Yet, being stressed is the perfect time to remember that God took on human flesh, a human mind, human emotions, and divine love in Jesus. Jesus is first and foremost our friend. Sometimes we forget that when Jesus lived among us he had friends just as we do. Yes, he had his apostles, disciples, and followers. But he also had friends who lived normal lives, lived in normal houses, people he could relax with, share stories of his ministry with, people who loved him enough to relieve his loneliness.
Three of his best friends were Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus, whom he would visit and have meals with at their house in Bethany. Martha and Mary had one terrible tragedy befall them, one time when their stress was so overwhelming that they began to doubt Jesus' friendship, began to lose faith in who he was. They could not begin to understand that Jesus turns brokenness into purpose.
The Gospel story of this catastrophe begins to unfold when Lazarus suddenly becomes very ill. Martha and Mary send a touching note to Jesus: "He whom you love is ill." "He whom you love!" There is no doubt in the sisters' minds that Jesus and Lazarus have a very close friendship. There is no doubt in their minds about what Jesus will do: come immediately and heal his friend. If we are close with Jesus, isn't this what we always think at first? Jesus will understand our tragic situation in the way we do. Jesus will immediately come to us and do what WE think is best.
But Jesus doesn't go immediately to Lazarus, even though the apostles let him know very clearly that they think that he should.
Finally Jesus tells the apostles that he is starting out for Bethany: "Our friend Lazarus is asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." The apostles take what he says literally; if Lazarus is asleep, he should be fine.
"No," Jesus explains, "Lazarus is dead."
By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has been dead for four days. Many friends and relatives are already in the house with Martha and Mary to help them with the rituals of mourning: expensive ointments and spices were used to anoint the body, and for seven days after the death the surviving relatives were not allowed to do any physical work. Their work was to mourn, and friends and relatives mourned with them and consoled them. Undoubtedly Martha and Mary's grief is compounded by the stark fact that their friend Jesus ignored their request and let his friend Lazarus die - after he has healed so many!
Martha's anger and confusion is clear as she greets Jesus: " Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
How often have we cried out to God with the same words: "Lord, if you had only been here, this terrible thing wouldn't have happened!"
Yet Martha is also showing Jesus her faith; Jesus has the power to make things right! Fr. James Martin, S.J., in "Jesus A Pilgrimage" captures the reality of Martha's response:
"Is she rebuking him (Jesus) or showing her faith? Perhaps both. Martha mirrors many of us in times of pain; we toggle between anger and hope, confusion and belief. In the depths of sadness, it's sometimes hard to believe, much as we know we would like to, or should. Martha shows the entirely human struggle between fear and faith."
Then Martha adds "But even now, I know that God will give you whatever you ask of Him." Has she heard that Jesus has raised the son of the widow of Nain from the dead, and the daughter of Jairus from the dead?
Jesus offers her comfort: her brother will rise on the last day, according to Jewish tradition. But he goes even further: "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die."
And Martha, in the midst of the ocean of pain and grief that is overwhelming her, professes her faith: "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into this world."
Mary rushes to greet Jesus, kneels at his feet, and repeats her sister's words of grief; why didn't he come earlier? Jesus asks where Lazarus is buried. Mary answers "Come and see." She takes him to the tomb and Jesus weeps. The crowd murmurs "See how he loved him!" What is Jesus feeling? He loved Lazarus! He is weeping out of grief for his friend, and the pain his death has caused his sisters. He is weeping because the reality of that death is seeping in as he stands by the burial site. How often does death finally become real for us at the sight of a body, a coffin?
Jesus is both divine and human. He declares he is the resurrection and the life, yet he also weeps in compassion. In Jesus, God weeps for Lazarus - and for us.
Lazarus has been dead for four days. Jews believed that the spirit left the body after three days. What more can Jesus do? Yet he asks for the stone to be rolled away. In first century Palestine, it was common to bury the dead in a natural cave or a hole carved into the rocks with several shelves for bodies. A tomb's opening was covered by a stone that fit into a groove dug into the ground so the stone could be rolled away at the time of another burial.
Practical Martha resists: "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days." How like Martha we are! Fr. Martin observes
"How often do we find ourselves focusing on the small problems (it will stink) or rehearsing past grievances (you're late) rather than trusting that God may bring about something new?"
Jesus, as always, remains calm. He prays, "Father, I thank you for having heard me." Then he says in a loud voice "Lazarus! Come out!" The dead man, wrapped in his burial clothes, emerges from the tomb; Jesus tells the crowd, paralyzed by amazement, "Unbind him, and let him go."
How often we forget that God is always ready to do something new in our lives! How often we forget that God wants to give new life to the dead and deadened parts of ourselves that we keep hidden away in tombs that we have constructed to keep us "safe" from change and growth! So often God does not give us what WE want in our lives because He wants to give us something so much better, something we could not even conceive of.
In raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus performs his greatest miracle. Jesus assures Lazarus, his sisters, the apostles, the crowds, and all who would believe in His Name that Jesus conquers death - for all of us! And, if Lazarus had not died, and been raised by Jesus from the dead, how would Jesus have prepared his followers for his own death and resurrection?
God is always about awakening new physical, emotional, and spiritual life in us. In our stressful times, we need to have faith and listen, as Lazarus did, to Jesus' voice as he calls us forth from our self-imposed deathly darkness to live again in the sunshine of hope.