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From The First Baptist Church in America pulpit - Providence, Rhode Island
The Second Sunday of Lent – March 8, 2009
“When Jesus Was Late” (Readings from John 11)
Dr. Dan Ivins, preaching

I figured Daylight Savings Time is a good time to talk about Jesus being late! In John’s story of Lazarus’ resuscitation, Jesus looks bad before he looks good. He was a good friend to “the Bethany bunch.” They knew him well, trusted him a lot. So it’s only natural when Lazarus got sick, his sisters sent word for Jesus to come and make him well. Jesus upset everybody because he didn’t just weep, he stalled. And it was intentional. He didn’t drop everything and rush over to Bethany like any other minister-worth-his-salt would. He milked it all he could and “lingered for two days” for good measure. By that time, it was too late. Lazarus was smelling to the high heavens. John goes out of his way to show Jesus wouldn’t go out of his. 

John points out how “Jesus loves them.” But that doesn’t stop the sisters from laying guilt-trips on Jesus, blasting him for his tardiness that cost their brother his life. “If you’d only been here, our brother wouldn’t have died.” And they were right. Jesus was deliberately absent. And their brother didn’t make it. John highlights this part of the story where Jesus dawdled. Mary and Martha have a point. They both believed he could’ve saved her brother. But Jesus would rather raise him! ‘Cause when we’re suffering we want somebody to suffer with us, not lecture us. But “I am the resurrection and the life…” She could care less if “Jesus wept,” because for her, Jesus failed! Where is God when you need him? Isn’t that what this is really about? What could’ve been so important to Jesus, to have prevented him from being with his best buddies at crunch-time? I know I’d get in a heap o’ trouble for doing something like that. At face value, what Jesus did is a violation of basic human compassion and would flunk the elementary instincts of pastoral care. Why was one so responsible, compassionate, and loving, so tardy? Live with that one awhile, and learn something about heaven’s ways in the world. Is there a message underlying Jesus’ negligence?

For one thing, we discover the unpleasant truth that Jesus sometimes saves us by his absence as well as his presence. What he doesn’t do for us, instead of what he does. John makes a lot of Jesus’ truancy in that regard. Mostly because he knew there were a couple of things they could do. For one thing, somebody had to roll away the stone. After that it fell to them to remove the grave clothes. Jesus’ seemingly senseless behavior throws them all for a loop. It’s so much at cross-purposes with how we think people ought to behave. Jesus not only commends those who mis-behave, but here he misbehaves! It’s the challenge of loving somebody when you’re not there. Or expecting them to pull their weight, when they want him to do it all. It’s the challenge of loving somebody when you’re not with them.

I’ve known of families where absence is the epitome of disloyalty. “If you loved us, you wouldn’t leave us.” Moving away puts you on the “black list.” Parents use the guilties to keep their kids under their thumbs. Jesus’ absence for the sisters meant he came up short in the “loving department.” That’s the crack we get into when people expect one thing of us and God has other ideas. Jesus had bigger things in mind that can’t be confined to their localized expectations. Most of us want Jesus for ourselves. So we can keep him under our thumbs, and what he can do for us.

That was the last temptation he faced in the wilderness. They wanted him to be the warrior of their nationalistic concerns. But he’s set on being “the light of the world.” They want him to be their personal rescuer, heal their private hurts, protect their individual interests. But Jesus is intent on redeeming all humanity. They wanted it for Israel only. But God has “other sheep that are not of this fold.”

In Bethany was an immediate concern: “Lord, him whom you love is sick unto death.” They expected him to respond to their personal plight, but his mission was not confined to what they declare to be urgent. Jesus is Lord because he transcends all of our little-corners-of-the-world. And that bugs the dickens out of those folks, who have an investment in him being Lord of some. When Jesus’ wanted to know “Where have you laid him?” It’s not a request for directions to the graveyard. And their response “Come and see” is not the offer of a map to get there. The sisters think that’s what it is. But they’re like the bystanders in the Fourth Gospel -- they just don’t get it. Yet John has them saying far more than they realize, so we’ll get it. The entire drama of redemption lies in that brief exchange: “Where? Come.” It touches one of the thorniest human problems: living between life’s urgencies and the resolution of our emergencies.

Likewise, Jesus’ overarching duty transcends our paltry definitions of what constitutes a priority. People die all the time. But this wasn’t just any death. This was Jesus’ friend. From Bethany’s perspective, one of their families was in dire straights. And Jesus? If he’d been a “good shepherd,” he would’ve dropped everything just to rush by their side. But Jesus will not drop the world, just to save them. And not just Bethany; but Gaza too. And that really wrankles those who think the place belongs to them. He couldn’t even save himself, and save us too. Jesus’ friends misunderstood that God is more interested in eternal life for all of us, than an empty grave for one of us. Everybody in the story is focused on preventing death. Only Jesus is intent on outliving it.

Another thing is, God is not controlled by a little thing like terminal illness. Even if it was Jesus’ friend. Death doesn’t determine his agenda. Jesus sets his own clock. And he doesn’t hop when death says jump! His mission can’t be restricted to just his friends. Jesus will not allow sickness and death to set his agenda. Nor will he allow death to rule his time. God doesn’t set his clock by anybody’s death. It’s not that way in the world. Death is in charge of time. Somebody dies and we ask “when?” “When” is a funeral word. What time will we conduct the funeral? Time has stood still since so-and-so died. But the world goes on, and so does God.

The same goes for hospitals. You’ve heard the crackle over the intercom for “code blue?” Code blue is a signal to all hospital personnel that a patient is in cardiac arrest. All normal duties immediately cease. Everybody drops what they’re doing and rushes with emergency equipment to the side of the afflicted patient. It’s total chaos. All routines are put on hold, like an ambulance running through a red light -- death has sounded the alarm and pushed the stems on our stop watch. The clock is running. Every second counts. Code blue is when doctors and nurses are obeying death’s time table for a good cause, to save a life.

But not Jesus. He gets a code blue on Lazarus because death, that ol’ clock-watching slave driver, has dialed 911. So he should stop what he’s doing because his presence is demanded elsewhere. Nope. Jesus doesn’t respond to death’s timetable. Jesus is Lord of time and death and only his death will set the times and seasons. So Jesus takes his sweet time because, well it is his time. He’s Lord of the Sabbath and every other day. He’s Lord of all the ticking minutes and desperate seasons of life. He’s Lord of birthdays and dying day. He was there at the beginning of time, before all time, and through him creation came to be. And he will be there at the end of it, and beyond. God is not time-bound. There’s One here, says John, who won’t jump just because death snapped its fingers.

Our kids learned about daylight savings time by accident. We let our young’uns play outside but expected them to be in by 5:00 pm. That was our rule. They knew this by the force of habit. But one spring day, Daylight Saving Time threw our oldest a curve, when she was late getting home. A good scolding was waiting on her from Mom for being late. “You know our rule. You must be home by 5.” Obviously puzzled, she pointed to the window and said, “It’s still daylight; the light tells me when to come home.” Ah that’s it. So Mom explained how the time had been changed early that morning while she was still asleep. So the clocks were reset for more daylight and less darkness. Upon hearing this, her eyes narrowed and she responded suspiciously: Does God know about this?

“And a little child shall lead them…” We learn a lot from our kids don’t we? Our youngster had just shared John’s theological vision. God knows about time. The children of God are not to tell time by death’s clock, but by Jesus’ light. Jesus arrived in Bethany on his schedule, not the grim reaper’s. When he stood before Lazarus’ tomb, who’d been dead four days, Jesus the Lord of the present, said “Lazarus come forth!” As he reached over into the future of resurrection morning and reversed the past of Lazarus’ death. Earlier John wrote: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him...can change their clocks!” Instead of watching the clock, waiting for death to come calling when the hour hand will cease to move, Jesus came calling with life eternal.

When Jesus finally arrived in the village of Bethany, everybody was upset because he was woefully late. “Oh man, you’ve done it now, Jesus!” But when he thundered out: “Unbind him and set him free!” that stinker wobbled out of the tomb with eternal light sparkling in his eyes. And wherever this story is told, people could see...that Jesus was right on time. When it comes to time, all I wanta know is, “Does God know about this?”

Prayer (3/8/09)
Living Lord, we humbly and thankfully bow before Thee, who alone has power over life & death. Humbly, because of our overwhelming love of life. Thankfully, because Jesus gives us what we need when we need it. We praise him who is our resurrection hope; the Jesus who weeps and has nobody to wipe away his tears; the Jesus who identifies with our pain and grief. We believe with Martha and Mary O God, that you will give to him whatever he wants...most days. I hope we believe in it on dying day.

Let this hour of worship be a time for removing whatever binds us. Let it resurrect us from the tombs of fear. And restore the ripples of laughter than limits our pretensions. We thank Thee for the continuity with those who followed in another day. Give us confidence in your power to bring life out of death today, that even if we die, yet shall we live. Wipe away our tears so we can be a part of this church’s healing mission in a world of senseless suffering, where the problems won’t go away in a society nearing its breaking point. Grant us patience to see that your timetable is different from ours.

We pray for those who are expected to produce more than they can deliver. For those in need of work but find the market tight. Draw near to the despondent, and all who inch away from Thee and now suffer from remembered gladness. Impart to those having a tough go of it, the courage to hang on one more day. Bless now our gathering the name of Jesus -- in awe of the life he lived, the death he died, and his presence with us now. Amen.