John 11:28-45
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
45 Many of the Jews, therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him.
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
I’d like to say that I can’t even imagine the pain that Martha’s words caused Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” She’s not wrong. If Jesus had been there, he would most likely have healed Lazarus before he died. Of course, she’s missing the fact that Jesus could have healed Lazarus at any time, from wherever he happened to be…
As a Pastor, I’ve witnessed many scenes like this. A child dies in a horrible accident and the parents blame each other, or whoever was watching the child at the time of the accident – “If you had been watching, our child would not have died”. A sibling chooses not to cut an overseas vacation short after learning that their parent is at the point of death – “If you had come home right away, Dad would have had all his children with him when he died”. A teenager dies driving home from a high school dance – “If we had picked her up instead of letter her drive, she would not have died”. The list is filled with endless regrets.
“If” is a diabolically cruel word that can drive us mad if we give it free reign. “If” claims to know exactly what could have happened in any situation and to be able to predict the future. “If always believes itself to be right because, as an intangible, it can’t be proven wrong.
Jesus doesn’t spend time worrying about “if”. He remains focused on doing the will of God, the Father, regardless of where that takes him or what happens when he gets there. Rather than engaging in endless speculation about what might have happened “if”, Jesus shows everyone what God is doing now. Instead of looking for people to blame, or railing against God for might have been, Jesus calls us to come and see what God is doing here and now.
Prayer: Lord God: I have so many questions. Why did you do this or that the way you did? If things had gone differently, would we have been better off? Set me free from the tyranny of “if” so that I can see your glory revealed in what is. AMEN