Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:1-4, NKJV)
What I’d like to do is to look at the story of Lazarus and we’ll just deal with this in blocks. And the first block that I want to look at so far as the Text is concerned is what it has to reveal to us is from John chapter 11 verses 1 to 4. I’m going to be reading from the Jonathan Mitchell New Testament translation, which tries to extract the fullness of meaning found in the original Greek language. So there are a few more words added here just to fill things out. And the reason that I’m reading from this is because I feel that it draws us closer toward process and so brings the spiritual meaning within the Text closer to the surface.
Now there was a certain man being constantly ill (habitually weak; progressively infirm; repeatedly sick) – Lazarus, from Bethany, from out of the village of Mary and Martha, her sister. 2 In fact, it was the Mary who at one time rubbed and anointed the Lord (the Master) with perfumed oil (ointment) and then wiped off His feet with her hair, whose brother, Lazarus, had been continuing ill (weak; sick). 3 So the sisters dispatched a message to Jesus, which was saying, “O Lord (Master), take note, he whom You habitually regard as a friend (constantly treat with fondness and affection; continuously cherish and love as a congenial associate) continues being weak and sick.” 4 Now Jesus, hearing [this], said, “This weakness (sickness; infirmity) is not directed or leading toward death, but to the contrary [is] over [the issue of] God’s glory (or: reputation), to the end that through it God’s Son would be glorified (may receive a good reputation and a manifestation which calls forth praise). JMNT
The first thing that we need to hold foremost in our mind is that this story describes a spiritual or psychological state. Once we begin to unpack it, for those of you who have consciously worked with the Word in terms of applying it to your life with a view to self examination and repentance, this will become more clear as we go. So a certain man, when we speak of a man, we’re talking here about an understanding and the meaning of the word or the name Lazarus is he whom God helps. So this is an understanding into which the Lord can assist us to be in the spiritual life. And we see that this understanding is described as being out of the village and a village represents a state of mind, and it’s a state of mind which is attributed to the persons of Mary and Martha. Mary and Martha are sisters and what they represent are two affections, one that is more interiorly orientated, and the other more exteriorly orientated. So Mary represents an interior affection for truth and Martha represents an exterior affection for truth. And Lazarus being the brother of these two sisters represents the understanding of charity that arises from those affections, he is that through which charity can be expressed. And charity has to do with a capacity for perceiving what belongs to the interior life, or what is asked of us by the Word so far as our work on an interior basis is concerned.
We read therefore that this understanding represented by Lazarus is ill or infirm. That is, it cannot facilitate the desires of the heart or, when we try to live from these higher principles that we are working from, we find that our understanding is not yet equipped to be able to give full expression to perhaps the fullness of the desire to live a spiritual life. This of course is a concern that most of us engaged in a work with the Word are put in front of on a regular basis. And we might ask what the issue is? What is it that prevents this inflow of the Lord’s love becoming more a more full expression in our lives? Well, if we go to verse 2, it starts to become a little clearer as to what what the issue might be. Here we are given an insight into the depth of devotion represented by the interior affection for truth. This being Mary, who we read
At one time rubbed and anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and then wiped off his feet with her hair.
This is an important point because it shows us where the level of devotion is in terms of contact with the Lord. So here we have the anointing oil, which is the devotion and love that is being applied to the Lord’s feet and the point of contact is with Mary’s hair. So both of these elements represent what is external. So with the hair of Mary, we have a relatively externalised understanding of the Word and this is what is coming into contact with the letter of the Word, which is represented by the Lord’s feet, this being His natural. So the point of contact is one which is very much tied into understanding the Word in terms of person, place, space and time. These elements are what adhere, if you like, to this understanding and it makes it infirm because the more interior meaning is not available. Now the redeeming aspect of this, of course, is that there is a perception that there is a problem with Lazarus. This perception images a person’s realisation that their understanding of things isn’t able to convey what it needs to in order to move the regenerative process forward.
And so this triggers a search and the search is described in verse three where we read that
The sisters dispatched a message to Jesus, which is saying, “O Lord, take note, he whom you habitually regard as a friend that you constantly treat with fondness and affection continuously cherish and love as a congenial associate continues being weak and sick.
So we see that it is the sisters who dispatch this message and so the interior and exterior affections are aligned – there is a perception of a need to gain a more interior understanding of things so that these affections can find an understanding that can give a fuller expression to the Lord’s love in life. So again, names are important because they convey the quality and in this case the message is dispatched to Jesus or Yeshua. And of course that name means Jehovah, Saviour, and it is a looking to the interior things of love that have to do with the Lord’s love for the salvation of the human race. And so this is the interior aspect of the Word being searched out. It is the both the interior and exterior affection for truth that is focused on drawing, out of the Word whom Jesus represents, an interior sense of the Word, a meaning that isn’t encumbered by ideas of person, place, space and time. For as far as the Word goes in terms of its interior meaning, this is only accessible when we remove person, place, space and time. But while person, place, space and time, which belongs to the letter of the Word dominates our thinking, we are unable to access the Word as it relates to our interior states, so states of mind.
And so far as the story is concerned, we see ourselves, or our own states, reflected here because while we may desire to have these interior things, if we don’t have an understanding that can contain them, then we are going to struggle. And that struggle is represented in the sisters approaching Jesus. So there is a need to lay aside what is of the natural to access those truths that have a more psychological or spiritual application so that we can actually use the Word to investigate our interior states with a view to self-examination and repentance through the shunning evils as sins against the Lord. Now any genuine interior work is going to put us in front of what is opposed to the life of heaven. Interior work and the use of truths to that end is going to reveal those things that we are identified with, that we are invested in, in fact, which make up the infernal proprium. The Lord’s goal is to bring us into a new sense of self or a heavenly proprium, but in order to get there, these illnesses and infirmities have to be exposed and revealed so that they can be dealt with. And these states are difficult states to deal with. Of course they are, but they are unavoidable. This is captured in the fourth verse where we read,
Now Jesus hearing this said, this weakness, sickness or infirmity is not directed or leading toward death.
So in one sense, this is a very odd statement because the Lord knows full well that Lazarus is going to die. But that death that Lazarus will suffer is not an eternal death, if you like, it is only a temporary death for the Lord will raise him up and in the raising of Lazarus, he will be glorified. What this means, from a Logopraxis perspective, is that the power of the Word working in one’s life to raise us up glorifies the Lord. It brings about a realisation in us that the Word is indeed the Lord for the sepulchre out of which Lazarus is raised is the infernal proprium or hell. This process illustrates how the understanding of truths when they can be applied to the life of the mind, elevate that mind out of the clutches of hellish thinking which relies on the sensory faculties, or a command over the sensory faculties where appearances are believed to be true. But when we remove person, place, space and time from our thought in regard to the Word, so then interior things begin to shine forth. And these are what raise us out of believing the realm of person, place, space and time to be a conveyor of what is real and into seeing what is truly real, which is the application of how the Word can be applied to our interior life.
Now Jesus hearing this said this weakness, this infirmity, this sickness is not directed or leading toward death, but to the contrary is to the end that through it, God’s son would be glorified.
So again, this is a reference to our perception of things. It’s about coming to see that, yes, while we’re engaged in inner work, the infernal proprium seems to be that much more in our face that we come to see its true condition, its true nature and of how we are invested in it. This may be a disturbing and difficult thing to face but here the Word is that it is not unto death, that this has to be seen. We have to see what we are imprisoned by before we can be released from it because the Lord has to honour our freedom and rationality throughout this process. But we will see more of what’s required when we come to Lazarus‘ actual raising from the dead.