3.26.23 John 11:17–27, 38-45
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. 19 Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him, while Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. 26 And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” . . . 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 38 Jesus was deeply moved again as he came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 “Take away the stone,” he said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.” 45 Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him.
There’s No If Onlys About It
If only . . . it is the cry of humanity in so many ways. We sometimes find ourselves looking back, wondering what would have been, if only. If only I had gone to school. If only I had moved when I had the opportunity. If only I had spoken up. If only. God doesn’t have those moments. He knows what’s going to happen and when it’s going to happen. He has no excuses, in a sense. So we try to work this out in our own brains. We pray to God. We try to do the right thing, trying to cooperate with Him in life. We trust Him to work it out, to help, to strengthen, to intervene if needs be. We believe that He could change the course of history by intervening in supernatural ways. When Balaam was going to curse Israel, God intervened and kept him from doing so. He spoke through a donkey. But He doesn’t usually seem to use that option. He lets us suffer. He lets nature take its course. He doesn’t stop the storm. So we become confused at best, maybe angry or despondent at the worst.
I can’t remember the exact story, but one of our members had a brother or a cousin who was on a trip with his two children. He stopped along the road and went for a walk along a scenic pathway. They were somehow caught in a flash flood and the children were swept away and died on that walk while he saw it all happen. What are the odds? Imagine the “only ifs.” Only if they hadn’t taken that walk. If only they never got out of that car that day. Only if they had walked 50 feet further. It’s beyond imagination, especially when something so random as that happens.
What happened to Lazarus wasn’t that random. It was probably quite normal back in the day for people to get sick and die at earlier ages. Nonetheless, the cry, “If Only” is raised to Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson. Two times, by the two sisters separately. Martha ran to talk to Jesus right away. Mary waited. They both ended up saying almost the exact same thing. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The statement was true. Jesus had healed plenty of sick people. He had the power to do so. He had done it many times. Many people were saying the same thing. “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
When you think of the sum and substance of that prayer, isn’t that what we find ourselves praying for the most? Not for the conversion of an unbeliever. Not for a greater understanding of the word. We most often pray for God to save someone from a sickness. Don’t get me wrong. He WANTS us to pray and commands us to pray. But I wonder if we don’t just expect God to be the divine goalkeeper to keep tragic and quick disasters from happening? We live in a sinful world. There’s plenty of dangers, and God blocks plenty of them from life. He saves one person from dying of a heart attack. He saves another one from endless shaking through a brain surgery. Block this. Block that. Give me another year. Let me see my grandson get married. . . the list goes on. But sooner or later, death comes to all of us. The wages of sin is death. He never said it wouldn’t. He never promised us a certain amount of years or experiences.
Jesus doesn’t even address what He could or couldn’t have done with Martha. He starts out with the Gospel. He reminds Martha of what He came for in a beautiful exchange. “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the Last Day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. 26 And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” . . . What a wonderful promise Jesus makes! What a claim! He is the source and power of the resurrection to eternal life. “I AM it!” There is no resurrection to life without Jesus. When Dr. Fauci defended himself against the naysayers, he claimed that to argue against him you are arguing against science, basically equating himself with science itself. People attacked him over the hubris of such a claim. There are plenty of other scientists who have other facts to make other claims. Science doesn’t live and die with Dr. Fauci. But Jesus made an even greater claim. I am life! You might think that we can prolong life if we eat right and take our vitamins and exercise. But this is a far greater claim. Jesus says that He is THE SOURCE of life for all people. No one lives without Him. No one is saved without Him.
What is better? Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies. How do we get this life from Jesus? We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to pay money for it. We don’t have to make sacrifices for it. He already made the one and only sacrifice needed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He GIVES forgiveness and salvation to us, through faith in Him. When you have a lawn salesman come to your door, they don’t give their services for free. They want you to pay for it. They try to build your trust with promises of what they can do for your lawn, get rid of the weeds and breathe new life into the grass. Pay the money, and they’ll take care of your lawn with their magic formulas. We don’t have to do that. We get it through faith in what Jesus does FOR us through His perfect life, death, and resurrection. We can live forever, spiritually, through faith in Christ. And our bodies will rise from the dead also. Martha confirms this. That’s what the Anointed One would do! He came to bring life! She believed she would see her brother again at the resurrection. What a promise!
But was that enough for Martha? Or was she disappointed? She didn’t run out to Him for a Gospel promise. She wanted Jesus to do something NOW. I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Hint hint. Nudge nudge. Even though Lazarus had been in the grave FOUR DAYS, she still believed that Jesus could raise him even now. He had raised other people from the dead. Why not after four days? What faith! But was Jesus’ promise of eternal life enough for her? Did it seem like a disappointment to her?
I’m sure many have felt that way when praying for someone who was dying. They wanted to see them HERE and NOW! That’s what they prayed for. That’s what they NEEDED. When you tell them, “She’s in heaven,” maybe they became angry at the promises. They don’t want to feel that way, but inside they are steaming. “That’s not going to do me any good right now. I’m lonely and lost without this person. I want the life now!” It’s a sad reflection over how enamored we are over the here and the now, how we fail to keep things in perspective.
I can’t help but think of what Martin Luther went through when his 13 year old daughter Magdalena died in his arms. He prayed, "I love her a lot, but good God, if your will is to take her, I will give her to you with great pleasure.” Then, addressing her: “My little Magdalena, my little girl, soon you will not be with me, will you be happy without your father? The tired child tenderly and softly answered: Yes, dear father, as God wants.” She died shortly thereafter. Luther later wrote, “Ah! Sweet Lenchen, he says, you will rise again and you will shine like a star, yes, like the sun! I am happy in the spirit, but my earthly form is very sad. . . . I and my wife should joyfully give thanks for such a well chosen departure and blessed end by which Magdalena escaped the power of the flesh, the world, the Turk and the devil; yet the force of our natural love is so great that we are unable to do this without crying and grieving in our hearts, or even without experiencing death ourselves. The features, the words and the movements of the living and dying daughter remain deeply engraved in our hearts. Even the death of Christ... is unable to take this all away as it should.” Such was the pain of death, the pain of God’s answer to Luther’s prayer. (Story quoted from Wikipedia.)
When we think back to Lazarus, Jesus KNEW what was going to happen. He COULD have done something, He could have scheduled His life to be there on time, but He chose not to. He purposely stayed behind and waited for Lazarus to rot. So what then? He wanted Lazarus to die? It seems like a cruel thing to say, but it’s true.
What do we do with this? Did Jesus enjoy Lazarus’ death? Of course not! Jesus wasn’t some cold hearted theologian. He wasn’t a Mathematician of faith, a Sheldon type of personality. Even though He KNEW how the story was going to end, and even though He DIRECTED it to work this way, it is amazing how powerfully this whole situation struck Jesus. And I’m not sure the translation really does a good job in conveying this. Jesus was deeply moved and troubled. (vs. 33) “Deeply moved” means to have an intense feeling of concern, even to the point of being angry about it. “Troubled” means to literally be shaken. It reminds me of when I’m watching a movie and I don’t want to cry, my body starts to shake as I try to hold it in. This was personal to Jesus, even though he knew it was temporary. He didn’t like what death did to Lazarus. He didn’t like what it did to Mary and Martha or their friends. He didn’t like what death did to HIM either. Lazarus was Jesus’ friend as well. Now he was rotting in a grave. This wasn’t natural. It wasn’t the way He created this world to be. He was going to do something about it.
I think this is important for us to remember. God hates death, even though He causes it. I can hate things that I’m called on to do as a father, a husband, a friend, and a pastor. I don’t like disciplining people. I don’t take pleasure in condemning someone to hell when they are caught in a sin. But if I’m going to be faithful in my duties, sometimes I need to do that if I want to save them. God hates death. But that’s a good thing, because the same God who causes it also has the power to DO something about it and chooses to do something about it in the end.
“Take away the stone,” he said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, because it has been four days.” It’s interesting how Martha came to Jesus hinting at a miracle, Mary didn’t. But then when Jesus actually rolled His sleeves up, Martha was the first one who said, “Wait, are you sure?” Martha prayed for something she didn’t really think was going to happen. Her prayer was more like a long shot, a wild swing at the air. She had no real hope of connecting, but she prayed anyway.
So we need to think about that in our prayer life as well. We can pray for miracles. We should pray for miracles. It’s ok. But don’t treat God as if He’s never really going to answer the prayer. I have a prayer list of people that I pray for daily in my life. I am sometimes amazed at how many couples are still married after all they’ve put each other through, but I shouldn’t be! Don’t forget that He has the power to do anything in the world! He’s all powerful! Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” In spite of her doubts, Jesus was going to answer her prayer in the here and the now. He was going to be more gracious than she even knew!
Then it happens. Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The man who had died came out with his feet and his hands bound with strips of linen and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus told them, “Loose him and let him go.” Jesus spoke to a dead man who couldn’t hear. Yet through the power of Jesus’ voice, He enabled Lazarus to hear and to live. That’s how powerful God’s Word is. It makes the dead live. It brings the dead to life, both spiritually and physically. Those unbelievers and atheists who have hardened their hearts against God’s Word, don’t stop proclaiming the Word. The same voice that brought life to this world the first time continues to have the power to bring to life. And if He could bring someone to life after 4 days, then He could do so after 4 months, 4 years, 4 decades, 4 centuries. His power knows no bounds.
Imagine the scene. Lazarus was bound up hand and foot. Even with new life, he would have had a hard time getting up and getting out of the grave. He would have had to basically wiggle his way to the entrance. Tiny step by tiny step. Who knows but that he was discombobulated by the whole thing, not knowing what was going on. “Just a minute! I’m trying!” Maybe it took minutes for him to do so. Maybe it took so long that some were wondering if Jesus had just made a fool of Himself? His entire reputation rested on this miracle. To move back the stone, to raise the hopes of the sisters, to do it with a crowd watching - everything was riding on this moment. And Jesus succeeded. Lazarus came out, and maybe the people were a little bit afraid. Maybe they let him struggle a little more than they should have, afraid for what they might find underneath. Jesus told them the obvious. Loose him and let him go. There he was! The same old Lazarus, back to life! No decay! What a moment! (And what a moment it will be when we get to see the dead live on Judgment Day! No more wheelchairs or eyeglasses! No more hearing aids or canes!)
Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what Jesus did believed in him. So here we see the whole point as to why Jesus let Lazarus die and why he purposely waited an extra two days to come. He allowed this to happen so that people would see Jesus as more than a teacher. He really was the Messiah. If Lazarus’ temporary death could bring some more people to salvation, it would be worth the heartache and the pain that Mary and Martha had to go through, along with Him.
This is what God always wants, even with the most difficult deaths that you have to face. He’s always trying to save as many as possible, even when people die seemingly before their time. If some pain and heartache and death causes more to repent and turn to Him, then God be praised. The salvation of the soul is more important.
Lazarus got the raw deal, in a sense. He had to come back into this sinful world to suffer and die again some day. He woke up to have people wanting to kill him all the more, people that hated Jesus and what Lazarus’ life meant to them. But I’m sure that Lazarus realized the importance of his life as well, how he was living testimony to the power of Jesus and the hope of the resurrection. He had a second lease on life in this world. His life gave Mary, Martha, and Jesus joy.
What does this show us? If Onlys don’t do any good. You can’t rewind your life. You don’t have to. Jesus died for your past. Jesus rose for your future. He works all things out for good to those who love Him. So you also don’t have to fret the future either. If you’ve faced death and come out alive, or if you’ve had to suffer through the death of someone you dearly love, take heart. Jesus is still alive. His Word is still powerful. His Word still brings life. He still brings life from death. Jesus will speak again on Judgment Day to you and your loved ones in Christ. Come out! Live! What a glorious Day that will be. There’s no If Onlys about it. Amen.
