesus does the unthinkable miracle, but it doesn’t take all the pain away. It closes the trap on Him almost all the way.
In the third instance, the controversy is right there – Martha and Mary are from Bethany.
- Bethany literally means House of the Poor.
- Many believe there was a home there that Mary and Martha and their family may have served in that helped the poor and destitute
- Mary breaks a jar worth a year’s wages and annoints Jesus’ Fee
- And it’s Judas who asks how do you have such waste in the house of the poor?
- Worship of Jesus in this moment looks absurd. Let me tell you it may not look much less absurd now to some.
- But Mary is saying something. This person Jesus is worth it all. It is no waste to pour out everything.

Everyone is worshipping. Whether they admit it or not. Everyone is giving away the most valuable thing they have to something.
These things we worship inadvertently, cannot forgive us, restore us or love us as we are… they demand more. Always more. Never enough.

- Mary says I pour it out to Jesus, and it is not lost.

- Mary establishes something in sacrificial praise that will go on forever..
- I want to tell you, worship has power like that.
- I want to tell you that Mary is showing us how to live at Jesus’ Feet
  - Keep returning there whatever life throws at you. Even in the embarrassment, the delays, the grief, the scandal, the second guesses.
  - Keep coming back to Jesus feet - LISTEN - POUR OUT YOUR HEART - GRIEVE - WORSHIP (repeat)

The Revelation
- Jesus is a eacher with the words of life. Worth abiding with even if the religious establishment around you is confusing and painful. Keep coming back to Jesus’ Feet. Keep finding a way to hear Jesus’ Words
- Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life
  - The world has death, and our wrenching delay, and grief that collapses us
  - Come back to Jesus who let the trap be set and clamp down
  - He limited His options for the sake of love all the way to the Cross
- Jesus is worth it all and has given all.
  - The high priest Caiaphus, after the Lazaurs moment before the anointing moment, is trying to justify his conspiracy against Jesus
    - Without knowing how prophetic it is, He says…”You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”