John 11:32-37
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 wept. 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?”
Recently, we received the news that my wife’s grandfather, Chuck, was in his last days and if we wanted to say goodbye we needed to come visit. In a somewhat impressive fashion, our family threw together our bags, booked a flight, and arrived at our gate 10 minutes before take off. The next day we spent our valuable moments with Chuck saying goodbye. The doctors had told us that Chuck had maybe days, so once we had said our goodbyes and wore ourselves out, we went home to rest. As soon as we got back to the in-laws house, Kadra’s mom called and said to come back as quickly as we could. We jumped in our cars, sped back to the hospital, and my wife ran up to see her grandpa to have already given up his spirit.
We all wept much like Jesus wept in his late arrival to see his good friend Lazarus. There is a sense that is just like what Mary said to Jesus in thinking if only we had stayed a little longer, we at least would have been here when he died. We ourselves have no power to speak the words to call the dead out of the grave, but we do want what little control we have over life and death. If only we had been there…
We who have who have very little control over life and death did what Jesus did not. Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick and even still waits two more days before he even travels to see Lazarus. Now Jesus couldn’t jump on a flight, and in his time the fastest mode of transportation could only be connected to cammells. Suffice to say it is fair that we are not sure how long it took for Jesus to get back to his very sick and even dying friend. Had we done what Jesus did we would not have been able to spend valuable last minutes with what many called “a more alert” Grandpa Chuck. Much like Jesus, we would have arrived too late. In that situation many have begged the question of the years of multiple deaths if they should have done something different in those last days. We would say this was our plan, and had things gone differently, maybe we would have been able to say goodbye.
I find the connection stunning. Mary believes that if Jesus had been there sooner, well, then, maybe things would have gone differently. Regardless of how we are forced to say goodbye because we are fragile human beings, I think it is fair to say that we all wish our loved ones would, to borrow from Rod Stewart, stay forever young.
