John 11:17-37 (New Living Translation)
17 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. 20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”
25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” 28 Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.” 29 So Mary immediately went to him.
30 Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him. 31 When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. 32 When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them.
They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”
Death is a hard thing to talk about.
Sometimes we have the opportunity to prepare for somebody's death... and sometimes death happens with out a warning and we are taken off guard.
Either way there is always a natural progression of thinking about ways the death could have been prevented or recounting the steps that were taken right before the death that occurred.
No matter how much you feel as though you are prepared for somebody's death, you are never fully exempt from the emotion behind death.
This scripture teaches us about death in a very real way. There is emotion in death.
One question I always hear in ministry is "If Jesus is able to stop suffering and death, why do people suffer and die". The short answer is always, I don't know.
When Jesus first found out about Lazarus, he was still alive and holding on. Jesus waited... Lazarus died... and questions were asked.
Both Martha and Mary confronted Jesus head on.
You could have stopped this.
If only you were here sooner.. he would have lived.
We are previewed to two different sides of Christ in this scripture. On one side he is ministering to Mary and Martha. Providing many opportunities for them to really think about the resurrection and faith. On the other side.. he weeps. Sometimes I forget that Jesus had feelings. Its easy to say Jesus loves me... but its hard for me to really think about the fact that Jesus felt love for others. His actions had feelings behind them. (I really hope this makes sense)
Jesus was truly saddened at the loss of his friend...and overcome by the emotions of his friends who were mourning their brothers death.
This scripture speaks to me on many levels.
Life is full of hard times. Hard times that Jesus even experienced. There are feelings behind situations. Feelings that Jesus even took the time to feel.
I don't know why Jesus didn't immediately save Lazarus the second he found out about his situation. My guess is that this was another teaching opportunity. An opportunity to feel. Maybe this was an opportunity to put feelings with the concept of the resurrection.
There needs to be death in order to experience new life. Sometimes we need to experience death in order to appreciate and understand new life. That doesn't mean that death is easy. That doesn't mean that there are no feelings with death. Death is sad. Death causes us to weep.
Sometimes we need to put to death dreams that we are holding onto, bad relationships that we can't let go, habits that are hard to break, guilt and shame that we carry on our backs everywhere we go. Christ could have prevented those things from happening... but there is something about experiencing the emotion of death that is healing.
The death of a loved one is never easy. Nor should it be easy. The thing to remember is that Christ wept with Mary. He was present with Martha. There is hope when we read "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die".
I am thankful for everlasting love.. and everlasting life.
No comments:
Post a Comment