Lent Exercises: Grave - A Reflection on Love and Death

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I spent a week in the hospital when I was a kid.   I was weak, dehydrated, and feverish. Visiting hours were strictly observed.  Even when visitors were allowed, few came for me.  I was miserable.  

Hour after hour I prayed asking Jesus for healing.  I prayed earnestly, sincerely, and with as much faith as my child’s heart could muster.  The pain got worse.  Healing was slow and unnoticeable.  I felt invisible to God and forgotten by my family. 

Did Mary and Martha feel invisible and forgotten as they watched their brother die?  Did they hold their breath in hope only to be disappointed?  Did they doubt Jesus even cared about them? 

John 11:38-44 reveals a God whose love is deeper than we can imagine. 

When Jesus comes to his friend Lazarus’ tomb.  John describes Jesus as being, “greatly disturbed.”  This is a curious phrase given the context.  Jesus has already told his disciples he was going to “wake” Lazarus from the sleep of death.  Jesus had hinted to Martha that he intended to raise Lazarus as well.  So why was Jesus greatly disturbed? 

Is it possible that Jesus’ disturbance has to do with his own death?  John’s gospel doesn’t give us Jesus in great distress in the garden of Gethsemane.  It gives us Jesus in great distress at the tomb of his friend.  What if Jesus’ distress as he asks for the tomb to be opened, is not because he’s going to call Lazarus to come out of the tomb, but because Jesus intends to enter the tomb himself?  

If John intends us to make this connection, and I believe he does, it puts his words to Martha in greater context.  “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”  (John 11:40). Throughout the book of John, the concept of glorifying God refers specifically to Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Here they operate at two levels.  Martha believes that Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  She will see Jesus raise her brother from the grave.  But she will also see God’s glory in the face Jesus on the cross. 

Jesus delay in returning to Bethany was not a failure of love on his part.  Jesus loves Lazarus enough, not just to raise him from the grave, but to take his place there.  We may feel invisible or forgotten.  We are not.  God reveals his love for us in Jesus who took on our death so that we may experience his life. 

Have you ever felt invisible to or forgotten by God?  

How does Jesus’ entering into death speak to those feelings? 

Imagine you’re in this scene with Jesus.  What invitation does Jesus have for you?