During Advent our community is asking the question, “Why is the
return of Christ a good reason for hope?”
And to answer that big question, we need to consider another question, a
really basic question from the story of the death of Lazarus (John 11) in which John writes, "Jesus wept."
The question is, "Why is Jesus crying?"
There are 2 reasons that are given in the story:
2. Jesus is crying because he could have done something
about it. This is the first
thing out of the mouth of each of Lazarus’ sisters: “If you had been here, my
brother would not have died.” And
this is the commentary, the general opinion of those who have been welcomed
into the inner circle of Lazarus’ family during the early days of grieving: “Could
not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Couldn’t Jesus have done something about this?
What’s so challenging about this story is what’s so
challenging about the storms of life:
(We ask) God, didn’t you know this was going to happen?
(And the story says) Yes, he knew it was going to happen… – and yet he weeps
(And so we wonder) What will happen next?
(But the story says) he knew what was going to happen next (he
was going to bring Lazarus back to life – everything’s going to be OK) – and
yet he weeps.
Why is Jesus crying?
I’d suggest that Jesus is crying because even though he has a
plan to restore all things, and even though that plan has already begun, the time for that plan to reach completion
is still a long way off.
And between now and then there will be lots of storms and they
will be pitiless.
Sisters will crumble to their knees in grief.
Friends invited into the inner circle of the tragedy will
protest: Why didn’t Jesus do something?
Jesus cries because the storms will continue to rage.
Yes, Lazarus walks out of the grave and many people believe,
but in 5 years or 10 or 20 Lazarus will get sick again. Death will visit this house again.
Jesus is crying in this story because this was the time to
inaugurate the kingdom, this was the time to reveal the kingdom, but this was
not the time to consummate the kingdom, this was not the time to bring to
completion the plan of restoration.
The resurrection of Lazarus was a miracle that signaled what
was to come. In truth it was a
very small battle - it revealed who the true Victor was, and who the true
Victor was going to be. Within
months Jesus would be killed and would rise again, winning the decisive battle
over death. But, like D Day, even
though the decisive battle was one, the war would rage on for a long time
afterwards.
And I think Jesus wept because he saw his dear friends weeping
and he saw their friends weeping and devastated and hopeless and he knew
there’s going to be a lot of pain and a lot of loss and a lot of storms before
this story is done…between the time when the game is won and the game is
over.
Jesus is crying because he knows the enemy will be defeated in
the resurrection, but he also knows the enemy will not soon be destroyed.
That’s why Jesus is crying.
[check back for part two to this post: If Jesus is crying, why are Christians hopeful?]
