What Ifs

Living in the Spirit

November 6, 2021

Scripture Reading: John 11:32-44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’ –John 11:2-37

Was Mary merely stating the obvious in the scripture above, or was she blaming Jesus for not coming when he was called? Maybe both, grief clouds our thinking. I had wondered why Jesus did not go immediately when he was notified of Lazarus’s illness. He would have been entering dangerous territory crossing from Galilee to Judah. Did Jesus need time to prepare himself for this next phase of his ministry? Many of us have tossed and turned throughout a sleepless night trying to discern God’s plan for some action, the consequences of which we cannot be sure. I often write a serious post and let it lay fallow for a night before I post, reword, or toss it. However, those instances are not life or death in nature. “What ifs” are lessons to be learned. We cannot change the past; we can avoid making the same mistakes. Hebrews 11:1 states that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. We can note that the raising of Lazarus was a pivotal point in Jesus’s sojourn on earth.

That said, we would do well to remember that Jesus taught and practiced preventive behavior. The Ten Commandants are excellent guidance for living a fruitful life. Jesus seems to have taken those rules a step further in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus prescribes a preventive form of righteousness dealing with the causes of the sins outlawed in the Commandment. If we address the anger that leads to murder, we save ourselves from sin and another person’s life. If we love our enemies, we will not take advantage of them.

Prayer: Lord, grant us your shalom when we face situations that are not clear to us at the moment. Guide our thoughts and our words in such a time as these until we gain greater understanding. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.