That Terrible and Wondrous Love

“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” -John 11:5,6

This comes from a story we all know. Lazarus dies. Jesus shows up. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. We’ve heard it, we get it: Jesus has authority over life and can raise the dead. But, the thing is, there is so much left in the story, there is so much Jesus teaches in the meantime, and today, I want to bring our attention to the little word at the beginning of verse six, “so.”

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Jesus stays when he hears Lazarus was ill. The connection is nothing like what we would expect. We would think it should go like this, “Jesus loved them, but he stayed.” “Jesus loved them, nevertheless he stayed.” We expect some kind of contradiction. We need a contrast. But we don’t get one. Jesus loved them, so he stayed. We get a so, a therefore. And it is shattering.

And the reason it is (or should be) so disturbing, is that it means the reason that Jesus didn’t come right away to help Martha and Mary and Lazarus was that he loved them. It means for us, that there is a love of God that lets our brothers die. It means that there is a love of God that lets the messengers return with no news. There is a love of God that has us sit there and wait as the illness gets worse and worse with no news and no sign that help is on the way. There is a love of God that lets us sit in mourning for days and wait and wait and wait.

And that’s not what we’re looking for. We want the answer to come right away. We want to get better. We don’t want to have to wait in the silence where doubt has a chance to creep in.

But Jesus has Mary and Martha go through all that. He has them see Lazarus get worse and die and be buried without any sign of his appearing, and he does it because he loves them.

And the reason that it’s loving is that there is a love of God that works salvation against all hope. They were looking for healing, Jesus gave them resurrection. They were looking to postpone the death of their brother, Jesus showed them the beginnings of the death of death. There is a love of God that allows us to go through the darkest of times to behold a greater light than we could ever have imagined.

No good is withheld. If ever for a moment we lack, it is to prepare us for something far greater. In distress and loss, Jesus gives us of himself. He reveals his provision and majesty and power and life. Because while the love of God may lead us through death and sorrow, it is only to provide us with true life and true joy

Such is the love of God.

-djstevens

PS – a wonderful study in careful exegesis. The wonders of “so”