Christ the Creator according to John 11 Part 9
Dr. Rafat Amari
The Apostle John tells us in the eleventh chapter of his gospel that, “On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.”
One of the virtues that distinguishes the Creator is that He participates in the process of restoring that which was lost and anything else we may have thought was not restorable.
Irreversible things happen. It is a fact of life that someone placed in grave clothes, buried in full view of the world, and placed under ground will never be seen on earth again. The passing of man is an eternal phenomenon. It is something we expect to see and eventually experience ourselves.
It would be more reasonable to expect the mountains, worn away by the elements over thousands of years, to return suddenly to their original place than it would to expect the return of a dead person four days after his burial. None of the friends of Lazarus expected to see him alive again. All, that is, except one.
It is the prerogative of the One who established the systems of nature and laws of life to reveal what governs the elements of creation, and for Him to reverse what has been decreed by the natural laws of life.
For this reason, Jesus is not impeded in any way by natural law, even if that law dispatches a person to eternity. It does not matter if the body has already been reunited with the dust of the earth.
Human life surrendered Lazarus’ body. It came from dust and returned to dust. But when Jesus raised Lazarus, He showed that He is the One who programmed the circle of human life-from the first stage when He created man from the clay of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, until man’s body returns to dust. Jesus’ ability goes beyond the normal events we anticipate seeing in our lives.
Jesus breathes life into the processes of the universe at any point he desires, and approaches the result of any natural process in order to recreate the powerful and important elements within it that contained the principle of life. In this way, he shows that every structure and process of life has been ordered and planned by him, and fashioned by his hands. Thus when Jesus raised Lazarus from the result of that harsh process, which is the principle of dissolution into dust, he shows that our return to life in glorified bodies in the coming age, and our recovery from the process of our bodily sleep in the earth is guaranteed, since he is the one who established the terms of that far-reaching process. He is able to restore its valuable elements, namely us who believe in him. Time has no effect on his ability to supervise the different processes of life. Rather He is able to make anyone, no matter what condition they are in, stand before Him. For this reason Jesus said in John 6:40, “Everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” In other words he reveals that he is the one who creates and prepares the glory of the future for the friends of the past who loved him and believed in him when on earth. Jesus is that power who guarantees life today and promises a glorious future. All those who have been redeemed throughout history will share His glory.
But He is also the power of this present life. The Bible says in Colossians 1:16,17, “For by Him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
He’s the power which keeps the components of the universe in control. He guarantees their continued existence, assuring us that they will not become subject to the factors of transience, loss and chaos. In His power, He guarantees that the universe will continue to fulfill its role.
The book of Hebrews, in chapter one and verse three, attributes this glorious task to Him when it says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”
Thus, when He restored Lazarus to life after he had been buried four days, Jesus gives us a clear revelation that He has the power to restore that which is lost. Life depends on this restorative power, and on it we await the promise of new life.
Was Jesus disconcerted by the fact that Lazarus had been under the ground for four days? Did he consider that the task had become more difficult? On the contrary, he had waited so that a radical change could take place in the body of Lazarus, so that his miracle could not be considered an operation similar to any resurrection of a man from the dead that he had done in the past. He wanted to reveal His power used in creating the body, and not simply His power in giving life to a dead body.
In being prepared to work at such a long period after the event, Jesus does not want His power to be seen as finite. Rather, He showed us that He is the infinite God, overcoming the difficult and the impossible. He is the Creator of the human body and the author of the life that pulses through it while we live on earth.
He not only owns the body of His creation, but He also owns the spirit that inhabits the body. Since He owns it, He can restore it and reunite it once again with the body, as He did in the case of Lazarus.
Only the One who possesses the spirit that was withdrawn from Lazarus’ body is able to call the spirit and soul back into it. Can anybody recall a stinking body to life other than the one who possesses the spirit that was withdrawn from it, the one who knows that he is able to recall the spirit and soul of Lazarus. The spirit and soul of Lazarus hear his voice, since he is the voice that all believers are familiar with, the voice that directs all the devout who have been translated from this life, the voice that the angels of God obey in heaven, and the voice that gives rest to the souls of believers on this earth.
Today’s study of the raising of Lazarus should tell us that Jesus is the One who allows the separation of the body from the soul and the spirit, and He alone is the One who reunites the body, soul and spirit in man, no matter how much the elements of our being have been unraveled.
You can trust someone like this to be your redeemer. Jesus died on the cross to forgive your sin and give you eternal life. You can have the hope that your soul will be reunited with a glorious body, that you will become part of the redeemed people, that you will experience the eternal joys of heaven. Today, I invite you to make the decision to invite Jesus to be your Savior.
Copyright 2006 by Dr. Rafat Amari. All Rights Reserved.