Jesus Wept

Our pastor spoke on John 11 recently - the story of the death and resurrection of Lazarus. If you regularly read my blog, you might remember that he preached on Lazarus last spring and I posted about it. This time, I was caught by a verse I have heard over and over and over but had never given much thought.


Most students know that the shortest verse of the Bible is John 11:35 - Jesus wept. Before this Sunday, though, I had never looked at it in context. Jesus knew Lazarus was sick, but chose to wait a couple days before coming. He has endured the questions from Martha and then again from Mary about his delay - "If you had been here...." He knows there is a larger plan in motion. Still, he weeps.


Why? He knew the end of the grief was moments away. He knew there would be great rejoicing and celebration soon.
Was he empathizing with Mary and Martha, and the crowd of mourners, caught up in the emotion of the moment?
Was it from exhaustion and the emotional toll of waiting and enduring the questions and grief of others?
Was it from the knowledge that the greater plan - the waiting - while necessary had brought pain to a family he loved?


In the grief of the last year, I have struggled sometimes to figure out how to relate to God - to One who had the power to change the course of last year but chose to have things play out the way they did. There were plenty of moments when I had to choose to trust that God cared and was at work, even if I wasn't sure how to feel about Him. In this two word verse, I have a different picture in my mind of how things might have been playing out in Heaven as we walked through the last year. Perhaps Jesus wept with us, knowing that this was what was going to happen, but grieving with us over the pain we were going to and had been experiencing. 

How Annoyed Was Lazarus?

"And He said to him, 'Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.'" ~ Luke 23:43

Easter is just a week away. Luke's version of the crucifixion of Christ is my favorite, precisely because of this interchange - this conversation Jesus has with a repentent criminal on an adjacent cross.

I love the grace and forgiveness offered. I love the comforting assurance.

I am no Bible scholar. I cannot go back to the original text and tell you about the nuances present in the words chosen - the ones that don't translate well. I only know what is here. And what's here says to me that this criminal and Jesus were going to Heaven, together, that very day.

This fits with my hopes about Heaven. I trust that God will sort out the details of who and how and all that. I can only do what I can do to put my faith in Christ and live a life that attempts to honor him and to honor his sacrifice. But in my simple thinking, when a person in relationship with Christ dies, he or she goes immediately into Heaven.

Okay, with my theology out of the way, let me share a question that has been on my mind for years:

How annoyed was Lazarus?

He's been dead for four days when Jesus arrives and calls him forth. I don't know how time passes in Heaven, but regardless, assuming Lazarus goes straight there when he dies, how annoyed must he have been to be called back?

The fact that his sisters want him back is understandable, though a bit selfish. And most of their conversation with Jesus is about the fact that if he had come sooner, none of this would have been necessary. 

Jesus seems to know all along what is going to happen and what he's going to do. I can only hope someone pulled Lazarus aside and told him not to get too comfy in Heaven because he wasn't going to be staying. Otherwise, I think it would have been annoying, if not downright cruel, to be in the presence of God and then get yanked back again....

We don't get to hear much from Lazarus in John's gospel about his experience, but his resurrection from the dead put a target on him almost as large as the one on Jesus (John 12:9-11). Jesus did say in order to follow him we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses. Lazarus lived this - he gave up Heaven in exchange for persecution in order for Christ to reveal himself in a spectacular way to the world around him.

Though Jesus Loved Them

Our pastor spoke on John 11 this week, about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. The pastor said, early in the message that Mary, Martha and Lazarus were like family to Jesus. Closer than his own family of origin at times. Then he said, "Though Jesus loved them, he waited two days to go to them" after hearing Lazarus was very sick.

If you read the passage, I think you'll see that Jesus had an agenda. That agenda directed every decision including the one to wait.

I often wonder how to reconcile the love of Christ with suffering and sickness. I wonder why some experience a miraculous healing while others journey through debilitating sickness and death. If you think I found some revelation in this sermon to resolve my wondering, I am sorry to disappoint you. I still wonder.

"Though Jesus loved them, he waited."

The other part of the sermon that caught my attention was, "If we were to write the gospels ourselves, we would likely write this differently. We would have Jesus drop everything and go." I definitely would want to re-write it that way. I want the happy ending. I want the heroic Savior, swooping in to fix everything for those whom he loves.

Sometimes God's purposes are not our purposes. Sometimes His ways seem to stand in contrast to our understanding of His love, grace and compassion. But I have to cling to the love - Christ's love for Mary, Martha and Lazarus was clear and palpable, even if his actions seem, from our perspective, to be at odds with that love.

"Though Jesus loved them, he waited."

Are you asking Jesus to swoop in and save the day? Do you find that he seems to be waiting? Remember his love is constant, even in the waiting....