Coming Forth with Lazarus

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Understanding the Sabbath in light of God's sovereignty

Mark Buchanan | posted 2/06/2008

Topics:	Rest, Sabbath, Spiritual disciplines, Spiritual formation, Spiritual growth
Filters:	Group Leader, New leader, Teacher, Train
Purpose:	Discipleship
References:	Psalm 23:5 , John 11:38-44 , John 12:1-2
Date Added:	February 06, 2008

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Note: This article has been excerpted from the SmallGroups.com training tool called Spiritual Disciplines for Busy Church Leaders.

I've a new Bible hero of late: Lazarus. Not Luke's scabrous beggar, but Mary and Martha's ill-begotten brother. Most of his story is told in John 11—Lazarus's sickness, Jesus' reposeful delay, Lazarus's death, Mary's and Martha's upset with Jesus, Jesus' own upset ("Jesus wept"), and then the piece de resistance: Jesus' command to a corpse, "Lazarus, come forth!"

What follows is a miracle of power and wonder: a man three-days dead, pungent with rot, rouses to the voice, obedient even in death. Death must loose its grip and give up its prey. Lazarus comes forth. That's the story most of us know.

Resting in God's Sovereignty

But it's the story after that one that I've cottoned onto. Afterward, next time Jesus is in Lazarus's town, the family hosts a banquet in his honour. As they should. It is a gala event, a hullabaloo of food and festivity and, I should think, endless and dramatic retellings of the story—"…and then Jesus started crying, and I thought, Oh no, what could this mean? But next thing he's standing up above that sepulchre like Moses on the mountain and in a voice like thunder…."

Everyone wants to be there. And not just to see Jesus. They want to get a peek at Lazarus, too. To wit: "Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and putting their faith in him" (John 12:9–11).

I think it was Nietzsche who said that if Christians wanted him to believe in Jesus, they'd have to start looking more redeemed. Well, Lazarus here is looking more redeemed, and it's having its effect. Three, in fact: Lazarus has become as interesting as Jesus, Lazarus has become as effective as Jesus, and Lazarus has become as dangerous as Jesus.

People want to see Lazarus every bit as much as they want to see Jesus, and some want to trust in Jesus every bit as much as Lazarus trusts in him, and some want to kill Lazarus every bit as much as they want to kill Jesus. Lazarus has become a kingdom magnet—a firebrand evangelist, a holy menace. That's why he's my hero. He's what I aspire to be.

But here's what I really came all this way to tell you: Lazarus does all that by doing nothing. Watch: "Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him" (John 12:1–2).

If we're going more redeemed, maybe what's needed most is to simply recline more with Jesus. I wrote a book on Sabbath a few years ago called The Rest of God: Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath. I was at pains, writing it, to avoid two things: a Pharisaical legalism, where the glory of Sabbath gets ground down to a dust-pile of rules; and a post-modernist vagueness, where the practicality of Sabbath gets lost amidst blog-like musings.

Along the way I made several discoveries, both theological and personal, but this was the keystone: Sabbath-keeping is rooted in, and gives rise to, a conviction that God is sovereign. Either God is in control, or he's not. If he's not—if I am, or you are, or George Bush is, or the UN and the World Bank are—then who can rest? We ought to be worried, and very, very busy. If matters are in the hands of anyone other than God (or in no one's hands), then there is no rest, not just for the wicked, but for the righteous, too. There's just no rest altogether. The only sensible pose in such a world is wariness and fretfulness and Mad Hatter franticness. If God be not God.

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May 04, 2009 1:38 PM

Mark Wallace

Thanks for this. I heard you speak on this topic about a year ago and I have been quoting you lately. It was good to see the whole thought again. I am sending this link to everyone I quoted you to.