A reflection on John 11: 28-37 (Thanks Biblegateway.com)
Chris Schryer
Toronto, Ontario

I got assigned this text to contribute a reflection for a lenten devotional my church was putting together. If you are lazy like me, you might not have read the text. so let me summarize, it's from the story of Jesus raising his friend, Lazarus. The specific text in question is the "middle third" of the story if you will. It covers when Jesus arrives at Bethany, and goes to just before he raises Lazarus.

When I first read through the text, I must admit, I was annoyed. Why had somebody else got to reflect on raising somebody from the dead? You have to admit, raising somebody for the dead is pretty cool. Lots of good Easter things you could write about on ressurection. Lots of "glory Hallelujah" and hand clapping.

But as I reflected, I realized I actually got the gem.

You see, I cannot really relate to the first third of the story. Jesus gets news that his dear friend is sick and will die. He decides to wait a bit, though, as he knows Lazarus will live. Jesus is important and has important things to do. He has power to see that things work out well, and knows it. I suppose the CEO of a large company, or a rockstar might be able to relate to that, but not me.

The last third is even harder to reconcile, because that is when Jesus actually raises Lazarus from the dead. I will be honest, I have seen miracles in my life time, some involving me, but I have never seen a resurrection. In fact, I have never even been personally touched by miraculous healings (yes, I am familiar with many stories of such, but nobody I know). So I really cannot relate there either.

But this middle third, I get. Here you have Jesus, the Son of God, Word made flesh, all that stuff. This guy IS GOD, he can see "the big picture" or has "heaven's eyes" (as I have heard a preacher talking about). And yet, faced with the death of his friend, he cries. Grieves. Mourns.

In the past month and a half, I have heard lots of "they are in a better place" type comments from Christians. I know that this is really their way of saying "I have no idea why God would let this happen, but my faith would be shaken if I did not have an explanation so....."

These people claim to have a handle on the "big picture". Your friend died, but they are in heaven. You lost that job, but God is going to bless you with an even better one. You are living in poverty, but God is going to teach you to depend wholly on Him.

While all of these things are true, they mean nothing to you in the moment. When word comes in that it is cancer and it is bad, the prospect of your partner in heaven does nothing to offset the pain of the loss. You cry. You yell. The pain feels unbearable. But that's okay.

Standing outside the tomb of his beloved friend, even with the "big picutre" in mind, Jesus wept. And that, I can relate to.