Forgiving God: If only…

Broken Things

One of my most prized possessions is an antique Philco Radio that belonged to my grandfather.

That radio sits in our home in our living room.  I used to turn it on and listen. I really loved this radio. I loved to hear it sing.

Not long after I brought it to our house, our living room turned into the toy room. With three kids under the age of 5, our house was one big toy box. And that was great.

Until one day.

My youngest daughter had this one toy she loved. It was a Dora the Explorer microphone. It was made out of hard plastic and you could push a button and it would play a Dora song. You could sing along into the mic and she loved this. But one day, she got mad at the microphone for some reason.

We had friends over that night. Everyone was having a good time. We were laughing, talking and playing with the kids. But all that came to a sudden stop when Emma got mad at that microphone and threw it across the room.

My grandfathers Philco radio was still sitting in that room. It’s made mostly of wood. But at the top of the radio, where the dials are to tune the radio, there is a small window of glass that lets you see what station you’re setting the radio on.

I know she didn’t mean to, but when she threw that Dora the Explorer microphone it hit that small area of glass on my grandfather’s antique Philco Radio. And it shattered.

I don’t often get very angry. At least not where people can see. Especially when we have people over at our house. But that night, it was all I could do to contain my anger.

Because something I loved, something I held dear, was broken. And as far as I knew, it could not be fixed.

The radio was broken and it couldn’t sing anymore.

Broken People

What do we do when something, or more importantly, someone we love is broken and, as far as we know, cannot be fixed?

If you’re anything like me, a broken radio, no matter how special it is, doesn’t compare to the feeling or the loss of when someone you love is broken. When someone you love is lost.

What do we do when that happens?

If you’re a person of faith, I know what you do. You pray! You cry out to God!

Even if you don’t believe in God or if you’re not sure if God even exists, you probably hit your knees and pray at that moment because you’re so desperate to find help for the one you love who is hurting.

It’s that prayer so many of us have prayed: “God, if you’re there. God, if you can hear me. Please help. I’ll do anything if you will just help. If you will just heal. If you will just…”

When something we love breaks, we get angry. When someone we love breaks, we get angry and we ask Why?

Why God?

And why is the question that just won’t go away.

When someone we love is broken, we are broken. And more often then not, when we become broken we can’t sing anymore.

Mary and Martha

This is what happens with Mary and Martha

In John 11, there’s a story about a family.  About Mary, Martha & their brother Lazarus.  We learn quickly that this is a family that Jesus knew well.  They were friends.  More than friends, Jesus loved these people.

So when Lazarus gets sick and he’s not getting any better, Mary and Martha know what to do. They know who to call. They send word to Jesus.

They believed Jesus was Israel’s Messiah. They knew he could heal the sick. They had no doubt seen him do it for others. They had certainly heard the stories. Jesus had healed so many who were strangers. Certainly, Jesus would take care of them in their time of need. They were on a first name basis. Jesus had his own room in their house!

This is what we do when someone we love is sick, right?

We reach out to the people we know who can help. We call our friend who is a nurse or a doctor. This is the time you call in that favor.

I think Mary and Martha knew how sick Lazarus was but I don’t think they were worried. They had the best health insurance in all of Israel. They had Jesus. Surely Jesus, who had healed so many others, would help and heal His friend who He LOVED who was sick.

Maybe like Mary and Martha you’ve cried out to God, full of faith, believing he could and he would answer you and help you in your moment of crisis.

Even though he loved them…

Here’s what happens next…

“But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death.” – John 11.4

In other words, Jesus is going to heal his friend Lazarus. Lazarus may be broken, but he will sing again.

“No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” 5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.” – John 11.5-6

The last part of that last sentence is where we get hung up.

Jesus just said, “Lazarus’ sickness will not end in death.” So why does Jesus stay where He is for two more days? Why doesn’t Jesus drop what He’s doing and run to the rescue for his friends?

Or better yet, why doesn’t Jesus just heal Lazarus from a distance? He’s done that before! Just say the word and Lazarus could be healed right then and there.

Why the delay? There’s our question that won’t go away… Why?

When Jesus got the news, he was not worried. He was not afraid. He was also not in a hurry.

Let’s be honest, this is probably the one thing that drives us the most crazy. That more often than not Jesus is just not in a hurry, he doesn’t work on our timeline.

He’s not unaware of our calendar but he’s more concerned with His timing that He is with ours.

These verses may be hard to read for some of us. Jesus loved them, but he was in no hurry to ride in on a white horse and save them. He didn’t act quickly to prevent any of their suffering.

He loved them, truly loved them, but didn’t move quickly to protect them from or prevent them from pain.

This is an important albeit difficult concept for us to come around. Partly because we live in a culture that says if you love me you will protect me from pain. If you care about me you won’t let anything bad happen to me. We equate love with response time.

If you love me and I am in need then love, as we understand it, says that you will move quickly to help me however you can. And if you do not, then you must not love me.

But the love of God is perfect. The love of Jesus is perfect. His love here is not defined by response time.

Even though Jesus loved them, he didn’t run to their rescue.

If Only…

“When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days.  Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss.  When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house.  Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” – John 11.17-21

Martha is broken. Instead of singing songs of praise when Jesus finally comes to town, she has questions that need answers.

How do we forgive God when He lets us down, when He doesn’t arrive on time? What do we do with our unmet expectations of God?

What do we do when Jesus doesn’t come through for us when we need Him most?

Jesus, if only…. if only you had gotten here sooner, if only you had heard my prayer, if only you had acted when I asked, if only you had operated on my timetable, if only… this could have turned out differently. If only.

“When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  – John 11.32

Mary says the EXACT same thing Martha says to Jesus. If only…

Mary is broken. She’s broken. She can’t sing anymore. Her brother has died and she has questions that need answers.

“When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.  “Where have you put him?” he asked them.
They told him, “Lord, come and see.”  Then Jesus wept.” – John 11.33-35

Jesus wept.

Here’s one thing I want you to know today. If you don’t hear anything else today, I pray that you hear this. That when you weep, Jesus weeps.

When you’re hurting, Jesus is hurting.

When you are troubled, Jesus is deeply troubled.

When you cry, Jesus cries with you.

And whenever you are hurting & suffering because you are living in a broken world where it seems like death has the last word, that this makes Jesus very angry.

When you’re broken and you can’t sing anymore, Jesus knows.

I can tell you stories of being in the room on more than one occasion when someone lost a child. I can tell you stories of our own loss. I can tell you stories of weeping with those whose marriages are wrecked by sin. I can tell you stories of crying with those broken by addiction. And I can tell you that every time there is a loss, whatever that loss is… a loss of a job, a loss of a loved one, a loss of a relationship, a loss of… you fill in the blank, but anytime there is a loss there is a separation.

Mary and Martha were separated from Jesus by physical distance. At a minimum, they were a days journey from each other. But my guess is that for a lot of us who have experienced hurt and loss that the distance between us and Jesus is much more.

Because, like Mary and Martha, we sent word to Jesus while there was still time. We prayed and we got our church to pray and we got our city to pray for God to come and rescue. And it felt like those prayers hit the ceiling and fell to the floor. It felt like we prayed, but no one was listening.

And that loss combined with what we perceived as God’s silence created a distance in our relationship with Him.

But here’s what I want you to know today, and this may be a hard truth for you to hear, but this is truth. We see it revealed right here in John 11.

You can be sick, deathly ill, waiting on God who is not rushing to your rescue and still be completely and totally loved by God!

You can feel completely abandoned by God and still be completely loved by God.

God’s presence in your life is a fact, not a feeling.

Mary and Martha sent for Jesus. They thought his healing would not only save their brother, but inspire others to believe. Little did they know what Jesus was going to do next.

Here’s the rest of the story…

Jesus goes to the tomb of Lazarus.  He’s been dead for four days now.  Mary and Martha are there.  And, all the people who had come from Jerusalem and the surrounding areas to help them mourn their loss are there too.  More poeple are here because Lazarus has died than would have been here if he was just sick.

Remember, Jesus is going to use this pain for his purpose.

Jesus tells them to move the stone from the tomb.  Then he calls Lazarus to come out.  And… HE DOES!

Lazarus lives again!

You see, our suffering is never the end of the story because we believe in Jesus who raises the dead.

So how do we suffer what we suffer believing?

Like Mary and Martha, whenever we suffer, send word to Jesus. And trust that He is going to use your pain for the praise of our Father in heaven.

I know it’s just a radio. And it doesn’t come close to comparing to the loss that so many of you have suffered, but just a few weeks ago a dear friend in our church took my grandfather’s Philco radio and completely restored it. He replaced the glass. Replaced the parts that no longer worked. And now, it can sing again.

Maybe just maybe you need to take your broken heart to the healer, to the one who raised Lazarus from the dead. And maybe you need ask him to repair your broken heart so that it will play music again. So that you can sing again!

You can sing again. You can hope again.

Not because the tomb of Lazarus is empty. We have hope because the tomb of Jesus is empty.