Friday April 15, 2011

John 11:35-40

"And Jesus wept. So the Jews said, 'See how he loved him.' But some of them said, 'Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?' So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. Jesus said, 'Take away the stone.' Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, 'Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.' Jesus said to her, 'Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?'"

So the Little Black Book had an extremely useful detail in its reflection today. Apparently, it was the Jewish belief that the soul hovered for three days after death. But this was the fourth day. Jesus was not a medium communicating with and restoring the detached spirit of Lazarus, Jesus is our mediary to a far more distant and far more wondrous place.

This also means that Jesus would have missed, in the minds of the Jews, any chance of saying goodbye to Lazarus. I feel like that's a plot that happens constantly on television shows these days - "I didn't even have the chance to say goodbye" and then an elaborate gesture of some kind enables the character to after all. But this strikes me as the reason that story can exist. Because here we are given solid proof - it's never too late. Death is merely a trauma that befalls the living, not the end. In death there is a promise, of the reunion to come. Often when hope and memory seems to have faded completely.

The fourth day must have been rough in Jewish mourning periods. For three days you can imagine that your loved one is still here, you can see them in every shadow and echoing off of every surface. Then on the fourth day they aren't there anymore. Having a concrete day, and so soon on the heels of death, when that is true seems more heartbreaking than the way we do it now - when we're ready, we admit that our memories do not constitute ghosts. We admit that the smell has faded from their old clothes. We admit our lives have changed so much it's hard to conjure up just what they would say about our days.

And it's on that day for Martha and Mary, that dreaded fourth day, that Jesus arrived. It was on that fourth day that Martha and Mary both came to Jesus and professed their continued faith, along with their confusion that He did not come soon enough. And that faith was rewarded with unexpected hope. A hope too glorious to let yourself believe you could possess it. Something far better than the shadow you've clung to.

When we have walked the full length of the Valley of Tears with all of our ghosts, then we will find, on that fourth day, not despair and loneliness finally settle in for good, but the reunion we dared not hope awaited us on the other side. Now I understand better what John means, "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was." So that the gift would be truly wondrous, and truly a promise of the many reunions to come throughout time.

Dear Lord, help me to hold on to my faith and hope in my despair and be willing to let go of the past in order to look forward to reunion and reconciliation. Thank You for Your infinite love and blessings and all of the smaller loves You have folded into Your own.