Endurance and Resurrection

I remember when my best friend at the University of Calgary, Canada died prematurely. Still now I can recall how distressed I was by this tragedy. At the graveside service, surrounded by sadness and grief all around, distress overtook my actions. I sprinted around the perimeter of the cemetery, bawling and screaming. A long while later, exhausted by the pain I felt, hopeless in my despair, I collapsed. 

Lazarus is dead. Mary and Martha are distraught. Jesus too. Read John 11:1-44

Martha showed her distress in her displeasure that Jesus wasn’t there to help. She even opposed Him (In the original language, the verb implies “intent to oppose”). She determined to register her complaint, her “come to Jesus” meeting with Jesus! She was for sure hurt, maybe even angry and confrontational.

Mary showed her distress by resigning herself to be sad in her grief. She was grieving and wishing Jesus had been there to prevent the death. Mary went, and knelt at his feet. Maybe she hoped he’d hold her in her pain.

Jesus also was intensely moved in spirit and showed great distress (v. 33). He became angry –John doesn’t say at what or with whom. Perhaps it was at the dear loss everyone felt. And he wept, sobbing—that’s the meaning—with grief. But in his distress, and in response to the anger he was feeling, he forced Hades to give back her dead.

Grief and pain take many forms. Distress shows up differently in Martha, Mary and Jesus: complaint at injustice, sadness for life extinguished, anger that death for many seems so final.

These pandemic years are distressing millions here and around us. Some grieve alone. In silence embracing the darkness. Many go unnoticed as they endure pain, Like I experienced when my friend died.

What are we to do?

Lamenting or complaining out loud to God is a good thing to do. Martha came to Jesus seeking a justification for why her dear brother had to die.

Perhaps you are the Mary type: Curl up in a fetal position and become sad while holding on to Jesus for dear life.

We could do something else as the church as we copy Jesus in this story. Get angry at the way our world is full of sorrow. Work to bring life back into desperate situations. It’s what Jesus did, often. He was immersed in grief, pain, sickness, and hopelessness. He felt deep emotions, his and theirs (and ours). He acted in ways to bring a humanitarian and divine relief.

And a promise. Yes! A staggering promise: “The one who believes in me shall never die”.

More staggering still: Believers in Jesus will see the glory of God, “I am the resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me shall never die.”

I imagine that these two promises amount to the same thing. Those who have given their allegiance to Christ our King, on the other side of death’s wall, see only glory: brilliance of light, beauty, power. They are held in the bosom of this Light. Death’s darkness morphs the brightness of the glory of Jesus.

I wished I had known this reality back when we buried my friend in the cemetery. I would still grieve but with the hope of glory in my heart.

What are you grieving today? In faith and obedience, relinquish it to the Lord: “Let it be to me as you will” and what you will is always for my good.

I wished I had known this reality back when we buried my friend in the cemetery. I’d sill had grieved but with hope of glory in my heart!