There Are No If Onlys About It

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?”