An Incredible Moment with Lazarus

Okay, somebody help me out here before I get into the meat and potatoes of this story.

I thought the Mary that put the perfume on Jesus' feet was Mary Magdalene? In this chapter, Gire is saying it is Mary of Mary and Martha. Am I missing something??? So, am I at least right that it was Mary Magdalene and Jesus' mother, Mary, that were the two Mary's at Jesus' crucifixion? If so, where was Mary and Martha then? (Don't you think they would have been there?) Or would that have simply put too many Mary's in one place??? Somebody give these women middle names so I can keep them all straight!

On to the chapter...

Gire writes:

"Why then does the sight of the tomb trouble him? Maybe the tomb in the garden is too graphic a reminder of Eden gone to seed. Of Paradise lost. And of the cold, dark tomb he would have to enter to regain it."

I'm sorry, but I don't think it's any of those things. I see a man who knows he is about to bring a friend back to life but, at the same time, knows that this friend has died while he was away.

Think about it. If you could bring back someone you loved, would it erase the pain you felt when you initially lost them? No, it wouldn't. You can't take back that depth of pain. You can't forget that heartache. Even if you could turn it all around as Christ was about to do, I think he would still feelt what all men feel - that horrible, terrifying, dizzying sense of loss. Before Jesus can bring Lazarus back from the DEAD he has to first realize and process that his friend IS dead - hence, the weeping.

It is this crying that makes me realize that they didn't all just fake Lazarus' death to make Jesus look good. This was no magician pulling another great prank. This is Jesus going back to resurrect a friend that had actually died - and had died while he intentionally stayed away.

I'm pretty sure you all have heard me talk about my friend, Jack, before. He battled cancer for three years and died at the age of 26. He died the day I left on a 4-day trip to the Bahamas and he was buried a half-day before I returned. I missed his death. I missed his burial. And when I got home and found out that he had died I thought I was going to go break in two. But - when I realized he died without me by his side - breaking in two would have been a step up. I didn't break in two...

I completely shattered.

It is Jesus' reaction to closing in on the tomb of Lazarus that convinces me like no other place in the bible that Jesus was both man and God at the same time. The God in him knew he was going to raise his friend from the dead but the man in him knew his friend had died - and, what's worse, he died without him.

How can you explain his reaction except to say that this man was God and man simultaneously? He wept and then he saved him.

I grew up thinking that God stood back and watched us all - putting different circumstances before us to see how we would react - manipulating us to get us over to His side. I never knew about the side of God that cried for us. That saved each and every prayer we ever wrote to Him. That would be able to recall every time we ever sang His praises or glorified Him.

I always thought that I had cried alone for Jack.

But, once Julie D. explained the story of the Prodigal Son to me, that's when I knew who God really was - that as soon as my heart completely and totally emptied out all of its pain and pride and stubborness, God instantly rushed in to fill it up with His love so the other stuff would have no place to come back to - there would be no room for them now. But it was in her explanation that He saw me coming towards Him in that moment and that He RAN to me - RAN TO ME - that changed who God was in my life.

In some weird way, I knew that fact twas true the very moment that she said it because I knew that it was true the night this all happened. In my total state of despair, pills in hand and ready to give up, I could hear God's thunderous footsteps roaring across heaven to catch me once my heart had finally opened up to Him in the minute before all this. Can you imagine? God running to YOU? To catch YOU? To save YOU? You, who had squandered the better part of 45 years of life putting yourself above Him? And He still hears your cries and runs to YOU?

If you can believe that, then you can certainly see why the one who would raise Lazarus from the dead would also weep in grief for his long devoted friend.

That's how deep His mercy goes. That's how forgiving His character is. That's how much He loves us.