What Might Have Been

In filling out the comparison chart and examining the fascinating parallels between these chapters in John, I am starting to catch a glimpse of something John might have been trying to suggest about what could have happened if there had been more bold faith in the first story. The reality is that all of our stories have potential to move in quite different directions and have dramatically different outcomes determined largely on how much faith we choose to bring to our circumstances. God is very often limited by the small level and quality of the faith that we have in Him compared to the infinite resources He has to provide for our needs and His desire to intervene in our situations. The limiting factor in most of our stories is not God's willingness or ability but is our own reluctance to rest and trust in Him no matter what crisis is engulfing our lives or what emotions overwhelm us. I believe this may be part of the message that John was seeking to convey, to alert us that life could be far different if we would only believe in our Father the way Jesus came to reveal Him to us.

I would like to venture into a little inspired (by Scripture) speculation based on what I am perceiving from a closer look at these stories. I ponder what could have happened if Martha and Mary had made different choices in how to relate to their crisis and had chosen to trust and rest their hearts in Jesus when everything seemed to be falling apart rather than slipping into the normal pattern of thinking they were so familiar with.

Imagine how the story of the resurrection of Lazarus might have had far greater impact and the reputation of Jesus might have been far more enhanced if a few people in this story had chosen to believe in Him more than they chose to do. And in the end, the real reason for exercising our imaginations in this way is not so much to produce a story that may seem startling and speculative but to challenge our own hearts to begin to perceive what our own situations could look like if we made more choices to trust Jesus in the dark.

It is to this end that I feel compelled to take on this experiment with these stories, for my own heart longs to see my life and my circumstances more infused and transformed through direct interventions from heaven. I want my life to better reflect the lessons I am learning through meditating on these stories. I want my heart to be more trusting and to view reality from heaven's perspective rather than remaining stuck in the ruts of common thinking and assumptions. I want my experience to be more transformed through lessons of faith rather than simply being a life of religious information from my association with a church.

Rather than speculate about what might have potentially happened if everyone had chosen to fully believe in Jesus, I will choose to consider what might have happened if at least the main characters, those close to Him already, had made different choices along the way resisting the pressure of the status quo. Of course things could have been even more dramatically different if more people had chosen to believe rather than resist Jesus throughout His ministry, but I want to consider what might have happened if just those who had come to know Him intimately had acted more in harmony with the lessons He had already taught them. What if more had reflected on how Jesus had blessed them in the past and had chosen to apply some of the basic lessons of faith they had already received from Him in their current situation? There are many directions the story could have gone differently depending on who made what choices, but I think there are valuable lessons to be gained in meditating on what might have been if more faith had been employed.

Let's take a shot at seeing what might emerge by piecing together some of the clues that John embedded in these passages as he paralleled them so closely and ponder what might have been. Let's try to piece together a scenario that might have taken place in this story of Lazarus based on clues found in the next time Jesus came to Bethany where both of these stories took place.

Lazarus gets sicker and sicker and his sisters become very concerned over him. They begin to discuss their options with each other as they try every remedy possible to improve his condition. They think of Jesus all the time and wonder how they might solicit His help. Nothing else they try is helping and it becomes obvious that without divine intervention they may well lose their brother in death.

So far nothing is different from the story as it may have progressed already.

The sisters send an urgent message to Jesus but with intentional politeness urging Him to come immediately to rescue their brother from his serious sickness. They know in their hearts that death cannot exist in the life of a believer when Jesus is around and their greatest insurance against this enemy is to have Jesus near. They know this not so much from what He has taught them but from first-hand experiences with Him. Mary in particular has experienced the transformational life-giving power that occurs when Jesus' presence is injected into desperate situations. She has come to realize that simply keeping close to Jesus is really the only real safety one can have and so she reminds her sister that what they really need is for Jesus to be there.

Again, all of this likely could have happened in the story as it is recorded.

But as time passes and Lazarus sinks into a coma and finally slips away producing intense grief and arousing deep questions of doubt in the hearts of the two surviving sisters, they now face the ultimate choice of how to react in the face of severe disappointment with God.

Why didn't God answer their prayers when they had done everything possible to please Him? They had done so much to enhance the life of Jesus with their hospitality. They had become close friends with Him and had made their home a welcome safe place for Him to come at any time. So why did God allow such tragedies to come into the lives of people who had devoted their hearts to loving Him and honoring Him? Why does God allow such pain and suffering and even humiliation to come into the experience of those who have placed their trust in Him only to have their prayers go unheeded?

At this point, as in millions of similar stories in the lives of believers, the sisters were facing a severe choice. What would they choose to focus on? What would they allow to dominate their thinking? What picture of God would they allow to dominate when all the surrounding evidence seemed to indicate a God less caring than they wanted to believe? What emotions would they allow to permeate and direct their choices?

In no way do I want to diminish or make light of the intense pain and emotional trauma that any experience during such times of bereavement. But what I do want to suggest is that there are more alternatives than we often are willing to consider in such circumstances. Like Martha and Mary, it is easy to become swept away in the outpouring of sympathy, the grief and all the other emotions that come when such tragedies occur and become blinded by assumptions that keep us stuck there. Far too often sympathy can have a dark side to it that is hidden by the natural compassion people want to show.

I am not suggesting that people intend to paint God in dark colors while they attempt to lessen our pain, yet too often unchallenged negative assumptions about God are woven all through the comments made and the unspoken inferences implying that God doesn't really care as much as He claims to care about us during such times.

This was the core issue for Martha and Mary during those agonizing days, wrestling in their hearts with how to relate to their brother's death and the glaring absence of Jesus. But there was another option available to them that is seldom considered by any of us. What if they had chosen to resist the natural urges that come from intense sorrow and had chosen to fixate their minds on what they had learned about Jesus from their past experiences? What if they had kindly but firmly insisted that all the mourners to go somewhere else if they were not willing to try to exercise this kind of faith so as to avoid being overwhelmed with the typical sentiments about their situation. It is very hard to turn away from what we are used to doing in response to this kind of grief, but the normal reactions we have tend to unduly control our emotions and dampen our faith. But what if these sisters had chosen in place of indulging in being absorbed in the normal emotions surrounding death to separate from all who refused to seek a new path and instead had compelled their hearts to dwell on God's goodness?

They might have chosen to separate themselves from all other influences and intentionally filled their minds with memories of how Jesus had been there for them time and again when they needed help. They could have reviewed what they knew from the Word of God things that had taken on new meaning and challenged old assumptions about God. They could have directly sought God in prayer to show them their painful circumstances with new eyes. They could have chosen to rehearse over and over how faithful they had found Jesus to be and might have encouraged each other to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt even while unable to explain His strange absence in their situation.

Does this sound strange or even bizarre? Yes it does and some may even react to these suggestions with intense indignation or hostility. But I believe these options are very real though very unused alternatives to how we typically think we have to react to bereavement.

As the sisters chose to focus on God's goodness in spite of their own pain, the Holy Spirit could have inspired them to do make dramatic and radical plans contrary to what is normal for such circumstances. Rather than sitting around allowing their pain and other's encouragement of their doubts to darken their hearts, they could have begun planning something totally bizarre and bold. Choosing to believe that Jesus still had their best interest in mind even though they had no explanation as to why He had chosen to delay His return, they could have started planning to use their abilities and gifts to throw a big party for Him for when He would arrive.

Martha was always good at putting on a good spread and Mary could have helped her plan and prepare for it. Certainly everyone would have thought they had lost their minds under the circumstances, but they were choosing to act in ways consistent with their firm choice to believe that Jesus' heart was for them no matter what the evidence might seem to convey or what anyone else suggested about Him. They were going to celebrate the goodness of Jesus that they already knew firsthand and by faith would demonstrate publicly how valuable Jesus was to them.

But rather than having the feast take place in Simon's house, this feast would have been planned to happen right in their own home where Jesus had already enjoyed so much of their hospitality many times before. Choosing to express their belief that Jesus cared for them in spite of the ever-present feelings from their immense loss, they would show the world that Jesus was worth trusting even in the darkest times of life. Like a joyful dance in front of an execution squad, they would choose to smile and laugh in the face of death itself and focus on the truth they were learning about God rather than become saturated with insinuations about Him from the events in their lives.

As the feast was being readied it was brought to their attention that Jesus was at last on His way to Bethany. Yes, there was still intense sadness in their hearts as they could not avoid the emptiness felt in their home where Lazarus had always been with them. But they were going to choose to fill that emptiness with those who were still alive and would give Jesus a welcome fit for a king. They were going to choose to believe that Jesus was their king in spite of how their feelings pushed them to doubt Him and they urged all who were being affected by their choices to trust Jesus to join them in going out to meet Jesus with all the trappings of a king's welcome.

As a bizarre act of courage in the face of logic and emotions, this strange group of people choosing to believe in God's goodness in spite of what had just happened pour out of Bethany to welcome Jesus with shouts of affirmation waving palm branches and laying down their garments to provide a path of honor to welcome Him back to town. Of course His disciples would have been even more puzzled than they were in the original story, but Jesus would have understood completely and would have become animated by the faith of His dear friends. He would have blessed the sisters and would have affirmed them in ways I wish I could imagine myself. But then He would have insisted on a slight change of plans.

Instead of going directly to their home to enjoy the feast prepared for Him and His disciples, Jesus would have insisted on taking the party on a detour to the tomb of Lazarus. This of course would have been a real challenge for the emotions of the sisters who had been seeking to avoid their raw feelings and their doubts, but Jesus would have assured them that their choice to act on faith had not been a mistake. Rather He had come to honor and strengthen their faith and their bold decisions to take the most unusual path they had chosen. But Jesus was not about to leave Lazarus out of the celebration. As an loving affirmation of their trust in Him He was going to march on the citadel of death with a crowd of admirers who were trusting His heart and was going to publicly recapture one of His best friends from the land of the enemy.

As Lazarus' sisters stand in amazement, weeping at what they realize Jesus is about to do for them, Jesus invites them to help Him by removing the symbolic obstacle of death standing between them and their beloved brother – the stone. Excitedly they would have rushed to the tomb along with the others who had come to welcome Jesus and would have collectively thrown it aside like the hated object that had come to represent keeping them from their beloved. Then as they watched with joyful anticipation and baited breath, Jesus would have called out to Lazarus, just as His did in the original story, and Lazarus would have been welcomed to the party with joyful shouts of victory and delirious celebration. There would have been dancing in the streets, tears of joy and worship experiences at the feet of Jesus like never witnessed in history.

As the dancing and joyful shouts of adoration and honor continued, the growing crowd would have swept Lazarus along with them to the feast where Mary would have brought out the alabaster box she had been saving to honor her Savior in the only way she knew best. As Lazarus and Martha watched in amazement, Mary would have showered Jesus with her tears, her perfume and her affection. As everyone watched Mary's supreme act of affection being poured out on Jesus and her love that was beyond even what they could feel, any suggestion that Mary's gift was inappropriate would have been snuffed out instantly.

In sharp contrast with the terrible stench of death so recently encountered at the tomb, the far greater scent of life and love and praise now filled the air and added new incentive to the praise that was on every tongue. This unique act of love and passion on the part of Mary would have inspired others to join in the unusual faith that they had witnessed in her and they would have admired her love and desired to know Jesus more like she had come to know Him.

While it is certainly possible that Judas would have felt irritated by such expressions of affection for Jesus, it might have also been unlikely that he would have felt so ready to expose his selfishness as he did in the original story in the face of such overwhelming evidence of people's affections for Jesus. But even if Judas had made his insensitive comment toward Mary in her own home, Martha and Lazarus might have made it clear to him that Jesus was worth far more than even the expensive gift their sister had chosen to spend on Him. This was a celebration for the real King, not just another party, and the spirit of Judas would have been so out of harmony with the spirit of faith all around him that he likely would have felt compelled to remove himself entirely to avoid exploding from all the resentment and jealously he was feeling toward Jesus.

Could this scenario have actually transpired? I don't know for sure. But I am confident that things could have been radically different if some had chosen the road less traveled, the path of faith in the face of grief and doubt.

I have been starting to sense lately that the real issue I face in my own relationship with God is more along the line of choosing to trust His heart and the characteristics I have been learning that constitute His true identity and disposition toward me more than trying to figure out some formula whereby I can get Him to do for me what I think should happen in my circumstances. So often my prayers fail to take into account His bigger picture but are shaped instead on how I think my problems should be solved without taking into account the larger issues behind the scenes. When I fail to view my circumstances in the context of God's trial in which His character is being challenged and His reputation is under vicious attack, I remain trapped by my narrow and self-focused ideas from religion and on false assumptions about what God really expects from me.

Our perception of reality and of what kind of a God we serve shapes how we relate to Him, what we ask for in our prayers as well as all the decisions we make in our own circumstances. Our picture of God is always what determines how we relate to other people, for we intuitively treat others the way we feel God is treating us.

The only way to change how I treat others, the only way my life is going to come to reflect His character instead of the selfishness and sin that is so natural in my makeup, is to allow Him to infuse a completely new more accurate picture of Him into the deepest places of my soul. As my picture of God is continuously updated my reactions to circumstances follow the same track. The more I perceive the goodness of God, the amazing mercy and kindness and the real truth about how He feels about me, the more my treatment of others will reflect what I am experiencing with Him. This is the process called sanctification that is vitally necessary to prepare me to live securely in His presence throughout eternity.