Peter Monkres, in his recent Spiritual
Reflections
column, addresses the angst many experience in the face of crises. Human beings like to help when they can. Peter notes the frustration felt when help is available but cannot be accessed and names this frustration “a reminder of human limitation.” He closes with a healthy exhortation: “We can’t do all things but we can find the opportunity in crisis and offer the compassion we possess, trusting that our ministry will be magnified by the contributions of our brothers and sisters around the world.”
Where Peter begins an illustration from the life of Jesus another perspective is possible. The article leaves the impression that in regards to the death of his friend Lazarus, Jesus was the victim of external forces that prevented him from acting as he otherwise would have. Peter asserts that “even Jesus could not do that [be there to ameliorate suffering and tragedy].” I’d like to suggest that it was not that Jesus “could not” be there, but that he chose not to go, in full knowledge and confidence that his willful delay reflected God the Father’s will and purpose for the moment.
John 11:6 says, “Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” The key word here, the verb “stayed”, is the Greek word emeinen. It is an active aorist verb form which means the subject of the verb completed an action in the past, indicating Jesus actively delayed his departure by his own will. Thetext says nothing of being delayed by some force or action or occasion other than his own choice.
It was not that Jesus could not be there for his friends in their emergency. He chose not to be there. This begs the question. If Jesus loved them, why did he choose not to go to them immediately? Jesus provides the answer to the question at the beginning of the story: “. . . it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
The purposeful delay was for God’s glory and the exaltation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fully human and fully God. Jesus intentionally arrived at the tomb of Lazarus four days after burial. He cried out, “Lazarus! Come forth!” The text tells us what happened. “The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.” The text points not merely to a “fully human child of God,” but to a fully divine Son of God sent by the Father to reveal God to human beings so that they might put their faith in him and gain everlasting life. To this end Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”
The story of Jesus addresses our many weaknesses and limitations, not by saddling God with those same weaknesses, making him as impotent as we are, but by revealing a purposeful, intentional, powerful God who comes to us at the right time to demonstrate the meaning of our lives in relation to him and the potential for faith to add meaning in the lives of others. Jesus does not merely affirm what we are not. He shows us who God is and what we can be and do through faith in him.
Pastor Dale McIntire
Grand Marais
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