A Ticket on The Past Track

Okay, imagine with me that you are given a ticket into the past.  You can go back and be a witness to any event in biblical history that you desire.  Think on it for a minute.  Any event at all.  You can witness creation:  hear the voice of God saying ‘Let there be light.’ and be blinded by piercing light breaking up absolute darkness.  Watch over the course of six days as the heavens and the earth take form, and watch as the animals rise up out of nothing and Adam is formed from the dust of the earth.  Witness God breathe the breath of life, a living soul, into this lifeless body and form an eternal relationship with His own creation.  See Eve given to Adam as his soul-mate, his help-meet, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh.  

Or maybe you would rather go further into the future.  Do you want to be with Moses and the children of Israel as they are facing the Red Sea?  Do you want to stand with them, feel their desperate fear as they see the dark waters before them, and hear the approaching army of Pharaoh behind them?  Can you see Moses raise his aged hands up in the air, staff in hand, watch the great tunnel form through the sea?  Towering waves on either side, dry land beneath your feet, you follow the masses of people as they cross to safety.  

But wait.  What about seeing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walking about inside the fiery furnace with the fourth figure?  Or seeing Daniel emerge from the lions’ den untouched by the hungry lions?  Maybe you would like to spend some time with David and his mighty men of valor.  Watch the young David, before he becomes king, slay the fearsome giant Goliath.  

Then there is the New Testament.  Oh, my, there are some things there I would like to witness.  Just to be on the hillside when the angels announced the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem!  As a mother I believe I could be content to just spend some time sitting with Mary, the mother of Jesus, watching the child Jesus grow and play.  Then He did grow, and He began to perform miracles!  Pick a miracle, any miracle!  To walk one day with Jesus and His disciples, what an honor that would be. To see a stormy sea calmed by just His voice. To watch a blind man receive sight!  To see eyes opened and first of all gaze into the face of the one who gave them that blessed gift.  To watch as one’s ears were opened for the first time to the sounds of life and hear the voice of our Savior saying, ‘Tell no one what has been done here today.’  How can you not but speak?  To be there as the lame stand, walk, run and leap!  Demons are demanded to vacate the bodies of helpless victims and the dead are given back to their loved ones again, alive and whole.

There!  That’s the one.  That’s the event I would go to see.  I would go with Jesus to the tomb of Lazarus.  Why to that one miracle, you ask?  There was something so very unique about that event, so special.  It was a turning point, I believe.  From that point on, things changed.  For the people, for Mary and Martha, certainly for Lazarus, for the disciples and also for Jesus.  For after this miracle, the desire of the Pharisees and chief priests to kill Jesus peaked, and they began to plot in earnest for his death.  

Let’s set the stage:  Lazarus, Mary and Martha are friends of Jesus’.  The Bible says that He loved them.  Later, we will find Him eating with them, presumably in their home.  Lazarus falls ill, seriously so.  Jesus is about 18 miles from them, so the sisters send for Him.  It takes the messenger about a day to reach Jesus.  Verse six of John chapter 11 tells us that Jesus lingers two days before He makes the decision to head to Bethany, where Lazarus is.  Again, a one day journey.  When He arrives He receives word that Lazarus has died.  Simple first grade addition tells us that four days has passed since the first day that help has been sent for.  

Now, a little bit of Jewish cultural history:  try to stay focused and not let your eyes glaze over.  I will try to be brief.  The Jews buried their dead quickly:  they normally buried them the day they died.  There were also some Jews who had a belief that the soul would sometimes ‘hover’ near the body for the first three days after death hoping to somehow get back in.  Possibly this is how they disregarded some of the other resurrections that Jesus performed?  But by Jesus delaying His arrival until Lazarus had been in the grave for four days already, well, that pretty much did away with that argument, didn’t it?  So that makes this a clear case for miracles.  Now let’s look at Mary and Martha.

When Jesus gets there, the two women are distraught.  Both of the women say pretty much the same thing to Jesus when they see Him.  In the 11th chapter of John you can find the account.  Verse 21 is Martha’s statement, and verse 32 is Mary’s.  “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”  Clearly they believe Jesus could have and would have healed their brother.  Maybe even raised him from the dead if He had gotten  there earlier.  Martha’s faith is rattled but not gone.  She proclaims Him the Christ, the Son of God.  Neither sister has lost her faith in who Jesus is.  But don’t you wonder what they were thinking for those four days?

I do.  I wonder what everyone was thinking, and saying.  Jesus healed everyone else.  Other people were raised up.  Other’s prayers were answered.  Why not them?  Why not us?  Don’t we wonder?  Why do bad things happen to good people?  It’s not always simple.  A few blogs ago I wrote about John the Baptist.  He was in prison and sent his disciples to Jesus with doubts and questions.  Jesus sent word back to reassure him.  To let him know his faith was not in vain, his life’s work was not in vain and that he was indeed preaching the truth and following the true Messiah.  Good enough.  Was John sprung from prison?  Actually, no.  In fact he was beheaded.  He and Jesus celebrated a joyous reunion a short while later in Heaven, I’m sure.  But that’s not to say there weren't people here wondering why such a tragic thing had to happen to such a faithful servant.  We don’t always get to understand or get the clear ending we expect or want.  

This time, though, it happens that we do.  (although to be completely fair to Lazarus, I’m not sure if given a choice it’s the one he would have chosen!)  Jesus says to the disciples on the way to Bethany, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”  Jesus knows Lazarus has died.  But He also knows that He is going to show His disciples, the family of Lazarus, the people and the Pharisees and all who will be witness to this event, that He is truly “the resurrection and the life”, and that He has power and authority unlike anything they have ever witnessed before.  He knows what is quickly approaching: His own death.  Following His death will come His resurrection and then His ascension.  Things will change for them after that.  The only way in which they will be able to endure what is about to come is for them to come to know Jesus, to know more about Him than ever before.  They will have to experience this, not just hear it from Him.  And they are about to experience something amazing.

Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, walks up to the tomb where Lazarus has been for four days.  In what John describes as a ‘loud voice’ Jesus cries “Lazarus, come forth!”

Can you imagine what people are thinking?  They had moved the stone away.  They are peering into the opening, waiting to see what will happen.  Will Lazarus come walking out?  Do they want him to?  Yes?  No?  I don’t know?  My heart is pounding if it is beating at all.  I’m sure people are holding their breaths, and not just because they are afraid of the smell.  Then, we hear a shuffling.  Some people  have run in absolute terror, others are frozen in complete amazement.  No way!  Then, here he comes, wrapped up in the same grave clothes they had bound him in four days ago: head to foot.  Jesus says “Loose him, let him go.”  Maybe he is somewhat amused, because people, stunned, don’t move.  Then they do…..they are all over him.  Unwrapping him, uncovering his pink, healthy skin.  He is smiling, healthy, glowing and hugging his loved ones.  He and Jesus share secret smiles, for I’m sure they share many secrets now.  I’m envious.  

Many times we have to go to the darkest places before we can discover the best parts about our Lord.  For it is when we are in our greatest need that He shows Himself the most real to us.  It is when we have nothing to cry but, ‘Oh Lord, I need You,’ that He is the closest.  Recently, during a prayer time at our church, the dear man leading prayer was speaking to the congregation.  He was saying that Jesus was the answer to all of our needs.  He said, “What is your need today, church?  What do you need today?”  At that moment, in my heart and in my soul, I cried out, “Lord, I so desperately just need You to be here; a real person to hug me.”  I closed my eyes and bowed my head, so needy.  In that moment, I felt as if He stepped up close behind me, wrapped His arms around me and drew me in close to Him and held me and just loved me.  To some, it would be such a small thing.  To me, it was the biggest thing in the world because it was what I needed at that time.

Was it a resurrection?  Hardly.  But it was God showing me He is real.  Other times in my life He has shown up bigger, and He will show up bigger again.  But it was those darker times that has given me the confidence for the rest of the times that aren’t quite as dark.  Without those times, I wouldn’t know what I know now.  

So, yeah.  I’d go see Lazarus.