Coptic Orthodox Answers

In the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.

Welcome to Coptic Orthodox Answers Deep Dive. We are currently at John 11. So, in John 9, we saw how Christ healed the man born blind and then He had a face-off or a confrontation with the Pharisees and he proclaimed that He was the Messiah. And He moved on to John 10 where He told them: I am the good shepherd, you are a hireling. You do not care about the sheep, like this blind man, but I do care about my sheep.

And then He moved on at the end of chapter 10 to... beyond the Jordan where St. John the Baptist used to baptize and used to preach. And many people believed in Christ there, because they remembered the sayings of St. John the Baptist. Now, we're about to start chapter 11.

We notice in verse 3 that:

'' 3 (...) the sisters sent to [Christ], saying, ''Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.'' (John 11:3)

There's something, here, fundamental we have to learn from them. Notice, they haven't asked Him for anything. They just laid the problem at His feet, saying: Lord, behold, he who You love is sick. Do something about it. But I'm not gonna propose to You what You should do. Hey God, maybe here's a good idea; think about it, right? God is all-knowing and He's almighty and He knows when to intervene in our lives.

We have to learn from Martha and Mary to only bring the problem at His feet and tell Him: God, you know how I feel. You know all these emotions. You know this pain and this suffering. You know what will happen, let's say, if this bad event continues and progresses. But here it is. I trust in You. I have faith in You. And I do believe that in the right time, at the right moment, because You are almighty and omniscient, You will intervene.

Let us read together again verses 3 and 4:

'' 3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, ''Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.'' [Love, here, in Greek is φίλος (fílos), which is the love of friends or friendship, in a sense. So, it's as if it's saying: Lord, behold, he whom You love as a friend is sick.] 4 When Jesus heard that, He said [to the messenger, right?], ''This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.'' (John 11:3-4)

So, what do we expect the messenger to have understood? Literally speaking, this verse means or they're saying... this saying from Christ means that Lazarus will not die. So, most probably, this messenger went back to Mary and Martha and told them: Lazarus will not die. This is good news, right? And obviously, they were very happy. But then, when he died later on, they were quite in shock and then it becomes obvious later on in the story.

So, Lazarus, here, is symbolic for humanity. Again, God did not create humanity to suffer, you know, pain and to suffer death and so on. He created humanity perfectly, with a perfect design.

So, when you look at the meaning of the word... so Bethany means house of afflictions. And Lazarus means God has helped. So, in other words, where humanity is or Lazarus is, that place is called house of afflictions, where there's pain and suffering, although, again, it's not according to God's original design. But this is the state they're in.

And therefore, because there's affliction, there's death and Lazarus is about to die. But again, God was unwilling, out of His love, and because He is capable, He was unwilling to leave humanity to disappear, to die. He raised us from the dead. So, God has helped and He raised Lazarus and He's willing to raise every single human being that is willing to be part of Him who is the source of life.

Verse 5:

'' 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.'' (John 11:5-6)

So, logic, here, would say: well, if you love, then go, right? What you're waiting for? But again, God will respond like He says in Isaiah 55:

'' 9 (...) as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'' (Isaiah 55:9)

The way God sees things is very different than our own way, right? God sees, you know, the entire world; everything, you know, in one second, like He's in the kairos 1 , that kairos time rather than the hronos where we are. But again, this is something to be explained maybe another time. In other words, He's beyond time. He's above time. And therefore He waits, because He knows that this is what is good, long term.

1 For more information on the terms kairos and hronos, please see the video called Why Christ's Family Didn't Believe in Him, available on the Coptic Orthodox Answers website.

But here, lest someone believe that Christ does not care, because of verse 6, because Christ waited, in verse 5, St. John says: now Jesus loved that family, right? So, it's not out of not caring or coldness or whatnot that He did not go to them. He actually does care, but He has bigger plans in mind. Verse 7:

'' 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, ''Let us go to Judea again.'' [And obviously, they wanted to kill Him there.] 8 [So,] the disciples said to Him, ''Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?'' (John 11:7-8)

And again, the disciples, probably, in verse 4, when Christ said this sickness is not unto death, most probably, they also understood this as that Lazarus will not die. So, they're wondering: Why does He have to go there?

'' 9 [So,] Jesus answered, ''Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.'' (John 11:9-10)

So, Christ tells them: if anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble. Here, He uses a metaphor to respond to the question of: Why is it that you're going again to Judea? They wanted to stone you. And He uses that metaphor meaning: Well, listen, when someone walks during the day, there' safety, because the person sees and therefore does not stumble. But here, we don't only have a star with you, like, I... meaning a star, like, the star, the sun is a star, right?, but you have THE light. You have the true source of light that created that star. There's nothing to be worried about. If you are with Me, you are safe. So, Christ, here, He is comforting them.

Verse 11:

'' 11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, ''Our friend Lazarus sleeps...'' (John 11:11)

Notice how He says our friend Lazarus. Whomever is a friend of Christ is a friend of the Church, the entire Church, because we're all members of that one body that is the Church.

'' 11 (...) ''Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.'' 12 Then His disciples said, ''Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.'' 13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, ''Lazarus is dead.

15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.'' 16 Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ''Let us also go, that we may die with Him.'' 17 So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days.'' (John 11:11-17)

So, the first thing to take here... Notice how Thomas was actually quite courageous. We usually blame Thomas for his lack of faith after the resurrection, but in reality, all of the disciples lacked faith. Between the cross and the resurrection, all of them were scared, not only Thomas. It's quite unfair that we blame Thomas in the way we do today. Here, we can actually see his courage. He's the only one, at least the one that led, you know, that talk saying: Let us also go, that we may die with Him. He was ready to die with Christ.

But more importantly, here, we find that Christ tells the disciples that He was glad that He was not with Lazarus, that they may believe. What does that mean? And why? And then, it says that he, who is Lazarus, has been in the tomb for four days. And why is that important? When Christ raises Lazarus from the dead, it's not only a matter of raising him, like, bodily, and even, you know, recreating his organs, including his brain and his heart and any other organ that has been deteriorating: it's much bigger than that.

The Jews, in their understanding, thought that the soul would hover around the body for about three days and after that, the soul would go to Hades. So, when Christ delays and comes four days after Lazarus' death, his soul, in their understanding, is in Hades. So, Christ comes and says: No, no, no, no, you don't understand who I am. I am the one not only that can recreate that body... I have authority over the soul. I have power over Hades. I will break the gates of hell and I will bring Lazarus back. I will save humanity, symbolically speaking, however, literally speaking here, I have authority over Hades, and more importantly, over the soul of Lazarus and I will resurrect him from the dead.

And because of this, everybody was, like, mind-blown: What is happening? How is this happening? Who is this man? And Christ had planned it perfectly. He does this miracle right before Passion week, right? So, He wants to send the biggest message possible before He walks in on Palm Sunday, right?, on that Sunday where he sits down on a donkey, as you know the story. So here, He proclaims who He is, as the God of heaven and earth, the God of the underworld, if you will, the God of paradise, like, you name it! He owns everything and He has authority over everything.

Verse 18:

'' 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away.'' (John 11:18)

Two miles away is three kilometers away. Hmm, so, it was fairly close and therefore, a lot of people were able to go and to comfort Mary and Martha. And that's why it says, in verse 19:

'' 19 And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. 20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house.'' (John 11:19-20)

Potentially, here, Martha was really longing for Christ and as soon as she heard that He was coming, she didn't even think about advising her sister and just ran to Him, really desiring to meet Him, to be with Him, to be comforted by Him.

'' 21 [Then] Martha said to Jesus, ''Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.'' '' (John 11:21)

And this, here, shows to us what she was thinking about, the thoughts of her heart: Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. I know that You can heal him, meaning if he was alive and you came as, like, in time before he dies, then You could have healed him and he would not have died.

'' 22 ''But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.'' '' (John 11:22)

So, even now, although he is dead, I know that if you ask God the Father for Lazarus to be in paradise (not for Lazarus to be resurrected, because it will be clear, in verse 24, that she did not mean that), so, but even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you. So, you can, you know, in the resurrection and in the next life, you can raise him from the dead, you know, we trust that You can do that.

'' 23 [But] Jesus said to her, ''Your brother will rise again.'' (John 11:23)

And she took these last words as words of comfort that he will be in paradise later on. She did not understand that he will be rising again right now.

So, before moving on, I think a point I'll need to meditate on is that... that comfort, again, that body of Christ joining, or here's the Old Testament Church, right?, joining Martha and Mary to mourn. The idea of compassion, you know, compassion is two syllables, com- and -passion. Passion means, obviously, suffering; com- comes from co-, right?, so, co-suffering, so, we suffer for... with others. That's what compassion mean. When I... when I show compassion toward someone, I am suffering with him.

You know, like, again, that idea of all of us being members of that one body, right? Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, right?, in Romans 12. That idea is

what we ought to live. We understand that life is not only about us, but about the entire world, including those who are in need within the body of Christ and those who are definitely need to be inside the body of Christ, but they're still not. And we have to go out, you know, and... and preach to them and, you know, preach to them the good news in a very loving and humble way and bring them inside that body.

Verse 24:

'' 24 Martha said to Him, ''I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.'' '' (John 11:24)

Again confirming that she did not believe that he will rise again right now, here on earth, right? or two thousand years ago. Jesus, though, He wanted to bring her back to the here and now, right?, so...

'' 25 [He] said to her, ''I am the resurrection and the life. [Like, you have to understand who is it that is standing in front of you.] He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.'' '' (John 11:25)

Though he may die in the body, he shall live in the spirit, he who believes in me and again, we saw how belief is not only a mental activity and it's clear also in verse 26:

'' 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. [So, that belief is coupled with that life, right?, whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.] Do you believe this?'' '' (John 11:24-26)

And this is a question that is personal to all of us. Do we believe this? Do I believe this? Do I believe that God is almighty? Do I believe that He's omniscient? Do I believe that He loves me? This is a big question. Again, often we are Christian by name, but our life does not reflect our thoughts. That's not what Christianity is. Christianity is a life. It's that... it's seeking holiness, like that, seeking that... that path to salvation and recreation.

'' 27 She said to Him, ''Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ [so, she confesses His messiahship], the Son of God, who is to come into the world.'' '' (John 11:27)

Verse 28:

'' 28 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister [she called Mary secretly potentially because she wanted to spend some private time with Christ and her sister], (...), ''The Teacher has come and is calling for you.'' 29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him.

31 Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her [out of compassion], saying, ''She is going to the tomb to weep there.'' 32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet [and that shows the emotional state she was in, which is very natural], saying to Him, ''Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.'' '' (John 11:28-32)

The sentence in English is the same as Martha's sentence when... when she saw Christ. However, in Greek, the words are inversed or they're not in the same order as in Martha's sentence and this was potentially John's way of demonstrating the emotional state of Mary.

Remember: Know your faith, live your faith. and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever and ever. Amen.

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Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.