Where were You when….??
John 11:1-44 The Story of Lazarus
Where were You when we called Lord,
Why did You not respond?
I waited…and I waited….
But still You did not come.
I have had some deeply personal and heart-breaking conversations of late. Those that have no reason…no wisdom…no answers. You know the ones. Where empathy and sympathy just don’t suffice and no words, I could offer would answer the unanswerable and lingering question…” Where was God when….”? At least no earthly words….
I am drawn to the biblical story of Lazarus in John 11 in these questions.
Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary, and Martha were good friends of Jesus. In this account in the gospel of John, Lazarus is grievously ill. Jesus is travelling with his disciples and is a few days away when a messenger tracks him down with a plea from the sisters to return quickly to Bethany, their hometown. I can relate to the distress and worry, in Mary and Martha’s message to Jesus. There was an urgency and expectation in the message delivered to Jesus, a simple and clear statement of fact that spoke volumes.” Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
Even so, Jesus’ response appears nonchalant….” This illness will not end in death…. but will bring glory to God and will reveal the greatness of the Son of God by what takes place.” He was calling into existence that which was not. What could Jesus see? What did He know in the moment that was not known to anyone else? John then says…” Now even though Jesus loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, he remained where he was for two more days.”
Back in Bethany, Mary and Martha waited and watched their beloved brother’s health deteriorate. What must have been going through their minds? Why the delay? Where was Jesus? Surely, he would come and heal Lazarus! Clearly this was their expectation.
“Finally on the third day, Jesus says to his disciples….” It is time to go to Bethany…Lazarus, our friend has just fallen asleep. It is time I go and awaken him.” The disciples, concerned for Jesus ‘safety with a threat on his life, do not understand his need to return there but Jesus announces then that Lazarus has died…”and for your sake, I am glad I wasn’t there …. because now you have another opportunity to see who I am…so that you will learn to trust in me.”
To complete setting the stage for this story…when Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has been in the tomb four days. Martha hears Jesus has come and runs to meet him. “If only you had come sooner, my brother would not have died.” Was this an accusatory statement? Was she levelling blame for what happened unnecessarily? Is a statement like this, spoken in grief or pain, accusatory? Things had clearly not gone to her script. He should have come, and this would not have happened.
Given her next statement….” But I know that if you ask God for anything, he will do it for you.,” was Martha giving Jesus an opportunity to make amends for his tardiness? For not fulfilling her expectations…for causing her and her sister grief? Jesus’ response is one of a test I think….
” Your brother will rise and live.” …For Martha, a test of her belief in who he is and what that means for her, for Lazarus. Did her statement above carry with it sufficient faith in his ability to take this situation to another level?
He uses this moment to declare to her a new understanding to her already held belief in the resurrection of the dead in the last days…to teach, to proclaim his intent and purpose. “You don’t have to wait until then…I am The Resurrection; I am Life Eternal….do you believe this?” Martha says she has always believed he is the Son of God come to save us, and yet…. still misses the point.
Mary’s encounter with Jesus is completely different. She runs to Jesus, falls at his feet in tears and repeats Martha’s words…” Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Same expectation of Jesus and the outcome, yet his response to Mary’s deep emotion was to mirror it. He responded to the mood of the moment “deeply moved with tenderness and compassion.” Then the Scriptures say something intriguing. “Jesus wept.”
Why? Why would he weep? Was he caught up in the emotion of the moment? He knew what he was about to do…. with power from heaven and authority. Why then did he weep? Powerful two words. In his humanness in that moment, he expressed his compassion, his empathy. It says here “He shuddered with emotion and was deeply moved with tenderness and compassion.” What pains us pains Him! In Jeremiah 23:23 God says, “Am I a God at hand…and not a God afar off?”
…and there in this window of time, a stark realisation of the trajectory of his mission to overcome death and the grave for humanity and all that it would involve…. all that he would have to endure to give me the freedom his impending death and resurrection would pay for, was what God’s compassion and immeasurable love had set in motion here.
“Then Jesus, with intense emotions came to the tomb….”and announced God’s intention. Roll away the stone. He knew the outcome was victory. He knew what he was about to do. Martha confirmed her struggle to remain in faith, questioning Jesus’ next move. Afraid of the smell, Martha was caught up in the earthly moment. Jesus is about to bring heaven crashing into it…that space between the tangible and what is possible by faith. Jesus reminds her again who he is….” Didn’t I say, if you believe you will see God unveil His power?”
Jesus’ sights were on a bigger picture. In a loud authoritative voice, he announced God’s intention…. for Jesus’ glory, and called to God, thanking Him for hearing his prayer and listening to his every word…and so all present would believe, he would use the power he was given. He then called…. “Lazarus! Come Out!”
Lazarus, bound in burial cloths, embalmed, came groping out of the tomb into the light of day, responding to the voice of Jesus…acting on his command over death and the grave…His authority over the elements, redeeming life, family, joy and bringing glory to his Father. And in it, Jesus is glorified in His Father’s eyes.
Such a poignant story in light of so much distress and questions in this day and age. It comes with that commonly asked question…” Where was God when…”? …. a trip factor and often a deciding factor against faith. I too, have asked this question, fist shaking to the sky, tears streaming down my face, completely broken in the moment. My understanding of what God should do, if He is there at all…and my expectation of this unseen entity in the claim that He loves me and wants the best for me gives me difficulties in reconciling the pain and suffering….my own, of those I love, …and of the world in general.
“Where were you when…. God?”
It is in this story of Lazarus, I see the tension between my understanding, hope and expectation and heaven’s perspective in my situation. I know many tout the line about “being taught a lesson.” While I believe there may be some truth in that…because life is learning, I don’t believe God intentionally causes bad things to happen to me or allows me to suffer so I “learn lessons”. That contradicts everything I believe about God being a loving Father. I do believe however, that despite the circumstances I find myself in, I have the opportunity…the choice, I guess….to ask for some deeper truth to be found in the pain and confusion of the past, in the loss of life or innocence, in the places and spaces of unanswered and sometimes unanswerable questions this side of heaven.
But the tension remains……
Martha says to Jesus, when He arrives, post her brother’s death and burial….” If you had been here…this would never have happened.”
Could it be that I narrow down to my own visible, tangible world in an attempt to contain my circumstances to, well…. just ME?
What if what happens to me in any given moment of time, is part of a much bigger picture…a diverse and intricate network of events, places, lives…. Not to be seen as a pawn in some bizarre Greek mythology scenario….but where God, using the events of life on earth, in all its brokenness and skewed selfishness of mankind, knows everything about me…past, present and future, and taking each and every broken shard of my existence, asks of me, “Can I use what has hurt you, what has shattered you….to bring Jesus, My Son, glory?”
“Will you trust Me with your pain and tears, your frustration and anger at what has happened to you, to challenge you in your bitterness and hurt…to forgive and understand the power of GRACE….so that you can bring others, in empathy and compassion in similar circumstances, to My feet for healing?”
It is not about the event itself! In it, Jesus wept!! Those two words of John 11: 33, in the story of Lazarus, are for YOU, in that thing that has caused a part of you to die…in that moment of loss of innocence…. Jesus WEPT.
That thing, that event…was not from God …. but of the enemy. John 10:10 says,” The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.”
What I forget in my eagerness to pin blame on others is that my choices…in thought, word, and deed, regardless of their severity or inane unimportance in the moment, affect others in some way. In God’s eyes, “Sin” is “sin.” It is difficult for me to align my poor choice in words or deeds with that of a perpetrator of some crime or devastation, yet in each, Jesus weeps. Why? Because as part of Creation, He made me in His image and gave mankind dominion over all the earth. He gave me choice. Choice to do good…or bad. He wanted relationship not dictatorship.
What the enemy cleverly does though, is cause me to look elsewhere…to distract, to make me question, to entice me to shift my focus…to the betrayal of trust, the hurt, the person, the injustice, even toward God…. for in that, I relinquish the relationship with my Creator, my Heavenly Father. This causes me to home in on myself…on my unforgiveness, my hurt, my bitterness…. on the other entity involved and my need for justice, on the senselessness and hopelessness of my circumstances….and not on the enemy himself. And in that, I sin….an offense against God in my lack of trust in His ability and willingness to act on my behalf; against the other person in my anger and desire to see them accountable for their “sin” against me; against myself in my holding onto the hurt, causing myself untold misery and disruption to my inner peace. In Isaiah 40:27, God says, “Why do you say…and assert…” My way is hidden from the Lord, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God?
Jesus is standing at my tomb…that dark cavernous place of stored hurtful memories, unforgiveness, records of wrongs, bitterness, unexplained and unexplainable trauma to my being, my heart, and my soul. He is commanding the stone be rolled away to let in the light and let out the stench.
Jesus says, in John 11:15 “…now you have another opportunity to see who I am so that you will learn to trust in Me.”
He calls out in a loud voice…” Naomi…. Come out!!”
Here is my next choice. Here in this moment….
Will I hear and respond to that call to shake off the stench of the past, that which will bury me if I choose to remain BOUND by it? Will I let the bandages fall off and walk out and away from all that was set to totally destroy me and allow Jesus to redeem the time, the past and the persons involved because nothing else matters beyond that call on my life?
So, I choose to hear. I choose to shake off those graveclothes and walk away from the identity of a dead man…dead to forgiveness, life, peace and joy…..and into my new identity… into the light…away from my need for justice and recompense for my pain. Away from being so entrenched in it all and allow Jesus to roll the stone over the entrance of that past, that which kept me imprisoned in my darkness… forever blocking all access to and sealing it and all it contains. In the words of David, “You turned my wailing into dancing: you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God. I will praise you forever.” Psalm 30:11-12
Isaiah 61:1-5 speaks of Jesus and all He is offering me.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…bind up the broken hearted…proclaim freedom to the captives…and release from darkness the prisoners…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn and provide for all who grieve…to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning. And a garment of praise instead of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord…. for the display of his splendour.”
Jesus says in John 10:10, “I am come that you might have life and have it abundantly”.
So, where were/are you God when?….
His loving and immediate response is,
“I am right here! Come! Live!!”
Resources:
The Bible The Passion Translation, The Key Word Study Bible, NASB, The Parallel Bible
Photos: 1. herods_great_ sons_ tomb.jpg
2. jesus_christ_empty_tomb_goshen_utah
Proof readers and editors: Anna Mellor, Lyn Henderson, Vanessa Hall, Jeff Roorda with great thanks for your patience.