The story of Lazarus – Mary and Martha’s brother – has to be one of the best known and best loved stories in the Bible. It is one of my favorites… but not for the obvious reasons. Yes, the climax of the story is the resurrection of Lazarus: a miracle that is the signature miracle of the Messiah: It proves that He had the power to undo death and, therefore, the power to undo the ultimate cause of death: sin. But… you know… Lazarus eventually died again.
There is a unique Greek word: Charmolypi that means “bittersweet feeling”. It speaks of sadness and joy occurring at the same time; where joy springs forth out of the middle of sadness; or the reverse: where a sadness echoes out of a happy occasion. Think of the sadness that accompanies the pride and joy of seeing your grown child leave home for college or for a dream job. Or it is like visiting, as an adult, a place where happy childhood memories were made… remembering the pure joy, the innocence… being honestly thankful for those times… and yet realizing that those times are not only long gone, some of the people that made them special are also long gone.
To me charmolypi describes the reality of life in this world; and that, at its best.
You see, no matter how positive we want to be, no matter how naturally cheerful your disposition may be, even if you are a born optimist who always sees the glass more than half full, there is no denying that we live in a fallen, imperfect world. That doesn’t mean that we have to go through life with a gray cloud of doom and gloom hovering over us… or (like Pastor Jim Roam used to say) looking like we were baptized in lemon juice. But it does mean that the happiness that we pursue cannot be found in this world (regardless of what the U.S. Constitution says) instead it only exists, it can only be found, in the Kingdom of God.
Therefore, since we are not yet fully present there (in the Kingdom of God), as long as we are living in this world (according to Jesus’ will – see John 17:15), every instance of happiness in this world is going to be a very poor facsimile of the real joy awaiting us in the presence of God. And our spirit invariably recognizes that “disconnect”, and tinges that moment with a “reality check”, a recognition that not all is well in this world, and with that comes a touch of sadness, of longing, for the full reality of the true joy that can never end.
Maybe this is one of the reasons John tells us in his 1st letter, not to love the world… Yes, even when we know there are so many beautiful things that we can experience down here.
Similarly, every instance of pain, of loss, of tragedy that happens in our lives in this world does not have the power to crush us, if we are children of God. If for no other reason that we know Romans 8:28: God – Who is ultimately in control – can use it all for good in our lives. Which is why Paul the apostle reminds us to never despair like the world despairs… because, he says, the world does not have hope, but we do. And so, in that knowledge, in that hope, in that assurance that no power, no event could ever separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38), there is a joy that gives us the strength we need (Nehemiah 18:10) to go through the pain.
As strangers sojourning in a strange land, charmolypi is most often the reality in which we live… precisely because we are there (in the Kingdom) but not yet. It is especially challenging because what we long for is not an ideal or a dream. What we long for is more real than the reality surrounding us in this world right now. And that means we are always living in the middle of a conflict between the constraints of this world and the unfettered power of the next. Many times, that makes it hard to know what to do, how to react to a situation… Am I called to react in the best way possible within the limits of this kingdom of the world? Or am I supposed to react as if I were already fully in God’s Kingdom?
We will see that conflict play out in this chapter in the simple act of trying to answer a question… You see, the answer to the question depends entirely on the meaning of the question. And the meaning of the question can be completely different, depending of which kingdom I am in.
It is not God’s job to protect us from all pain
The way the story starts makes that clear:
John 11:1-6 Now there was a certain [man] sick, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and Martha her sister. It was [the] Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. The sisters therefore sent to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. But when Jesus heard [it], he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified by it.
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When therefore he heard, He is sick, he remained two days then in the place where he was.
I love the way John tells us this truth twice, so we don’t think it was a mix-up, so we don’t try to come up with an excuse, so we don‘t try to defend Jesus against an accusation of purposeful cruelty: Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters THEREFORE he on purpose ignored them for two whole days.
Now, I figure from the story that Jesus was about two day’s journey from Bethany. If He had gotten up and gone with the messengers, He may have gotten there just before Lazarus died. Or better yet, we know He could have just told those messengers “Lazarus is fine”, go back; and healed him from a distance, like he did the son of the courtier in John 4:46. But no, he delayed on purpose.
And we would be fully justified in asking, “Why?” I know that people who want to reject the gospel use this as an example of the cruelty of God… for, after all, “If God is loving and omnipotent, why doesn’t He spare the suffering of the innocent?”
We might be tempted to say, “Well, Jesus knew what He was going to do; that He was going to bring Lazarus back to life. And so, He had a plan to use this situation to display His power and prove that He was indeed the Son of God. That proof would then help people believe in Him and so for the good of the many, it was OK for the sisters to suffer for a few days.”
To which my answer would be: (1) Tell that to Mary and Martha. (2) How did that plan work out for Jesus? Instead of believing in Him, within a couple of weeks that crowd was shouting “Crucify him!”
It is not our job to defend Jesus. He can defend Himself well enough. The fact remains that Jesus remained where He was for two more days to make sure that Lazarus would in fact die. And if that seems cruel to us then I think we are missing the point that suffering and death are the rule in this world. To think otherwise, to want otherwise, is to ignore the whole story… beginning with Genesis. It is a dose of reality… harsh reality, yes, but reality nonetheless. The point being for me to ask myself the question: How enamored should I be of this world?
John 11:7-8 Then after this he says to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again. The disciples say to him, Rabbi, [even but] now the Jews sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again?
The disciples’ reaction is logical in this world. But Jesus is looking at the whole thing from the vantage of the Kingdom of God. Look at how He answers them:
John 11:9-10 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one walk in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world; but if any one walk in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.
In other words: The disciples are seeing what the consequences would be according to the rules of this world. But Jesus is saying, if we walk in the light of the Kingdom of God, then the consequences that we reap are controlled by that Kingdom.
John 11:11-16 These things said he; and after this he says to them, Lazarus, our friend, is fallen asleep, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. The disciples therefore said to him, Lord, if he be fallen asleep, he will get well. But Jesus spoke of his death, but *they* thought that he spoke of the rest of sleep.
Jesus therefore then said to them plainly, Lazarus has died. And I rejoice on your account that I was not there, in order that ye may believe. But let us go to him. Thomas therefore, called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, Let *us* also go, that we may die with him.
I hope you can see what I mean by how hard it is to know which reality we are talking about. Thomas is still reaching conclusions based on the assumption that the kingdom of this world can always have its way.
The now and the not yet
John 11:17-20 Jesus therefore [on] arriving found him to have been four days already in the tomb. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia off, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, that they might console them concerning their brother. Martha then, when she heard Jesus is coming, went to meet him; but Mary sat in the house.
Sorrow is real. If you have lost dear ones, I don’t have to tell you. But what I want to emphasize is that sorrow is not evil. It is painful… but pain is not evil either. Sorrow is unavoidable. Deep sorrow, like the one that kept Mary pinned to that chair – even when she too must have heard the news that Jesus had finally come – is utterly real. And we all will go through it some way, somehow, some day.
But that’s OK… How do I know?
Because Jesus allowed them to go through it.
John 11:21-28 Martha therefore said to Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died; but even now I know, that whatsoever thou shalt ask of God, God will give thee.
This is such a powerful witness of Martha’s faith! She has been paying attention to Jesus’ teachings. She has no doubt about who He is or of His power and authority. If this were any of the other stories of a person coming to Jesus for a miracle, I would be expecting at this point to hear Him say: “Let it be done for you as you have believed.” But that is not what happens.
And so, what we need to do is pay close attention to this conversation and then ask ourselves. What happened?
Jesus says to her, Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha says to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day.
Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes on me, though he have died, shall live; and every one who lives and believes on me shall never die. Believest thou this?
She says to him, Yea, Lord; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world. And having said this, she went away and called her sister Mary secretly, saying, The teacher is come and calls thee.
So, what do you think happened? Nothing happened… no miracle yet. But why? I would claim it is not for lack of faith. I mean, Martha’s witness there about the person of the Christ is as powerful as Peter’s confession of faith when Jesus asked His disciples, ‘Who do you say that I am?’
Let’s go on: Now that Martha tells Mary that Jesus is asking for her, she finds the strength to get up…
John 11:29-35 She, when she heard [that], rises up quickly and comes to him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha came to meet him. The Jews therefore who were with her in the house and consoling her, seeing Mary that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, She goes to the tomb, that she may weep there.
Mary therefore, when she came where Jesus was, seeing him, fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
Did you notice that Mary’s words are exactly the same as Martha’s? Evidently they had been saying this to each other this whole time. But as we are about to see, Jesus’ reaction is different:
Jesus therefore, when he saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, was deeply moved in spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye put him? They say to him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.
What happened? What did Mary do different? The answer was right there…
when she came where Jesus was, seeing him, she fell at his feet…
The same words… but spoken from a completely different posture. Dare we say, probably with less faith than Martha… But maybe that is the whole point: Mary had enough faith to crumble at His feet and pour out her heart, her tears at His feet. What else can we do?
When the pain, when the loss is so heartbreaking, what else is there to do?
He already knows everything. He already knows how we feel; He already knows the depth of the pain that is choking my heart.
Is it fair that this happened?
No.
Does it make sense?
No.
Does He have the power to overturn it?
Yes, of course…
But now is not the time to argue about it. Now is the time to weep.
Remember, He was the One who told us: Blessed you who weep because you shall be comforted. He knows sorrow is going to be part of our lives because this world is not our home. But as long as we are here, He, as our Father, will always be ready to hold us close and comfort us… because He loves us.
Mary touched the heart of God by weeping at His feet.
John 11:36-40 The Jews therefore said, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this [man], who has opened the eyes of the blind [man], have caused that this [man] also should not have died?
Jesus therefore, again deeply moved in himself, comes to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus says, Take away the stone.
Martha, the sister of the dead, says to him, Lord, he stinks already, for he is four days [there].
Jesus says to her, Did I not say to thee, that if thou shouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
This is what I meant when I said that sometimes it is hard for us to figure out which of the two kingdoms we are moving within. Martha, with all her faith, is still somehow stuck in seeing her life constrained by the limits of the kingdom of this world instead of counting on the unfettered power of the Kingdom of God. Why? We cannot know. Only God knows her heart.
But I can tell you, if it were me reacting like she is, I know why I would be doing it: It is all about the disappointment… the fact that Jesus ignored my cry for help. And then He shows up late. And I am mad at Him… but I know I cannot be mad at Him because I know He loves me. But then how do I explain to myself that He is putting me through this agony? Well, He must have His reasons. And I’d better respect those reasons. He disappointed me already, I am not about to go out on a limb again and think that now, now, after all this, He is going to do what I asked Him. In fact, I’d better not ask Him anymore because He might again choose to say no, again, and then what would that look like? What will my faith look like? What will other people think of Him then? Didn’t you hear the people in that crowd? Instead of building their faith He is giving them reason to doubt.
John 11:41-45 They took therefore the stone away. And Jesus lifted up his eyes on high and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me; but I knew that thou always hearest me; but on account of the crowd who stand around I have said [it], that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And having said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And the dead came forth, bound feet and hands with graveclothes, and his face was bound round with a handkerchief. Jesus says to them, Loose him and let him go. Many therefore of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what he had done, believed on him…
The bottom line
It is OK if your faith is not as strong as Martha’s. Because all that it takes to touch the heart of God is being willing to open up our hearts at His feet.
