The Hope

What Gives Christians Hope?

One day in the spring of the year 33 or 34, Jesus and his disciples were spending time in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. Word came from Mary and Martha, innkeepers who lived in Bethany near the top of the Mount of Olives, that their brother Lazarus was very sick. Could Jesus come quickly?

The family were old friends of Jesus, possibly going back decades. Martha, you’ll recall, was the older sister who hustled and bustled around arranging a dinner for Jesus, while younger sister Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to his teachings during a previous trip where Jesus and the disciples stayed at their home on a visit to Jerusalem. They well understood the power that Jesus had to heal people.

When the word came to Jesus of this illness, Jesus delayed for two days, saying “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” After two days, he said, “Let’s go back to Judea”, which is the Wood County-sized area around Jerusalem.

The disciples protested that the Jews of Judea had tried to stone Jesus during His last visit to Judea, but Jesus insisted that he needed to go back, because “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there it wake him up.”

The disciples, still afraid of the Judean Jews, reminded Jesus that if Lazarus was sleeping, he would get better, so Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead” So they decided to go, with Thomas giving the sarcastic comment, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

They traveled to Bethany, to the home and found many mourners there, because Bethany is just a two-mile walk from Jerusalem, up and over the crest of the Mount of Olives. Martha came out and chewed out Jesus. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died!” Aggressive, accusing, almost abusive, spoiling for a fight! Then, her tone softened. “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha agreed, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day,” looking forward to that future resurrection that many Jews then – and many Christians today look forward to.

Jesus corrected 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?”

Somewhat taken aback, Martha answered. “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” She retreated then, going back to the house and calling her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”

Mary got up quickly and went to Jesus. The mourners followed her, thinking she was going to the tomb to mourn Lazarus.

When Mary reached Jesus, she fell at his feet and said the same thing that Martha had said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” But Mary said it while laying at Jesus’ feet, heart-broken and weeping. There was not the accusing tone that Martha had brought; instead there was a great feeling of sadness, of tremendous loss, of what might have been.

The effect upon Jesus was immediate. He was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

Mary and the crowd said, “Come and see.”

And Jesus wept. The Son of God, knowing the power He had, the Savior of all people, knowing the wisdom He had, God the Son walking upon the earth, the One who had created all things by directing the power God the Father had sent His way, this divine man wept. Why did he weep?

Perhaps he wept because he had seen death millions of times since the creation of the earth, the death that had not been part of the original plan.

Perhaps he wept because he remembered what had been intended with Adam in the garden, and He remembered what was lost when Adam disobeyed.

Perhaps he wept because another one of his beloved friends had suffered, enduring that time of transition.

Perhaps he wept because he saw the pain that Mary and friends suffered as they had watched her brother die.

Perhaps he wept because he knew that it was critically important that in less than five minutes Jesus would need to bring His friend Lazarus back to this life from where Lazarus was, but Jesus also knew the additional pain Lazarus would endure by living again in this life!

The Jews stared at him and, as people do, they whispered. “See how he loved him!” some whispered. Others said, “He’d opened the eyes of the blind man. Couldn’t he have kept this man from dying?” But none were willing to let their understanding of the power of God go far enough to imagine what was about to happen. For few men have the imagination to know what God can do, bound up as we are in the solidness of this world, tied down to what we can touch and see and feel.

Jesus, once again deeply moved, came to the tomb, a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

Martha, always practical, bound to what she had seen and felt and tasted,  always knowing that these religious types were prone to forgetfulness, reminded him of the practical issue. She had believed that Jesus could heal people because she had seen it in earlier visits. But she also knew that there was a practical reason people put dead bodies in tombs and then seal the tombs. “Lord, by this time there will be a bad stench, because he’s been there four days. It will stink.”

But Jesus turned to her confidently and said, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”

Martha stared back. She probably didn’t know if she was looking at a madman or not, but she wanted to believe. Did she believe in this man? Was it really possible for a man to come back to life? Did her brother’s life depend upon her belief? But people didn’t reopen graves. Graves were not places where nice, good people went to. She dithered for a minute and then decided to believe in this strong, wise man from Galilee who had been so much a friend over the years. So she waved to a couple of servants who removed the stone.

Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” And then, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

And the dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” And so they did.

Even today, like Martha, our practicality keeps us from fully believing in the complete power of Jesus over life and death. We like to talk about Jesus healing people, we like to talk about a future resurrection of everyone one day, and we love to tell people that they need Jesus. But somehow, we’ve failed to take those ideas and make them the basis of our lives. As the days go on and on, we don’t see Jesus, and a loved one dies, and we are sad, like Mary and the mourners with her, filled with tears and sobs and misery.

You see, we have transferred much of our faith in God’s wisdom and power to our faith in the wisdom and power of physicians, of scientists who develop antibiotics, of machines that see inside of us. And yet we forget that God designed our bodies and knows how they operate much better than the physicians. We forget that the interrelationships between the various chemicals in our bodies were working hundreds of years before drug companies began selling pills by the millions. We forget that God knit us together in the womb, each of us, before ultrasounds and x-rays ever showed us what we look like.

There is nothing wrong with listening to the wisdom of physicians, to the experience and studies of the drug scientists, to using the MRI’s and ultrasounds and Cat scans. But we must always remember that, in many ways, physicians and pharmaceutical companies, instead of being our healers, they have become our enablers who support us in our sinful behavior, gluttonous behavior such as overeating, smoking, drinking too much, lustful behavior which leads to certain diseases, slothful behavior which leads to much less exercise than what we were designed for to clear out troublesome chemicals like glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, and kidney stones.

Have we developed diabetes because we eat too much sugar? No problem, we have metformin, a pill that will allow us to keep eating and drinking sugar, but reduce our blood glucose levels, at least for a while. We won’t need to develop self-control or ask God for help. We won’t even need to walk for exercise.

Do we worry? No problem, we have pills for that, too, and we won’t have to admit that things are out of our control, we won’t have to turn problems over to God, we can keep worrying, but we won’t be scared anymore because of the pills they have given us. And so we worry constantly, losing sleep, and because we don’t sleep, our brains begin to shrink and develop plaques which lead to Alzheimer’s instead of trusting God to take care of our lives and the lives of others around us.

No, we use our physicians as crutches instead of turning to the teachings of our God who walked upon the earth, Jesus Christ, who would keep us healthier if we actually believed what He has told us – that in the last days, God will dwell with his people. And we don’t really use our physicians’ pills as crutches, because crutches are supposed to be used for a matter of days or weeks and instead, we use the pills until we die so we can continue our bad habits, our sinful behavior, our gluttony, our sloth, our lust, our worries rather than following the instructions and believing the promises of God. No, we don’t really believe what Jesus and His disciples told us, like the Apostle John in Revelation 21:

“3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations will be destroyed by Jesus.”

That death shroud began unraveling when the tomb was found empty so long ago in that garden. Jesus will swallow up death forever!

5 He who was seated on the throne said to John, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

6 He said to John: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.

Oh, if only we would believe this, not only in our heads, but in our hearts!

Oh, if only we would live our lives knowing that one day, like Lazarus, we will sleep, but then Jesus will awaken us.

Oh, if only we would let go of the terror of death, knowing that Jesus has conquered and lit a match to that death shroud, and knowing that we have nothing to fear!

When I am worried – and I worry from time to time – I have found that nothing settles me down like the vision of New Jerusalem coming to earth that is found in Revelation 21, for there is one certainty in my life. I will walk in New Jerusalem! I will walk beside the river that flows from God’s throne, under the tree of life that produces twelve different fruits every year. And, no matter the condition of my body between now and my death sleep, I will walk, for I will have a new, incorruptible body, just as Jesus did after His resurrection. And I will praise God.

Please join me in that praise.

DOXOLOGY

Take this time to pray for your twelve people you are leading to Christ. Take this time to pray for them to come to know Christ and His love for us. Take this time to pray for God to save their souls. Become the saint who will be known for leading others to eternal life.

Let us sing:

It is Well with my Soul