Lord, If You Had Been There . . .
John 11:1-45
by Jim Westmoreland
There is an ancient Chinese legend of an old man and his only son. One night the old man's horse escaped, and the neighbors came to comfort him in his loss. "How do you know this is a bad thing?" he asked them.
Several days later his horse returned with a herd of wild horses. Now his friends came to congratulate the farmer for his good fortune. But the old man said, "How do you know this is a good thing?"
While his son was trying taming one of the wild horses, he is thrown and breaks his leg. Again his friends gathered to bemoan his new misfortune. But the old man asked, "How do you know this is a bad thing?"
Soon a warlord came to recruit able-bodied youth for his army, and the farmer's son escaped conscription because of his broken leg. In true fashion, the farmer's neighbors came and expressed their pleasure over the man's good luck. "How do you know it's a good thing?" he asked.(1)
This story is a parable about our lives. The meaning and value of what happens to us is not always immediately knowable. We are prone to react to what life brings us. We say about some things, "This is good!" Or about others, "This is bad!" There is so much that we don't know. And, there is even more that we simply cannot know or understand.
That is what makes the Lazarus story so hard. Jesus had a special relationship with Lazarus and his sister's Martha and Mary. They lived in Bethany, just a few miles from the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus probably stayed in their home many times when he came to Jerusalem. How could he not respond when told about Lazarus being sick? For others, he had healed at a distance without even being present. He had told others to go home and they would find their loved one well.
Jesus had become aware of a plot to get him, and he left Jerusalem and went with his disciples beyond the Jordan River. Since Jerusalem is on the top of a ridge of mountains, Jesus would have to go down the winding, narrow road past Jericho to get down to the Jordan Valley. Then, he could cross over to the other side of the Jordan. He could be as many as one or two days journey from Bethany when he got the news that Lazarus was sick. We aren't told how long it took the messengers to find Jesus after they left Bethany.
We are told that Jesus stayed two more days after he got the news, and, when he did get to Bethany, we are told that Lazarus had already been dead for four days. The whole village is in mourning. Mary and Martha were disciples. They had been with Jesus as he healed many people. They had heard him teach. They believed he was God's Messiah. How could this one whom they loved who had healed so many strangers not come to heal their brother? How could he not respond?
Martha hears that he has come and she goes out to meet him. Her heart must have felt, "Lord, how could you let this happen?" as she complained, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." She did not understand when Jesus said to her that Lazarus would rise again. And Jesus responds by saying, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live."
Next, Mary goes out to meet Jesus and many from town follow her, and she, too, says, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." You can just imagine that Mary and Martha have been saying those words to each other for the four days since Lazarus' death. She is visibly weeping, and Jesus, too is moved with emotion and weeps also.
Our own emotions are exposed through the words of the people from Bethany. They see Jesus weeping and some said, "See how he loved him?!" and others said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" Isn't that one of our questions? Why does Jesus heal some and not others? We don't get an answer to that?
What happens next is that Jesus comes to the tomb and says, "Take away the stone," to which Martha protests, "don't you know he's been dead four days?" Jesus continues and, in his prayer to the Father, he tells us why he is doing this. It is so that the crowd may believe that the Father sent him. Into the darkness Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" And the scripture says that Lazarus came out still bound in his brave linens, and Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." The deep darkness of the sealed tomb had been overcome by the warm daylight of God's love.
Thomas Long, in his book When Jesus Arrives Late, tells about a couple in Arkansas who have given their six-year old son strict instructions to come home from playing every afternoon no later than 5 p.m. He is allowed to play with his friends, but his parents are quite serious about his curfew. If he is not home by 5 p.m., they begin to worry and call around the neighborhood tofind out where he is. The boy knows this, though, and is careful to arrive every day on time.
One April Monday, however, the day after Daylight Saving Time went into effect, the boy was late coming home. When he finally arrived, a few minutes before 6 p.m., his mother scolded him for being late. You know you are to be home by five," she said, "and here it is nearly six."
Puzzled, the little boy pointed out the window. "But the light," he protested, "the light; it's the light that tells me when to come home."
Realizing what had happened, his mother smiled and gently explained that the day before the time had been changed, that everyone had reset their clocks and, now, the daylight lasted longer. The boy's eyes narrowed. "Does God know about this?" he asked suspiciously.
In a childlike way, this little boy shared John's theological vision. Martha and Mary, Jesus wants you to know that, with God, daylight lasts longer than death.(2) Some of us have lost children to accidents or disease, or brothers, sisters, parents, close friends, our husband or wife. Some of have mourned at the burial service called divorce over hopes and dreams and a relationship that got sick and died along the way. Some have experienced great loss financially. Some have lost jobs or even careers that gave us a sense of value and worth.
Loss is never easy. It is sometimes hard to get past the lingering thought, "If only you'd been there." Most of the time, we slowly begin to accept our losses and move on. But we are not the same. Something about us is no longer the same. It is as if something in us died. Maybe it was our hope, or our joy, our excitement about life, people, doing new things. Now, our defenses our up. It is harder to feel. It is like we had a neuropathy of spirit-our spiritual nerve endings have become numb or even dead. We live in the valley of the dry bones. We are too tired to even feel desperate.
But, there is Good News! Jesus has a resurrection for us! He speaks to our spirit and says, "Come out." He wants to bring us out into the light again, out of the tomb of oppression and depression, and he wants to give us a new start. And listen? He has the power to do it! He can bring you back to life, and he can give you vitality and confidence and joy in your living again. Instead of saying, "If only," let us say, "Lord, Come."
Century Christian Church, March 13, 2005 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
1. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com, March 2002.
2. Thomas G. Long, When Jesus Arrives Late, CSS Publishing Co.