“But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done…” John 11:46
For almost 10 months my mind had not been settled over a business transaction that had gone wrong, in fact, the second in as many years. I had prayed, and fasted, and got a lawyer friend (who turned to have a legal issue, too), a fellow church elder who promised to link me with some powerful government official who could help, but did not, then a niece who would do that, but would not, then the police, who would not. Where was God in all this, I would ask myself. Then a thought came to mind.
My mind ran back into a favorite story, in the Bible, and my sense of imagination (oftentimes very wild), played a drama.
Tired after a long walk, with the Twelve, Jesus had retired for the night. He had not anywhere to lay His head, but still as a Man, He needed to ‘rest awhile’. Then a message alert sounded from His phone. It was Mary (or Martha or both?).
Master, He whom you loved is ill
Quickly (for He knew no delay), He typed out a response, and …. SEND. Then two ticks. And they turned blue. The sisters had read it.
This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Immediately putting the phone away, He threw Himself on the scanty bed, to sleep.
“Who was it?”, one disciple must have asked.
The greatest templation in life must be that of imagination that no matter how much we would have prayed, God hears (for His ears are never too burdened), yet looks away in indifference. Yet, as a father pities his children, so He pities those who call on His name.
In my imagination I saw Jesus explain to the disciples how He had received a message on how His friend was so under the weather.
“So we can go and see him today?”, the disciples must have asked (although it must have been common knowledge that He could command healing by remote control).
“Just not yet.”
A little later Jesus must have known how Lazarus had passed from the land of the living. Of course as God He could tell, but He also saw the WhatsApp status of the two sisters, for He had their numbers. He knows even where they stayed, as He knew how Nathaniel prayed under the tree before He came to Him.
Despite the disciples insistence, He would not immediately for the funeral wake. Well, He could have gone for He mourns with the mourning, but He chose to stay two days more, for man’s extremities present God’s opportunities.
Now He was determined to go to Judaea (thus far the GPS located at Bethabara (Jn 10:40, 1:28), a distance of about 35 kilometers to Bethany, in Judaea, who although they had sought to kill Him there, He was a man on a mission, setting His face as a flint. He would go.
Ordinarily this should have taken much shorter to arrive, but lo and behold He arrived when His dear friend had been dead and buried four days. Indeed, God’s friends can actually be dead and buried. I speak not of death, for it is not death to die, but of hopes. Our hopes can actually be buried, but look where the story heads.
Oftentimes Christ’s way has so many disruptions along the way. So there was the woman with the issue of blood, when He headed for Jairus’ house, and here, along the way to Bethany was the city of Jericho., an interesting city, for although God had pronounce a very terrible curse on those who would rebuild the ruins, here we find men, and rich one, at that staying there. One of them? Zacchaeus.
Reading in the account of Luke, who in his introduction, declared that he had a perfect understanding of ALL things from the very first, we learn of how, on this His final journey to Jerusalem, He gave sight to Bartimaeus, for when He is on His way to intervene in our situations, He has to give sight to other men too! Coming from there, He met Zacchaeus, with whom He tarried some day(s) after He was converted. What a trying time to the subjects of our story, having to know how their friend tarried along the way and not come through immediately! Oftentimes, God’s ways to attend to our situations are too circuitous, but as others have proclaimed, He does all things well, and eventually, all things would work together for good, for those who love the Lord.
What a site it was, when He got to Bethany at last, to find His friends so dejected. We are His friends, too, engraved in the palms of His hands, yet such time comes through, but isn’t Love always on time?!
As He bade the dead man come forth, God can still call out our hopes from where they lay, long dead and buried. As He bade them remove the stone, He bids us to remove some stones, for when humanity clutches its hands with divinity, it becomes omnipotent! And as He bad them remove the cloths that tied His friend, we really have some untying to do.
The story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha speaks strongly to folk whose hopes are dead and long buried.
As I switched off my laptop after putting my imaginations to the keyboard, I reminded myself how whatever I might face, is part of the process of God’s deliverance. That as Christ might have read Mary and Martha’s message off His phone, and given them reassurance, and yet not coming to deliver immediately, so today we may call on Him, and He can tarry two more days, pass by attending Bartimaeus, spend some time, and lodge, at Zacchaeus. And yet when He arrives at our situations, He can still bid our dead, and long buried hopes to COME FORTH! Delay is not denial.