By Pastor Greg
A
shipwrecked sailor had spent several years on a deserted island. Then one
morning he was thrilled to see a ship offshore,
and a smaller vessel headed toward him. When
the boat is grounded on the beach, the
officer handed the marooned sailor a bundle of newspapers and told him,
"With the captain's compliments. He said to read through these and let us
know if you still want to be rescued."
In light of what’s happening in the world today, I don’t know, I’d probably
stay.
This
world is a real mess. Oh, I know it used to be such a
lovely place. It really was, and God put Man on this planet as an overseer – a
steward who was to watch over this world.
However, all that changed one day.
Humanity rejected God and instead aspired to become like God (Genesis
3:5). Through this disobedience, not
only did sin enter this world but so did
death. And where there is death there is
the reminder that sin is also present.
Down through the ages humanity has
demonstrated just how ugly, dark, and evil it truly is. In the early years, this ugliness dominated
the world. Evil was everywhere. The darkness of Mankind nearly overcame the
world. In those early days, “the Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great on the earth,
and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. The Lord was sorry that He
had made man on the earth, and He was
grieved in His heart” [1]
(Genesis 6:5-6).
Please don’t miss this. God’s heart was broken by the darkness
lurking in the hearts of humanity. Of
course, this sin led to death, which is exactly what God had warned would
happen. Sin leads to death. It’s not that God was vengeful or
spiteful. His heart was grieved. He took no pleasure in the death of these people. As he spoke through Ezekiel, God said “As I live, declares
the Almighty Lord, I don’t want wicked people to die. Rather, I want them to
turn from their ways and live. Change the way you think and act! Turn from your
wicked ways! Do you want to die, people
of Israel”?[2]
(Ezekiel 33:11).
In Jesus’ day, humanity
demonstrated just how ugly, dark, and evil it truly was. It seemed this ugliness dominated the
world. Evil was everywhere. Just like His Father, the Son was grieved
when He encountered death. He wept when
He saw what sin had produced in this world.
Look at how Jesus responds to the death of His friend Lazarus. In John 11:1-35 we read, A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in
Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. 2 This is the Mary who later poured the expensive perfume on
the Lord’s feet and wiped them with her hair. Her brother, Lazarus, was sick. 3 So
the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is
very sick.” 4 But when
Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the
glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” 5 So although Jesus loved
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the
next two days. 7 Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
8 But his disciples objected. “Rabbi,” they said, “only a few
days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there
again?” 9 Jesus replied, “There are
twelve hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely. They
can see because they have the light of this world. 10 But at
night there is danger of stumbling
because they have no light.”
11 Then he said, “Our
friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up.” 12 The disciples said, “Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get
better!” 13 They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had
died. 14 So he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And for your sakes, I’m glad I
wasn’t there, for now you will really believe. Come, let’s go see him.” 16 Thomas, nicknamed the
Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.” 17 When
Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his
grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles down the
road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to
console Martha and Mary in their loss. 20 When Martha got word
that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha
said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have
died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever
you ask.” 23 Jesus told her, “Your
brother will rise again.”
24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises,
at the last day.” 25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will
live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and
believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told
him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who
has come into the world from God.” 28 Then she returned to
Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is
here and wants to see you.” 29 So Mary immediately went to him.
30 Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where
Martha met him. 31 When the people who were at the house
consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to
Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there. 32 When
Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you
had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus
saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled
up within him, and he was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?”
he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then
Jesus wept. [3]
I don’t think Jesus wept simply because
He had deep compassion for those who were suffering. I mean, He
did, but His tears were for something else as well. I think the ugliness of death broke Jesus’
heart, just as God grieved when He saw
the condition of the world. Consider
that Jesus knew He would speak Lazarus back to life (verse 11). So if Jesus knew this, then why was He angry?
Why did He weep? Jesus was angry because He saw that humanity
had been poisoned by sin and that by its
contamination, good people like Lazarus
would die.
In recent years, humanity has
demonstrated just how ugly, dark, and evil it truly is. This ugliness seems to have dominated the
world. Evil is everywhere. It appears the darkness of Mankind has nearly
overcome the world. The world today
continues to be just as wicked and evil as it was in Noah’s day. Bad people are doing bad things. People die for no apparent reason. Some die suddenly, some die tragically; some
people die innocently – too young, it seems, to experience death. Watching people die all around us, we echo
the words of Martha – “Lord, if only You
had been here, my brother would not have died” (verse 21). We want to ask the Lord why He doesn’t seem
to care. Why doesn’t He do something
about all this death?
The tears of Jesus must teach us
something. They show us the Lord is grieved by a
world blemished by evil, hatred, anger, and sin. When we weep at vicious murders, so too does
the Lord. We shake our heads in
disbelief, wondering how this world could be so cruel. We know things are not as they should
be. The tears of Jesus teach us that He
feels this same way as well. The
difference is, the Lord’s solution to the problem is not quite what we
expected.
God is still grieved by the
actions of humanity. Yet rather than
destroy the world once again, God planned to SAVE the world. God’s answer to evil, hatred, anger, and sin is
His Son, Christ Jesus, who would lay down
His life to overcome sin and take death captive. God’s plan goes way beyond removing death
from our lives. He intends to eliminate the stain of sin. Look at the Lord’s promise to Martha. “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me
will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes
in me will never ever die” [4]
(John 11:25-26).
What we often forget is that those
who were given back their earthly life would still eventually die. Even if Jesus put an end to wickedness, evil,
and murder, people would still die.
Lazarus eventually dies again.
Undoing the effects of death does not remove the reason for death. The reason there is death is that there is sin. And
what Christ did on the cross was to pay the penalty for our sin so those who
believe will live, even after dying.
I know it’s difficult to make
sense out of all these recent tragedies.
What we are seeing is the effect of sin.
We are given a glimpse into the sinful hearts of humanity. Protesting war and starting some human rights
movement does not solve the underlying problem.
Even if we could remove every evil
person from the face of this earth, the good people left would still die -
still bearing the effects of sin. Sin
causes death. Take away sin and you take
away death. This is why the world needs
a Savior, who can overcome sin.
Frankly, we should be weeping over
this world just as the Lord weeps. In
all honesty, when we see the evil hearts of humanity, it should remind us just
how desperately this world needs Jesus.
Help us, Jesus of Nazareth.
You’re our only hope.
[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. 1995 (Ge 6:5–6). LaHabra,
CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3] Tyndale House Publishers.
(2007). Holy Bible: New Living
Translation (3rd ed.) (Jn 11:1–35). Carol Stream, IL.
[4] Tyndale House Publishers.
(2007). Holy Bible: New Living
Translation (3rd ed.) (Jn 11:25–26). Carol Stream, IL.
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