Back to the Future. Young teenager Marty McFly has a chance to go back in time due to the invention of his friend Doc Ement Brown. While in the past he has the chance to change things and make his future a better one by encouraging his father to act in a better way. Then in the second movie he travels to the future and his wife laments that if only he’d avoided getting in to a car accident his life would have been so much better. And so in the third movie he does of course get the chance to avoid the accident by not giving in the charge of being a chicken when dared to do something stupid.
[alternative opening for a youth audience – S Club 7’s “Have you ever” and Kate Winslet’s “What if”]
It is something we often think about isn’t it. If only. We have regrets about the past. If only I hadn’t stayed up all night long playing computer games instead of studying for that exam. If only I spent all my university career playing pool. If only I had attended those tutorials and done the work. If only I could go back and do things differently. If only I could change the past then everything would be all right now and in the future.
If only. A question asked by many in the story we read this morning. Martha is the first to ask the question. The two sisters Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus were well known to Jesus although we have not yet come across them in the gospel. From this story it is obvious that Jesus knew them well and like them. The place they came from Bethany was just 2 miles from Jerusalem, less than half an hours walk from Jerusalem. The name literally meant the house of the poor and it probably was, an area just outside Jerusalem where a lot of the poor stayed. Given the rest of the gospels it is probable that the house of Mary, Martha and Lazarus was where Jesus and his disciples stayed when they visited Jerusalem. Jesus was a good friend of Lazarus, in fact the message that is sent to Jesus does not even mention Lazarus by name but merely refers to him as the one you love. Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick and he in fact knows that he is going to die but at least to first appearances he does nothing. He stays where is. So when he finally shows up Lazarus is dead. And Martha respondes with if only you had been here. And then Jesus meets Mary, who also throws the accusation at Jesus “If only you had been here my brother would not have died.”
It is a very common complaint from the lips of Christians and non Christians alike. If only ... We look at the present and think what could have been if only something different had happened in the past. If only ...
If only God ...
For Mary and Martha, the if only was one which we too often wish. If only God. God had the power to cure them, to stop them dying, to intervene in this situation, to stop it from happening. If only God had been here or done something. Its a very common question and in most cases a very reasonable question.
We believe in an all powerful God. He has the power to do anything. So why doesn’t he intervene on our behalf. Why wasn’t he here when we needed him the most. There is the classic response to suffering in the world and the existence of God. When we look at the way the world is, if God is all powerful then he is not all loving, or if he is all loving then he is not all powerful. Most of us are not that altruistic, we would settle for God solving our problems.
It is easy to sympathise why Martha and Mary. We know God could act if he chose to and so often we want to know why he doesn’t choose to. We feel alone and abandoned and feel like flinging the words “If only you were here ...” into God’s face. “If only ...” Said with bitter regret or fierce anger the intent is the same. We would not be in the situation or mess that we are in if only God.
Sometimes it is a case of if only God. There was nothing the sisters could do for Lazarus Jesus was their only hope of avoiding the situation they found themselves in. Sometimes that is the case. We could not have saved our loved ones from disease or death, we could not have prevented the situation. But sometimes there is another case as well, we shouldn’t really be saying if only God but if only I
If only I ...
There are many things in my life that I think if only I ... . There were actually a good few more before I met my fiancee. If only I had had more courage, if only I had known then what I knew later. If only I hadn’t messed it all up. If only I ... . Maybe you look back at your life and it is filled with if only I. And the thing about this story is that it holds the answer for you too.
What if?
But Jesus gives us a different answer to the one we might expect. He gives reasons to his disciples for not going to see Lazarus when he first hears about it. But he doesn’t tell the sisters that. Nor does he even give the very true excuse that doing the maths gives us. Jesus delays two days but when he arrives Lazarus has already been in the tomb for 4 days, even if he had left immediately he would not have been in time to stop Lazarus dying. No the answer he gives to Mary and Martha is not so much an answer but another question, what if?
But before we look at this question, why did Jesus stay where he was, why didn’t he go to Mary and Martha’s sooner?
From a normal perspective it is easy to see why. We looked at John 9 last week where Jesus was accused of being a sinner and those who followed him were thrown out of the synagogue on Wednesday we were studying John chapter chapter 10 at the Bible study, he was accused of being demon possessed and they tried to stone him twice. It shouldn’t be surprising that he wouldn’t want to do anywhere near Jerusalem. Indeed while we might sympathise with the two sisters making a desperate effort for their dying brother, you might ask why they were asking their friend back to place which he had to flee because he was almost stoned twice.
Was Jesus just a little afraid of going back? We know that Jesus was not immune from hoping to avoid his death from the accounts of the Garden of Gethsemany in the other gospels. On the other hand, Jesus has said repeatedly that his time had not yet come and he appears to have been able to avoid the stonings quite easily up to till now. No, there was something else going on here. He says that it will help the faith of his followers if he stayed where he was. He was going to do something great when he got there.
Look at the answers he gives to Mary and Martha. He talks about the resurrection and Lazarus rising again. As we have already mentioned before when looking at Jesus’ resurrection. Belief in a resurrection was not something alien to Jewish thought. It pointed to the future, to the time when all would be raised to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the message Jesus has come to bring is that the future is breaking through into the present. The Kingdom of Heaven or God, they are interchangeable, the Kingdom of Heaven is here, is now. He says if you believe then you will see God’s glory.
Answer to both of these is Jesus reply, if you believe or what if. If only, at least the way we are looking at it, is a question all about the past. We look back at our mistakes in the past and wish to erase or change them but Jesus encourages to look not at the past with regret but at the future with hope and optimism. Jesus replies to if onlys about the past is to ask what if with regards to the future. Now for those who study language amongst us may point out that an if only can be with regard to the future and a what if can be with regard to the past. That is true but I want to draw the distinction between looking at the past with regret and the future with hope so I want to use to different terms. These are the two terms I have chosen to use. Why? If only, is a cry of despair, what if raises possibilities. What if comes from the Honda advert. I tried to get a transcript or copy of this advert but failed. But here is my summary. Do you know what the worlds favourite word is ok. It means acceptable, all right, average, it’ll do. What if the worlds favourite word wasn’t ok, what if it was what if? For Jesus this was the key, what if you believe.
Video clip – Song: There will be Miracles (When you believe) from Prince of Egypt
If you believe amazing things can happen. And this is exactly what happens. Lazarus is raised from the dead. The next to last of John’s signs is truly amazing. Jesus is not content with healing a man born blind but now he raises someone from the dead, and not only someone who has just died but someone who has been in the tomb for 4 days. This the penultimate sign which points to the greatest of them all Jesus resurrection, is pretty great itself. Remember all the fuss that was created when Jesus heals a blind man, thats nothing to the fuss that is created when he raises Lazarus from the dead.
This is the point of the story. We might be in the bet situation at the moment but Jesus invites us not to look at the past with regrets but to look to the future in faith. Instead of looking to the past and seeing what went wrong. Jesus invites us to look to the future with faith in him. To look beyond the present and think what if? What difference can Jesus make in our lives now and in the future. The past and the present might not be very good, but Jesus invites us to look to the future with faith and see what he can do if we have faith.
But it is only as we look to the future as we consider the what if, that we finally get to understand the if only. Tom Wright wants us to look closely at the raising of Lazarus. Jesus does not pray for the power to raise Lazarus from the dead. He merely thanks the Father for having already heard him. When? There are no recorded instances of prayer in John’s gospel to which Jesus is obviously alluding. Notice when this takes place. He prays this immediately after the stone is rolled away after Martha’s comment about their being a smell. Incidently this gives rise to one of the King James classic verses “ Lord, by this time he stinketh”. Anyway it is right after this that Jesus thanks him for hearing him. Tom Wright wants to suggest that this is because there is no smell. He knows God has heard him because the time he spent before arriving was not spent idly but it was spent in prayer that Lazarus’ body would be preserved so that it could be raised. All that remains is for Jesus to call Lazarus out. Jesus might have been absent but he was not absent from the situation. Mary and Martha might not have been able to see Jesus in the situation but he was there, making preparations for what he was going to do.
God has not been absent from the past. We might not be able to see what he is up to and to be honest he might not have been doing what we want him to be, he is there and he is working and interceding on our behalf. I can’t promise you that everything will work out the way you want. I can’t even tell you that everything will be spectacular. I can promise that God will be in it and that if we have faith we can face the what if of the future with confidence.
