Use your imagination with me for a moment.
Let’s visit a fictional web site of a fictional town called Applecreek. The
town is just north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and has about 2,000 people in it.
On the opening page of its website there is a note from
the mayor of Applecreek extolling the friendliness of the town. It’s the
center of sport fishing for Northern Manitoba. The snowmobile races are
second to none for speed and excitement.
But it’s the announcement in the top right hand corner
of the page that catches your eye – “Applecreek’s new volunteer ambulance
service”. Your curiosity is piqued so you click the link. And there is a
picture of Applecreek’s new volunteer ambulance team - three men and a
woman. All decked out in their new paramedic duds – they have the coolest
shirts with pockets on their sleeves to carry those tiny scissors. There is
a biography of each of the volunteers. Apparently all four of them grew up
in Applecreek and have given of their time to be trained and now serve on a
rotational basis on the Applecreek volunteer ambulance service. Clearly
they love their town, they live in town, they work in town, and we can
assume that everyone knows them by name and are welcomed with hearty hellos
in the coffee shop, the arena and school concerts.
As you click through the pictures featuring
Applecreek’s new volunteer ambulance service one picture in particular
catches your eye. It comes in a collage of pictures of the new volunteer
team gathered around their brand new ambulance.
You read how the new vehicle has been made possible
through a generous gift from the local Toyota dealer. And there are
pictures of the team gathered around the vehicle – the back doors of the
ambulance flung open and there is the manager of the Toyota dealership on a
gurney and members of the volunteer team mockingly using a set of
defibrillator paddles on him.
But then you notice that one picture – there’s
something strange. As you look at the side of the new ambulance – there is
a slogan on it and it reads – It seems a bit off, a little strange, so
strange that you read it twice. There on the side of the ambulance are the
words, “Applecreek Volunteer Ambulance Service, We’ll get there when we get
there.”
And if that’s not shocking enough you read in bold
letters, underneath that picture - that the record response time for the
Applecreek volunteer ambulance service is four days! “Life saving help is
only four days away!” The web site concludes, “Applecreek, a great place
to live!”
I don’t know – would you want to live there? What
would you think of such an ambulance service? Would you want to visit there
knowing that if you were injured during the snowmobile races it might take
four days for the ambulance to get to you?
Of course all of this is a picture out of my
imagination. But it is a picture that came immediately to mind as I thought
about our text today. We read of how Lazarus, a brother to Mary and Martha
is sick. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus. It makes sense – they are His
friends – but more, they have seen Jesus heal the sick, the lame are enabled
to walk, the blind can see at His command. He is a great healer. Did they
hope that Jesus would come and heal Lazarus? Probably.
Jesus gets the word. And the strange thing in our text
is that he reacts as quickly as the Applecreek volunteer ambulance service.
He stayed where He was for two days says the text at verse 6. When He
finally arrives at Lazarus’ home town, Lazarus has already been dead for
four days (verse 17)
This is what makes the story seem a bit strange – you
would think that after hearing about Lazarus’ sickness in verse one we would
read at verse 2, “Upon hearing about his friends sickness Jesus immediately
arose went with haste to the town of Bethany where his friend lay ill.” I
mean, that’s how I would write the story. That’s how I would react. But
Jesus doesn’t act that way.
Why? Well, it could be argued that Bethany was a
dangerous place. Bethany was very close to Jerusalem and the religious
leaders there were ready to kill Him, as the disciples point out at verse
8. Jesus has been threatened with arrest (John 8:44), and with death by
stoning (John 8:59; 10:31). There are some good reasons not to go to
Bethany. But these reasons don’t seem to influence Jesus’ decision.
There’s no fear registered in the words of Jesus or in His actions. When He
finally decides to leave to Bethany, the disciples apparently have to remind
Him of the threat and say, “Jesus. you don’t want to go there,” at verse
8.
This doesn’t phase Jesus whatsoever. It’s not fear that
keeps Him from going to His friend’s side. So what was it? Maybe he
didn’t know Lazarus all that well? No, John is very clear that the
relationship between Jesus and the family at Bethany is very close. Listen
to how He describes it: verse 3 – “So the sisters sent word to Jesus,
‘Lord, the one you love is sick.’ ”verse 5 – “Jesus loved Martha and
her sister and Lazarus.” verse 36 – “See how he loved him.”
It’s very clear that there is a depth of relationship between Jesus,
Lazarus, and the sisters.
So instead of answering the question – why didn’t Jesus
go to Lazarus’ side sooner – the relationship between Jesus and the family
only takes the mystery deeper. If He really loved them, why didn’t He go
sooner? Even Martha will say when she greets him, “Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died.” (verse 21)
So what is it? Why doesn’t Jesus go? Why does He
linger? We read it – Verse 4 “When he heard this, Jesus said, ‘This
sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son
may be glorified through it.’ ” This is why Jesus lingers; this is why
He stays.
Let’s just think about that for a moment – we have to
understand that word “glory”. It means – the revelation of God’s
character. Back in the Old Testament in Exodus 33 Moses has a conversation
with God and he says to God, “God we can’t go through the wilderness and on
into the promised land without you,” and God promises him His presence.
Then Moses says, “Great – just make sure that you go with us, because you
are the one who makes us, we depend completely on you.” And God says, “I’ll
do as you ask, I know you intimately and will not leave you.”
Then Moses gets a little bolder and he says, ‘God show
me your glory.” What Moses is asking God is not that He would put on a
light and sound show for Moses. He’s not asking for an earthquake and raging
wind and blasting lightning. No, he is asking God to show him His
character. “Reveal your character to me, God. Show me your glory. You know
me intimately. Now allow me to know you intimately. ”
That’s what the word means – a revelation of the
character of God. Now as time progresses, you can understand how the word
glory sometimes morphs into a word of praise – in Psalm 29:9 we read
the words, “The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests
bare. And in his temple all cry, ‘Glory’ ”. They are expressing what
they are seeing – a revelation of God. And they are responding.
So here in our text in the gospel of John the word
glory is a revelation of the character of God. So Jesus says, “All of
this is happening so that God’s character can be revealed.” Jesus delays so
that God’s character, His character can be revealed.
And He is seen through this event as the one who is
Lord over death, who is able to bring new life, as the one who truly is the
resurrection and the life.
We may ask, Why did Jesus wait those two extra days?
This is what we read in verse 6. Why was it important that Lazarus be dead
four days? Well, in the ancient world there was the belief that the soul of
a person hovered over the body waiting for a time to re-enter the body – for
at least three days. But as soon as decomposition set in, the spirit would
leave and the person was believed to be dead, dead. Death, it was believed
was irreversible beyond three days.
And again, Jesus waits for all those days – so that the
glory of God could be revealed, so that the full revelation of the character
of God could be demonstrated. There would be no question about our Lord’s
power, no question about who He was and what He was about, and what He was
able to do.
Lazarus is good and dead by the time Jesus reaches the
tomb, and He stands there and orders the stone to be rolled away. Jesus
says again at verse 40, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you
would see the glory of God?”
Jesus calls out, “Lazarus,” and if you listen hard you
can hear it - it sounds like gauze stretching, and linen popping and Lazarus
comes out – the glory of the Lord is revealed. The character of God is
seen. The glory of the Son of God is demonstrated the one who has power
over death.
Now let’s think of how we apply this – let’s address
the question – so what? I wonder if the truth of this story does not
change our thinking about suffering. I wonder if we can think about our
suffering, our difficult times, times when we are hard-pressed and stressed,
when life is difficult and God seems so slow to answer to deliver us. I
wonder if we can think of those times as times in which God is able to be
glorified.
I wonder if we can think of suffering not as something
to be gotten rid of and something to quickly to get through – let’s all rush
to a faith healer because it’s not God’s will that we suffer. I wonder if we
could instead embrace suffering and see it as an opportunity for us to know
an ever deeper experience of the power of God, the person of God.
I wonder if God doesn’t allow some suffering in our
lives so that we are made to depend on Him and through it is He is
glorified.
I know this line of thinking can be destructive as we
begin to credit God with all the evil in the world – a baby dies and God
gets the blame. A marriage ends and we ask why did God allow this to
happen? Let’s understand that Satan is alive and well in this world and so
sinful humanity. I think that question, “Why does God allow hunger in this
world?” is so bogus. God is not responsible for hunger in this world –
sinful humanity is responsible for hunger. But that’s another sermon. Just
understand that Satan and sinful humanity are responsible for much of the
evil in this world and God cannot be blamed for it.
But at the same time, I believe we need to change the
way we think about difficult times in our lives. We believe that a blessed
life is a life that is free from all stress, all hardship, all persecution,
and all difficulty – and to a certain extent that is true – but what if in
that peaceful state, what if in our prosperity, what if in our comfortable
lives God is unable to reveal Himself because there is little need for God?
What if we began to realize that it is the midst of
stress and difficulty and trouble that we are enabled to see the glory of
God in ways that we never thought possible before?
Paul tells us about a thorn in his flesh in his second
letter to the Corinthians. We don’t know what this thorn is, but it is
something that bothers Paul to such a degree that he pleads with God to
remove it. Three times he asks. And God says, “no”. Why? Because that
thorn is a means for Paul to have a revelation of who God is – through it he
discovers an aspect of God’s character, His strength as he is made to depend
on Him.
So Paul’s whole view is changed - what he once saw as a
situation sent from Satan to torment him is now transformed by the power of
God to draw him into an intimate relationship with God.
I wonder if we could change the way we think about
suffering, about the trouble that comes into our lives and see them as times
when God has not abandoned us – but are indeed times when God is able to
work and display His glory in ways we have never experienced before? Are
there situations when you feel that God is delaying His response to your
prayers of deliverance? Perhaps He is taking His time so that His glory may
be fully seen in you and through you?
I think of Joni Erickson. A vivacious teenager who
broke her neck diving into a lake and was paralyzed from the neck down. We
think of the amazing weight of that depression of this young Christian woman
with an amazing faith and how she had been assured by her friends that God
would heal her, only to grow through her teens into her twenties and to
realize that prayers weren’t being answered like that. And growing into
maturity Joni began to say, “that she could perhaps understand why God
hadn’t healed her.” We see a vibrant woman with an enormous faith, a
wonderful ministry to handicapped children, a wonderful artist, an author –
but above all else a person through the glory of God shines through.
You may say that sounds dangerous – I admit it takes a
level of trust – that we endure difficulty with the belief that God can be
glorified even in this. But let us do this with an assurance of God’s
love. Verses 5 and 6 are very instructive.
Just because you are sick, just because you are in the
midst of trouble doesn’t mean that God has stopped loving you. In the midst
of difficult times, in the midst of death and sickness – in the midst of
life’s tragedies – you are loved. It is so hard for us to remember. But it
is a truth that is hammered home to us again and again in this text. Lazarus
was one whom Jesus loved, yet he died - and throughout Scripture we are
assured that God loves us no matter what circumstances befall us.
Just because hard times come, just because suffering
comes, does not mean that God loves you less. Our situation does not negate
his love for us.
Do you know the closing words of Romans 8? “Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or
persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35, 37-39)
Nothing in all creation – no situation, no event, no
trouble or hardship or suffering will be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Is it any wonder that the Psalmist says, “… though
the earth give way and the mountains fall, into the heart of the sea though
its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging … we
will not fear”? (Psalm 46:2)
In the midst of difficulty God’s love is constant for
you.
But not only His love, but there is the light of His
presence. This is part of what Jesus means when He says at verse 9, “A
man who walks by day will not stumble for he sees by this worlds light. It
is when he walks by night that he stumbles for he has no light.”
Jesus is the one who is the light of the world. In Him
is life and that life is the light of all people. As we walk through this
life we can walk with Jesus, the light of the world, and He will bring us
through. Just as Jesus will guide the disciples through their treacherous
trip back to Judea, so He will guide us through life. He is the light of
the world and we need not fear to walk through life with Him in us and by
our side.
I know it may sound simplistic – I admit that this past
week as I visited with Peggy and we talked about the pain she experiences
day in and day out. Here’s a woman who has suffered from spina bifida from
birth, has had innumerable operations and now is not doing well, the
frustrations she has with caregivers and doctors – as tears rolled down her
eyes she said, “All I want to know is why?” Why? I’ve got a lot of
questions for God – why?
And I’ll admit that there is a mystery to suffering
that will not be answered this side of heaven. Life can be filled with
sorrow and pain and distress. There are times when we call out to God for
help and it seems that He doesn’t answer. But I wonder if sometimes He
doesn’t answer us right away because the thing we want to get rid of may a
gift – a means through which we have a deeper understanding of who He is, a
deeper insight to His character, a deeper love for Him, a deeper experience
of His presence, where we stand back in the midst of the pain and the sorrow
and say, “Glory!”
Copyright MBC and Rev. Dr. Tom Cullen -
March 2009
