Lent Day 26: The God who comes "too late" to help us

Have you ever thought that God showed up too late to help you? That if he had intervened sooner, you wouldn't have gone through that catastrophe, that suffering, or that burnout?

Today's recount continues with Jesus on the mission of God. Yet he delays going to his friend's wake until there is no hope of God helping the family.

The response of Thomas is predictably "foot-in-mouth" - why do we say such things when there is grief and suffering? Perhaps he is trying to empathize with those who are in mourning, but what would more deaths help? Sigh. 

Do you ever find yourself saying awkward things when silence and a hug would be more helpful? Like Thomas, I do that sometimes.

So then [Jesus] told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’

> Jesus responds to the grief of his friends with human empathy and compassion. But he adds more: he reveals to Martha his divine understanding ... that God's power and ability have no limits. He declares that he is the centerpiece of God's reconciliation. He is the One and Only resurrection and eternal life.

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.’

Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’

Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’

Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she replied, ‘I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.

> Martha is remarkable. She takes Jesus at his word. And she brings others into the circle of God. When you hear the words of Jesus, do you believe them? If you do, do you share it or keep it to yourself?

After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. ‘The Teacher is here,’ she said, ‘and is asking for you.’ When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

> Jesus doesn't get impatient with the second accusation. He's revealed himself to Martha, the older sister. And he absorbs the grief of Mary without judgment. He identifies with their pain and their loss. 

> Even today, Jesus doesn't get impatient with you - whether you're over-the-moon happy or deeply distraught. He understands because he felt all those emotions.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. Where have you laid him?’ he asked.
‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied.

Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’

But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

> Sometimes it's hard to believe that God can do the impossible. When we are in the thick of calamity and disaster, we have a few choices:

• We can trust that God is in control, able to fulfill his purpose for us and his plans for the world. "I know God will do anything you ask."
• We can accuse God of neglect or even harm. "If God loved me, he would have prevented this."
• We can walk away from God in anger and disappointment. "How can God exist if he allows death and evil in the world?"

> Jesus weeps with his friends. He feels the depth of their pain and doesn't hurry the mourners out of their grief. There are no cheery words or a slap on the back, with "Give it time, and you'll feel better." 

> Life is hard. Jesus recognizes that ... just as he knows what you're going through.

> P.S. The rest of the story is glorious. Jesus calls for God's "impossible" intervention in what could not be healed or helped. Stay tuned for that tomorrow.