During the season of Lent the church often talks about death.  But in our present society, people do their best not to deal with it.  Few people talk about death, but they all think about it.  Some churches have all but eliminated talk about sin and death.  Affirm life, help people be happy, they say, that's what a church should do.  Like the Broadway song many years ago that said, "Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative."  I call it the gospel of the "Happy Church", the church where everyone smiles and obeys only 6 of the 10 commandments (your choice), "Happy Church," home of the 7% tithe!  Where the phone message says:

          "Welcome to Happy Church!"  "If you'd like to hear our service times, press 1."  "If you'd like to hear a listing of our staff, press 2."  "If you'd like to hear about our church beliefs, press 3."  "For a recorded prayer, press 4."  "For listing of our ministries, press 5."  "If you're seeking answers to serious questions, please call another church!"

          But life does call for serious answers, and more often than not these days, we get put on hold.  Does anyone out there want to help us with the tough questions in life?  Is God there to help us?  What about God's people?  Do Christians do anything besides go to church?  Will they help me when I need it?  As the exhausted soldier of Washington's army says in the musical, "1776," "Is anybody there?  Does anybody care?"

          Mary and Martha both had a word almost like that for Jesus: "Lord, if You'd been here, my brother would not have died!"  There was love and disappointment in those words.  Jesus was their friend, but He had let them down.  People do that.  You let me down and I let you down.  Part of this comes from frailties, and part from our expectations.  We expect certain things of others and many expectations are unreasonable.  We expect others to always be there, even when we know they can't.  We expect them to help us, even fix our troubles.  But who, besides God, can do that?

          I've always said we must trust God completely, but trust people provisionally.  God is almighty, but people are weak and sinful.  They can't always live up to what we expect of them.  Only God is without sin, and thus only He can be trusted for all things.  Trust God completely, but trust people provisionally.  Anything more only sets us up for disappointment.

          David, a man who often disappointed others, once wrote, "Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save." (Psalm 146:3)   None of us are without weakness.  Wives and husbands will disappoint each other.  No child, or employer or friend or pastor can be completely trusted.  Only God can be trusted completely.  People will always disappoint other people.

          We need to beware of unrealistic expectations!  Other people can't fix all things for us.  Our true faith must be only in God.  Faith cannot be dependent on a church, nor a church worker, only on Jesus Christ.  If we expect people always to be there for us, we will be disappointed.  It is Jesus who said, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:8)   And again He said, "Lo, I am with you always..." (Matthew 28:20)   People will not always be there for us.  They are only human.

          "Lord, if You'd just been here..."  Mary and Martha echoed what so many through the ages have said.  Yet in their sadness, they still had hope: "Yet even now we know God will give You whatever You ask."  Mary and Martha were not critics, nor were they dreamers.  They knew Jesus could help in some way, so they trusted Him in their hour of darkest need.

          They knew all about weeping in the night, but they were hoping He would bring them joy in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)   Maybe Mary and Martha were feeling guilty.  Maybe they realized Lazarus had been working too hard but didn't step up to help.  Maybe they should have noticed he wasn't feeling well.  It's easy for us to wonder what we should have or could have done.  We call these "shoulda, woulda, coulda" thoughts.  A person can go crazy thinking them:

          If only I'd made him go to the doctor sooner....
          If only I'd not left her alone that night....
          If only I'd said she couldn't see that guy anymore...
          If only I'd said he couldn't go to that party...

          If only Jesus had come right away!  Why didn't He send a message?  Why didn't He do something?  We expect things from God, but He doesn't always answer.  We know God can do it, fix it, help it, but He doesn't always.  So why not?

          John doesn't leave us this story to answer all our questions.  I believe he tells us about this story for the outcome.  His narrative shows how Jesus gave life back.  John is also showing us that Mary and Martha didn't give up.  They knew He could help because they believed He was from God.  It's not that we don't believe in God's power, but it's just we're still disappointed when God doesn't seem to be there for us.  So we must not give up asking God for help.  He will come to us in due time and He will give us a great blessing.

          The sisters expected a blessing from Jesus and they got it!  Lazarus came back, in a memorable resurrection, something Jesus Himself would do in the coming days.  With Lazarus, it was like turning the clock back four days.  Lazarus was raised to the life he had before.  But with Jesus it's turning the clock ahead, pointing to our own resurrection, to heaven, and to eternity.

          "Lazarus come out!" and out he comes, no death, no decay, no smell, just all wrapped up.  Jesus gave Lazarus breath and took their breath away.  They unwrapped a dead man who was alive.

          The neighbors saw a ghost, but his sisters saw a live man.  Death never takes a holiday.  You and I needn't dwell on it, but we can't ignore it.  This story is a dress rehearsal for the final days of Jesus.  The Bible tells us that upon hearing this, Jewish authorities started working on a plan.  It was time to get rid of Him.  His power was too threatening.  "It is better for one man to die than that the whole nation perish!" said the High Priest. (John 11:50)   And they plotted to take His life.

          We know now that in a few days they'll capture Him, put Him on trial, torture Him, and nail Him to a cross.  He'll die on Calvary and be wrapped in grave clothes with bags of spices and be buried in a new grave.  His death would look bad, but it soon would be a blessing.  It would look the end, but be the beginning.  Jesus gave His life for the world, for you and me.  And He would rise again.

          Jesus wants to give us the blessing of Lazarus, a resurrection to eternal life.  And what He will give us will be even greater than what He gave Lazarus.  Lazarus would one day die again, but in Christ, we never will.

          You and I have already had one resurrection.  We were dead in our sins, but by baptism, Christ has raised us to life.  We were dead, but now we are alive, alive in Christ, because of His love for us!

          Today Lazarus' grave is a tourist site, where they sell bottled water and digital cameras.  Years ago I crawled into Lazarus's supposed grave, but I remember most seeing a little boy wearing a CU Buffs cap, a gift, his mother said, from American friends.  Bethany, "house of poverty," as the name means, is just 2 miles from Jerusalem, a place today where people make a business of Jesus' life.

          And Jesus makes it His business to get involved in our lives.  In the bumps and bruises of life, the accidents, the struggles and the joys, Jesus still gets involved in our lives through new friends and new churches.  "Lord, if only You'd been here."  Actually, He's been here all along.  Praise God!  amen!

Copyright © 2005 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.