Here in the middle of John’s Gospel, we have this very strange story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. There are so many puzzling things about this story.
Perhaps the main puzzling aspect of this story is why did Jesus wait two whole days before responding to Mary and Martha’s request to heal their brother Lazarus who was very ill and near the point of death? Instead, Jesus remained where he was at the time and Lazarus ending up dying before he arrived.
This lack of response from Jesus doesn’t line up with our understanding of who he is, the one who is able to bring healing, the one who has compassion for others. Instead, Jesus ends up arriving on the scene too late. Lazarus had already died.
There is more to this story which we will get to in a little bit, but it might be worth it for us to first reflect on Jesus’ decision to not come right away. Why is it that there are times in our lives when it seems like Jesus arrives too late?
On one hand, we are fortunate to have medical workers who are trained to offer medical assistance as soon as possible, but on the other hand, the healing process can often feel delayed and very slow to the point where we wonder if we will ever find a medical treatment that will lead to healing. The hospital room and the waiting room can be very lonely places.
We live in a world that is filled with so much beauty and joy, but it’s also a world that includes so much grief, brokenness, and pain.
Our church is blessed to have Stephen Ministry which is a ministry that provides one to one peer support for people who are going through a challenging transition in their lives. Often times, this includes grief support for those who have lost loved ones. Stephen Ministers are not counselors, but they have received extensive training to be good listeners and to serve as a sounding board for the sake of others. We also have Stephen Ministry resources here at our church that includes pamphlets that are appropriate for the different seasons of grief that we may be experiencing.
One of those pamphlets offers a brief illustration of how our world is a mixture of both joy and grief. What do we do during those times when it feels like Jesus is not present just when we need him the most? In the opening pages of one of those seasons of grief booklets, the author, Kenneth Haugk shares this true story,
“A man in Florida was driving home one day when a large sinkhole beneath the street suddenly opened and swallowed his car. He didn’t get hurt, but he was dazed and disoriented. For a while, he didn’t know where he was or what had happened to him.
He later said, ‘One minute, I was driving in my own neighborhood on a bright sunny day, and the next minute, I was at the bottom of a deep, dark hole with the world caving in on me.’”
That little story reminds us of how vulnerable and frail we are, but also in how these challenging moments in our lives can lead us to question our faith.
While on vacation down south this past summer, Penny and I were driving on a county road about 35 miles per hour when we heard a deafening loud crash right behind our car. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that a large tree had fallen across the road just missing our car. A car that was headed the opposite direction put on it’s breaks to miss the tree.
I pulled off the side of the road to catch my breath and reflect on how close we were to being seriously injured or losing our lives. That incident reminded me in a very forceful way how frail and vulnerable we really are.
I know that there are some Christians who would say that God spared our lives, but that only leaves open the question why others are not so fortunate. What that scary experience did for me was that it was a reminder to cherish each moment and to not take life for granted.
Which brings me back to our Gospel reading for today when Jesus chose not to respond to Mary and Martha’s request to come to Bethany and heal their brother, Lazarus. Even though Jesus was sent by God and was able to bring healing to others, he also knew of the danger that awaited him back in Bethany. Earlier when he was in that region, the religious authorities had threatened to stone him to death and so Jesus needed time to pray about whether or not he should return to that dangerous area.
Sometimes we forget that even though Jesus had been sent by God and was the very embodiment of God, he also was fully human and had to reckon with the challenges of life like we do. And so, Jesus delayed his return to Lazarus but when he arrived, Lazarus had already died.
But this mysterious story has a dramatic turn when Jesus finally does arrive in Bethany and he brings Lazarus back to life. This is the story that includes one of Jesus’ seven “I am” statements. Here in this raising of Lazarus story, Jesus tells Martha upon his arrival, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Here in this extraordinary story of Jesus raising Lazarus back to life, we are given an early hint of an even more extraordinary story that is awaiting us at the end of John’s Gospel when Jesus is raised from the dead. But there’s an important difference between these two stories. Lazarus was brought back to life, but would eventually die. When Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he would never taste death again.
If you think about all of Jesus’ healings and this story of Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead, these are all signs that are pointing us to that time in the future when God will defeat sin and death once and for all. And while we await that glorious future, we have these hints along life’s journey that one day God will make all things new.
T.S. Eliot said, “These are only hints and guesses, hints followed by guesses; And the rest is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.”
Our Old Testament reading which was written before the time of Jesus offers us a really big hint of this glorious future and does so in a very beautiful, poetic, and descriptive way.
The prophet Isaiah says, “On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nation; he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for who me we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’”
In the midst of our struggles, our griefs, and our pain are these beautiful hints and guesses that point us to that time when God will make all things new. Sometimes these hints and guesses come to us in surprising and very mysterious ways.
Several years ago, our family had a beautiful sheltie dog. Yes, this was before we became a westie family. Duffy was the first dog we got after our children were born and we have great memories of him.
On the day that we made the difficult decision to have him put down, we all gathered there in the Vet office and Duffy peacefully died in our arms. Our hearts were so heavy and we were all crying.
I’ll never forget that day. I can even tell you what the weather was like on that day. It was a breezy but sunny and warm Saturday morning. And as we were leaving the vet office, I told our family that instead of going home right away, I just wanted to drive out in the country to give ourselves some time to be together and continue to grieve.
During that drive, no words were spoken. We were all just so heartbroken.
I must have driven 15 to 20 minutes, when Penny broke the silence and said, “Do you think we should turn around and go back home?” And that’s when the miracle happened.
I said, “Yeah, it’s probably time.” I saw a road up ahead where I could turn around.
Well, at the corner of that county road was a ranch house and sitting out in the front lawn was this beautiful, beautiful Sheltie dog that looked so much like Duffy, just sitting out on the green grass soaking in the warm breeze and the sunshine, so happy, so alive. Of all of the county roads I could have chosen to turn around, I chose that one.
Nobody said a word. No words were needed. God was giving this little sign that Duffy was OK and was in a better place. Hints and guesses.
On this All Saints’ Sunday, even with grieving hearts for those we miss so much, we are reminded that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and a time is coming when death will be swallowed up forever.
Thanks be to God!
Hints & Guesses
