Day 23 - “Oh my word!”

Reading: John 11:38-57

What an emotional punch it must have carried when Lazarus first appeared from the tomb.

But I can’t help feeling that after the event the family had a bit of a chuckle about it. You’re familiar with the scene, I hope. Something deadly serious has happened in the past, but when you relive it, maybe even years later, you find yourself crying with laughter at some of the details. “Do you remember?” Martha says to Mary, “when Lazarus waddled out. Ha ha! He had so many linen strips around him he walked like a duck!” “Yes,” says Mary, “and then you asked him how he was feeling, and he said, ‘Mmph mmph mmph!’ Hilarious!”

I’m sure they saw the funny side. The chief priests and Pharisees, however, didn’t. It seemed to them that this was the final proof that their actions so far had been totally ineffective. As they contemplated the implications they came to the conclusion that Jesus had to die. Amazingly Caiaphas, no friend to Jesus, prophesied that his death would actually benefit everyone. None of them could have imagined how the number of Christ followers would explode after his resurrection.

Hindsight, as they say, is a wonderful thing. Decisions that were difficult seem obvious. Momentous events seem trivial. Much, but not all, is seen with greater clarity when we have the benefit of perspective. Like someone getting to the end of a book, we can see to some extent how life’s various threads tie up to make something meaningful.

But we’re not at the end of the book yet, are we? (Some of you might think you’re in the last chapter, but who knows!). And until every story is completed and God puts the binding on the great tomes of history, we will never fully understand or appreciate why things happen (the good or the bad) or how important they are in the grand scheme of things. And so until then we trust: trust in God because of what he reveals about himself in his Word, in his world, and in his dealings with us.

Response

Take a book, place a bookmark in it, and put it in an unusual and prominent place for the next few days. Remind yourself each time you see it that God’s story is not yet finished.

Roger