Welcome to Tuesday’s podcast.

My first experience of driving was in my parents Renault Clio. One day I was on my way to work at the Gym – Yes I was a gym instructor once – I was in a car accident. I was driving down a road – it was early in the morning and I wasn’t paying that much attention when the driver coming in the opposite direction inexplicably decided to turn right straight into the driver’s side of my Mum and Dad’s lovely little Clio. It was a complete shock! And I distinctly remember in the chaos of the collision that there was moment, a split second when myself and the woman who had hit me locked eyes. What I remember was the look of fear in her eyes as we spun across the road. For a moment, time stood still.

REFLECTION:

We’ve probably all had those moments in life when it just feels like everything is spiralling out of control. We receive some really difficult news. A relationship ends. We don’t get the exam grades we really needed and our plans go out the window. We lose our job. Someone close to us, someone we love, dies. We all experience moments like this in our life. And the question – and I ask this in all humility knowing that there are probably people listening today who have experienced and been through some incredibly difficult situations – is what do we do? Where do we turn in those moments?

Our reading today (and tomorrow) is probably very familiar to us – it’s the death and resurrection of Lazarus. Today, is part one, verse 1-16 and we’re going to focus today on verses 5-7 which I will read for us now:

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

Interestingly, this is the only Gospel account which describes this incredibly significant event and John has lots to show us about Jesus here. We will get into some of that tomorrow. But what about today? Because what we read in today’s passage looks slightly confusing. Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that another of his close followers – their brother, a man called Lazarus – is extremely ill. We also learn from this account today that Lazarus was someone who Jesus loved deeply.

Logically, what we think should happen next and probably what Martha and Mary thought would happen in sending that message – was that Jesus would drop everything, rush to Bethany and heal his sick friend. And yet he doesn’t. Jesus waits. He stays where he is for two more days. And he stays knowing that in that time, Lazarus will die. And he does. And that seems quite confusing to us. Maybe it’s just me…but surely Jesus could have gone straight away? Surely he could have saved Lazarus before he died? Surely he could have turned the pain and suffering of Mary and Martha around? And we are left asking the question: why?

Again, Helen spoke really honestly about this in last Wednesday’s podcast and I’d really encourage you to listen back to that. This thought isn’t going to be some kind of apologetic on suffering. There isn’t space in a 10 minute podcast to do that and, to be honest, I’m not sure I have a good answer to give you but…the key thing to pull out from today’s focus verses is this word ‘so’. There is a reason Jesus stays when he could go. A reason why he waits when he could act. God is in control.

It doesn’t seem make any sense to us! But what we can see from reading this passage is that Jesus seems to know what he’s doing, even when his friends don’t. In verse 4, Jesus explains to Mary and Martha that the illness Lazarus has will not lead to death…and yet he allows him to die. What’s going on here?

What we see in John Chapter 11 is a foreshadow of what’s to come. That through death – God on the cross – we receive new life. That through what looks like total defeat, God is able to bring about the greatest victory.