June 5, 2024 

Today's Reading: John 11:17-37

Daily Lectionary: Proverbs 1:8-33; John 11:17-37

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. John 11:21 

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. I think John made sure to get this in the story, not to leave us with a bad impression of Martha marked on one of the hardest days of her life, but I think it’s to give us the words to speak on our own. It’s bitterness and genuine anger rolled up in a confession of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. It isn’t just an accusation. It’s a recognition. It doesn’t ignore the problem because of Jesus. But it doesn’t dismiss it either.

Something wrong happened. God could have stopped it. There will be a resurrection someday. But today, hope feels far off. Because we tend to root hope in the answer to prayers, not the God answering them. So, hope is a Lazarus who isn’t dead. But that leaves hope very far away when he’s four days in the tomb and rotting. Hope is an alternate reality or someday too far away. Out of reach.  

Every time the followers of Jesus put their hope in something He can control but not in Him, it falls apart. Because hope is not found in God answering prayers. Hope is found in God. So Jesus answers, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.”

It's not a call to see what God can do. It's a call to see who He is. Even Martha sees what can be done. It almost makes it more frustrating. “But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” But that Last Day isn't here yet.  

It's a call to see where God is. Standing at the entrance to the tomb, weeping over the loss. Not far. And so where God is, there is hope. And Jesus draws near to dead Lazarus. Hope is not measured in anything other than the presence of Jesus. The story stops here, but you know how it ends. Today, it stops with Jesus being near. That's a good place to stop. Because if Jesus is near, there is hope. Jesus doesn't give resurrection. He is resurrection. If He is near, have hope.  

Which may be why He gives us His Body and Blood in church. So that hope can be measured in more than “Did I get what I wanted?” or “Did I die and go to heaven and on the Last Day rise?” It’s measured in “Is Jesus here for me?” and the answer is Yes. Amen. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Then is our comfort this alone That we may meet before Your throne; To You, O faithful God, we cry For rescue in our misery (LSB 615:2)

- Rev. Harrison Goodman is the content executive for Higher Things.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

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