Is It Bad Enough Yet?

So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. (John 11:17)

Jesus had just returned to the region of Judea where He had not long previously left because the Jews wanted to kill Him. The disciples were confused by His actions and had in an impulse of fatalism exclaimed that they might as well go with Him and die there too. Jesus had deliberately ignored the urgent pleas of some of His best friends to hurry back in time to heal Lazarus so long that it was seemingly too late. Then when all hope seemed to be gone He showed up with a sense of anticipation only to find that Lazarus had long since expired.

From the perspective of the disciples and His friends Mary and Martha, all of this seemed totally out of character with the Jesus they thought they had come to know. It was not like Him to spurn the cries of the hurting and distressed. It was not like Him to hesitate when someone needed healing, except when it involved their own unbelief which definitely was not the case in this instance. And although Jesus never effectively been intimidated by the threats of His enemies, He generally had always tried to steer clear of aggravating their angst against Him by moving out of the way until things cooled down.

But things had not cooled down this time and the disciples were baffled as to why Jesus would risk His safety by going back to where people were so hostile toward Him. Yes, Jesus was going back in response to the request of His friends for Lazarus' sake, but even the way in which He dealt with that seemed confusing at best. None of this made much sense at all to any of His close friends and everything He was doing seemed to be only playing out for the advantage of His enemies.

From Mary and Martha's perspective it was even more distressing. They had invested much in getting to know Jesus at a very intimate level and felt that they had a special bond with Him closer than most others. They felt that Jesus had a special affection for them because of the many hours He had spent enjoying their hospitality and relaxing in their presence. Given their history with Jesus they felt that their level of faith in Him should be enough that they could expect Him to take care of their crisis, so they had confidently expected Him to answer their prayers in a timely manner.

But Jesus had not come through for them the way they expected. Jesus had not moved to eliminate their fears and cries for help and things had gotten worse. Lazarus was seriously ill and Jesus was nowhere to be seen and it was not long before he was taken away from them in death. But there still remained hope for awhile. They knew that Jesus had raised others from the dead within hours of their dying and so they hoped that maybe He would show up soon enough to bring their brother back to life before all hope was gone and his body began to decompose.

But this was the very point of issue that sometimes we miss in this story. The Jews had a belief that when a person died there was sometimes potential for them to be revived if it happened before the body began to decompose. In modern times we now understand the potential for a person to appear to be dead because they quit breathing but are still revivable. Throughout history stories have circulated of people who were prematurely buried only to wake up later trapped in their graves or tombs and it was discovered that they had violently struggled to get out only to truly die because of their entrapment. So in the mind of the Jews all the previous miracles where Jesus had raised people from the dead could be discounted as not necessarily miraculous because none of those raised had been dead long enough to be certain they were not revivable.

This is the reason Jesus chose to stay away long enough so that Lazarus would be certifiably and totally dead. The Jews believed that if a person was dead for three days then there was no longer hope of their being revived or resurrected. It was this window of hope that the sisters were clinging to believing that if Jesus returned quickly enough after Lazarus slipped into death that He could still bring him back to life. But after four days all hope was gone and their grief became subject to the intense temptation to become bitterness and resentment against Jesus.

This temptation was intentionally amplified by some of the friends of Mary and Martha who lived in Jerusalem but did not share their affections for Jesus. This family was well known in the region and many who were bitterly opposed to Jesus now saw an opportunity to use this occasion to discredit Him more effectively. They moved in like vultures on these hurting sisters to exploit their situation and highlight the unanswered questions that were unavoidable in the way Jesus had handled their situation. They suggested insinuations about Jesus and planted doubts in the minds of those around to try to amplify the negative assumptions that might be made about Jesus' motives and credibility. They were hoping that this was the ultimate chance to really expose Jesus as a fraud and they quickly moved into position among the mourners presenting themselves as ones desiring to console the family.

Jesus was fully aware of all of this taking place. But unknown to His enemies they were actually moving themselves right into an ambush set up for them by God Himself. By attempting to exploit the pain of some of Jesus' best friends they were actually setting themselves up to become exposed themselves. But all of this was as yet unseen by them when Jesus arrived.

Mary and Martha must have wondered how long Jesus would hesitate to do something to address their situation. When Lazarus was sick they knew he needed the presence of Jesus for his restoration and they confidently sent a message to Jesus fully expecting Him to come to their aid. But He did not and things only got worse. They must have begun to question each other saying, Is it bad enough yet? How long will He wait to help us? When will things turn around for us? Is He so intimidated by the threats of the Jews that He is afraid to come back to help us? Where is God when we need Him most?

His disciples may have had parallel questions of their own. Jesus' actions seemed to contradict what they thought they knew about Him and they could not predict what He might do next. They were forced to choose whether to trust His judgment and decisions without explanations or to turn away from following Him. They decided to continue their journey with Him but with open misgivings about the potential outcome.

Do these questions sound familiar? I have certainly resonated with them during some intense periods of trouble in my own life and I am sure it will happen again. I can distinctly remember watching things worsen in my situation, praying earnestly for deliverance only to meet with seemingly no answers from heaven. I began to ask myself, How bad do things have to get before God intervenes? I thought God showed up when people got to the end of their rope and I thought I was there. But when I looked around it seemed He was nowhere to be found. How bad do things have to get before God shows up to rescue me?