“Martha therefore said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died’.”
Lazarus was dead and everyone was confused except Jesus.
We’re not told all that went through the minds of the disciples during the two days Jesus delayed after hearing the news that His friend was sick.
But we can speculate a little bit. Why is He delaying? We know how much He loves that family in Bethany. Well, it is a little close to Jerusalem and there can’t be anything but trouble for Him if He goes there. He has healed from a distance in the past; why not just do that now? Why, when He got the word of Lazarus’ illness, didn’t he tell the messenger, ‘go your way, Lazarus is healed’?
When He finally, two days later, says, “Let us go to Judea again”, they’re astounded. He had just narrowly escaped stoning, in their estimation, because He claimed to be the Son of God.
And isn’t it humorous now, knowing the full story, to see in verse 16 that Thomas, (doubting Thomas), boldly declares, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him”.
Yuck, yuck, Thomas. In about 12 days or so you’re going to get your chance to prove how noble and faithful and brave you can be. Not today.
The journey from where they were had to have been at least two days, because it says He delayed two days after hearing the news, and when He arrived in Bethany He was told that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.
I want you to try to put yourself in the moment. Try to put yourself into Martha’s heart.
Her brother has been dead for the better part of a week now. The funeral is over. The professional wailers have gone home. Whoever it was who took the news to Jesus about His friend’s condition is sitting around wondering if He got lost, robbed and beaten, arrested; in any case He was a no-show.
Very disappointing.
So it’s over. You’re Martha, and it’s four days after your brother’s funeral. What are you feeling right now? Loss, to be sure. Grief.
What about anger? I mean, you’ve seen Jesus heal people. You’ve heard the stories of the times and places when you were not present. You know about the walking on the Sea of Galilee, the command that calmed the storm…
…but what about the storm that now rages in your heart?
He didn’t even come! At the very least, as a family friend, He could have made it to the funeral. Even the one who took the message to Him was back in time for that! (an assumption, but a relatively safe one)
Someone says, “Jesus is coming!” You look out and down the road in the direction several people are now pointing, and there He is, typically surrounded by His chosen disciples and a crowd of others.
Walking up slowly like there’s no rush.
Well, there isn’t a rush anymore, is there? Lazarus is dead and rotting in a hole in the ground.
But you run out to meet Him. You don’t wait in the house like grieving Mary. You don’t even give Him an opportunity to reach the village and sit down in the shade.
Jesus has failed to meet your expectations, and He has a scolding coming.
OF MICE AND MEN
Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote a poem to a mouse whose nest he had stirred up while plowing. Funny, the things that inspire artsy types, huh? Part of one stanza is familiar to most of us:
“The best laid plans of mice and men,
Often go awry,
And leave us naught but grief and pain,
For lack of promised joy”
I took the liberty of English-izing it, since if I copied it the way he wrote it I’d have to read it with a Scottish brogue and I’m not good at that.
I wonder what he meant by “promised joy”. That sounds like an expression of expectation to me.
Depending on who promised the joy, if indeed it was promised at all, it could be a very unreasonable expectation.
I mean, we can’t even promise our own loved ones future joy. We can hope for it, we can pray for it, we can want it very much for them. I would hope nothing less for my children, than that their future holds much joy. But then reality kicks in and we have to concede that the things life inevitably brings are often far from joyful.
Now Jesus does promise joy, in Heaven. And He said in chapter 15 of this gospel that He had spoken certain things to His hearers, “…that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (vs 11)
Just don’t miss that what He said to them was, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” Then came the joy part.
Well, this isn’t a sermon on joy, and there’s a lot more that can be said about joy and the conditions in which we find it.
The point I’m getting at is, we all seem to have an unspoken expectation of joy.
Think about it. All of our plans and pursuits have it as their goal; if not primary, at least secondary. We don’t deliberately pursue things that will take away our joy.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”
There it is. Permission from our forefathers to expect joy and happiness.
And we do. We expect it. So much do we expect it and take for granted that we have some divinely declared right to happiness, that when anything comes along to steal our joy or disturb our happiness, it just crushes us.
It makes us angry. We throw hissy-fits.
Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died! That wasn’t the plan, Jesus! We had expectations of You!
Here’s how it works. Maybe other people die. Maybe other people lose their brothers, but we have this personal relationship with Jesus of Nazareth. He’s been going about doing good and healing those who are oppressed of the devil, for God is with Him. We’re on the inside. Permanent backstage pass. Season tickets. Reserved seats. Open door policy.
So we send a runner to tell You what needs to be done, and the way it works is, You come running to meet our need. Fulfill our expectations.
Am I being unfair to Martha? Reading something in that isn’t there? I don’t think so. She has expressed the same attitude in the past. “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me” Luke 10:40
Is Martha alone? Absolutely not. In this attitude she represents mankind with no exceptions.
Lord, I’m about to finish a job and there’s nothing on the horizon.
Lord, I haven’t worked for months and creditors are screaming, and I’ve been praying and looking and holding my mouth just right, but You’re late!
Lord, I entered college with all my goals set. All my ducks in a row. Now, here I am in my third year and the finances are drained; or the classes are killing me and my grades are dipping to a point where I’ll never be accepted in a Masters program. And I have been very faithful to attend church every Sunday, even when I could have been studying, and I don’t party with my friends, and I’ve maintained a good witness to others around campus… what’s wrong?’
Lord, I’ve been on the floor daily, agonizing in Your presence for my rebellious teen, and now he’s in jail. Were You not listening, or what?
Lord, I’ve been struggling with this ministry for years, faithfully, and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I had expectations, Lord. After all, I know it’s Your will that the church grow. It’s YOUR church, after all. How long? Ever?
Am I doing something wrong? Is there something You need to reveal to me so I can change or do better and then You’ll bring success?
Oh, don’t worry, Jesus, I still have faith in You. I mean, I know that even now You can make this up somehow if You want to because I know the Father will give you anything you ask. But… well…
HOW FAR FROM BETHANY WERE YOU, ANYWAY?
THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL
In her classic of literature, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baroness Orczy portrays her hero, Sir Percy Blackeney, as a man on a mission. It’s a secret one, of course, and a grand one. To deliver his countrymen from the oppressive French.
His beautiful wife, Marguerite, unaware of her husband’s underground activities, attributes his frequent absences and quiet moods to a lack of love for her. Although she loves him dearly she is increasingly afraid that she is losing his affections and despairs for their future together.
In the end, when he has accomplished his work, he is then free to tell her what he was about and once more declare his undying love for her. It’s presented as an adventure tale, much like Zorro or Robin Hood. But it is actually one of the great love stories.
Marguerite was unable to see the big picture. She had certain expectations that, as a wife, were reasonable expectations, IF all had been as it seemed to her to be.
If there was not a war going on. If her husband was not the scourge of the French; the ‘damned, elusive, Pimpernel’. But she didn’t know these things, and therefore felt that he was failing her expectations.
Martha wasn’t seeing the big picture either. She didn’t know. She didn’t understand yet, that her friend Jesus was God in disguise, on a mission to free His oppressed people from the clutches of the evil Satan.
Jesus came with a plan. There was something scarlet in that too. But it wasn’t a flower; it was His own blood. It was a plan He made with the Father and with the Holy Spirit and He was carrying it out step by step, each part of the plan implemented in its time, and He wasn’t actually late for anything. Nor was He in a rush.
And sort of like the final revelation of Sir Percy to his wife that he was the infamous Scarlet Pimpernel, Jesus was about to reveal to Martha that in fact, her expectations for Him had been, not too high, but too low.
She wanted Him to purge a disease. Cool a fever.
He was there to raise the dead.
But there was much more involved and at stake here than the life of Lazarus and the fulfilled expectations of Mary and Martha.
Jesus was there to glorify the Father. It was what He came to do. It’s in verse 40.
“Did I not say to you, if you believe you will see the glory of God?”
There was a second purpose in what He was about to do also. It could have been a great source of encouragement for Martha and Mary and His disciples, and all who stood around watching, if they had remembered this moment a couple of weeks later as they were laying His body in a tomb.
It’s one thing to say, “I am the resurrection and the life”; it’s another to then turn and call a man back from four days of death and decay. But Jesus did it.
Had they understood then who He really was and what His mission really was, maybe at the end of that coming Friday they would have had higher expectations of Him. Maybe they would have camped out near the tomb entrance so they’d be there when He came out.
Or golly… maybe they would have actually obeyed Him and gone to Galilee like He said, so they’d be there when He arrived.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS
In Tolkein’s first installment of his trilogy, subtitled, “The Fellowship of the Ring”, the Hobbits, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin have set out on the road, primarily to keep the coveted ring out of the hands of the dark lord of Mordor. They know little else at this point.
Early on they are befriended by a Ranger known to them only as “Strider”. Since they do not know where they are going and need a scout, they follow him. But at first it is with suspicion and caution. “Where is he leading us? How do we know we can trust him? What are his intentions?”
Little do they know, this early in the tale, that his real name is Aragorn, and he is not just a wandering adventurer, but rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. In the end, Aragorn will take his place on the throne, lift these humble Hobbits up to a place of highest honor, and restore the glory of his father’s kingdom, having vanquished all the evil forces of Mordor for all time.
In the earthly ministry of Jesus we see this same type of story. His followers don’t really know who He is. They know His name. They even believe He is the long-awaited Messiah. But since they have an entirely wrong idea about what His purpose is, they don’t really know Him at all.
“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” Mark 4:41
Well, if the wind and the sea obey Him, take a wild guess!
His enemies knew Him. Satan did his best to tempt Him away from His plan before His public ministry even began. Later we read of demons calling Him “Son of the Most High God”.
Now here He is, standing outside of this tomb at the edge of Bethany, declaring Himself to be “Resurrection” and then proving it.
Lazarus His friend hobbles to the opening, waiting to be unwrapped from the clothes of death that bind him, and in a matter of fact, almost anti-climactic narrative, John writes that after that day many Jews believed on Him, but others went and tattled to the Pharisees.
People! Hey! This wanderer, this ranger, this strider, this mystery man, just gave a three-word command and life and health came back to the body of a man four-days dead!
Should we be excited about this? Y’think?
But no. All through the gospel accounts we see people with expectations set way too low.
The sons of thunder want to know who’s going to be first in the kingdom. (Let’s see… would that be, um, GOD?)
Peter wants to build tents in the wilderness for Moses and Elijah and Jesus to live in.
(Nice thought Pete… that is, if we all didn’t already live in HEAVEN!)
The multitudes wanted bread for their bellies. Hey. Didn’t He feed thousands of you just yesterday, from out of a couple of near-empty baskets? I mean, doesn’t that call for some quiet meditation about who He really is and what He is ultimately here for? Shouldn’t yesterday’s miracle make you want to shut up and listen to what He might have to say?
Nah. That was yesterday. We’re hungry.
“God forbid it Lord! This shall never happen to You!” Hey, Peter, you yourself just declared Him to be the Christ of God. Could it be He knows what He’s talking about?
“Lord, if You had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died”. Oh really? How do you know that for certain? Everyone dies, right? And if you really believe that Jesus is the Messiah, sent from God, isn’t it a little presumptuous to rebuke Him for not being in any certain place at any certain time?
Isaiah said that all of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Truer words were never written.
And so pathetic are we, that when the Shepherd comes we presume to dictate to Him our perceived needs and desires and expect Him to provide, when in fact He has more to give us than our little sheep brains are capable of comprehending.
We want Him to fix our little owies, and He wants to impart resurrection life.
I wonder how different our lives would be if instead of our erroneous, shallow, self-serving expectations of Jesus, we understood Him enough to expect resurrection power at work in and through our lives?
C. S. Lewis likened most Christians to a boy, satisfied to play in a mud hole, rejecting a trip to the ocean. He said, “Our passions are not too strong, they are too weak. We are far too easily pleased.”
What about it, Christian? What about you? Are you entirely honest with yourself as to what your expectations of Jesus generally are?
What sort of things do you ask for when you pray? If you were to make a list of say, the last 10 things you have asked of Jesus, and if you were to put that list in front of you and then think about who He really is and what the ‘big picture’ is as He has revealed it, would your list look silly?
Would your expectations be too low?
He said He came to give His sheep abundant life. Joy filled. Spirit filled. Eternal in quality and duration.
Shouldn’t we be expecting much greater and higher things from Him than we usually seek?
Oh, preacher, Jesus is concerned with all of our needs. Nothing is too small to ask of Him!
BUNK!
I love my daughter and I’d like to be able to give her what she asks. But I wouldn’t have her begging for plastic beads when I’d rather give her pearls!
The hero of our story came on the scene to call us back to life. He came to unbind us from our death clothes. He came to crush our enemy’s head and restore the glory of His Father’s kingdom, in and through us.
He said things like, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” John 15:7
Wow! Chew on that one for a while!
What silly creatures we are, to ask for help running when He wants to give us wings!
“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” No, Martha! Now! Today!
Christian! Jesus wants to manifest His resurrection power in your life now! Today! Not someday when you go to Heaven!
What is it you want? Ok, you sent for Him. He didn’t come as fast as you wanted so you’re disappointed. But there He is. He’s coming down the road. What do you want Him to do?
Think first. What are your expectations? Do you want some temporary thing? A loaf of bread? Relief from some pain? Peace of mind? Help for a friend in trouble?
Or does there have to be a death to some of your preconceived ideas about how He is supposed to work; what the church is supposed to look like? What do you want Him to do in your church? In the community? In your region?
He’s coming, and He wants to glorify His Father in the building up of His kingdom, and He wants to use you in it. He wants you to abide in Him and in His word so richly that you will have His mind and His heart about things. Then you can ask anything you will and it will be done for you, because you’ll be asking according to His will.
Ultimately He wants to lift you to a place of highest honor.
In the meantime, the quest is not over. The work is not done. And He can’t use death-minded people. Get past the cross, Christians. Go see the empty tomb. He IS resurrection, and He wants to free your heart from the death clothes that bind it, and empower you with His resurrection life so you can then impart it. That’s right! You!
A life-dispensing vessel of the Spirit of Life.
Raise the bar of your expectations, Believer. He is the King of Glory, and He wants to take you on a great adventure. Don’t be afraid to have Great Expectations!
