Dealing with Death: Part 2:God is Able
(An adapted version of the sermon preached at Zukile Ngete’s funeral on the 8th of June, 2008).
Main Text: John 11:37: Joh 11:33-37 Then when He saw her weeping, and also the Jews who came with her weeping, Jesus groaned in the spirit and troubled Himself. (34) And He said, Where have you laid him? They said to Him, Lord, come and see. (35) Jesus wept. (36) Then the Jews said, Behold how He loved him! (37) And some of them said, Was not this Man who opened the eyes of the blind able also to cause that even this one should not have died?
I. Why we weep when our loved one dies
The question can be asked and rightly so, does the Bible condone weeping? Is it ever acceptable for a Christian to weep, when Jesus promises to give us joy, peace and happiness? Is not weeping a sign of unbelief and despair?
In some traditional beliefs we are told that weeping may actually make things difficult for the deceased in the after life. Tears, as the argument goes, make his or her path slippery thereby further endangering a life that has already ended.
Some Bible believing Christians maintain that weeping is unnecessary since the deceased is said to be in heaven and enjoying himself. Crying will somehow make him or her not to enjoy the bliss of heaven.
Some of us weep even more when we hear such arguments. We weep in a way because many people seem not to understand the cruelty of death. We weep because God our loving Father is seemingly implicated in that which causes pain and anguish. Where shall we go if the one who says? “Come to Me,” is implicated in our reasons for weeping. So we weep, weep because of unbelief. Here are some reasons why we weep:
- Because it is “okay” to weep
- We are angry at God
- Tears are a language which God understands
It is “okay” to weep
Our main text seems to indicate that Mary and Martha wept, that the Jews wept and above Jesus wept. Weeping cannot in itself be a bad thing. We do not hear any rebuke either from Jesus, who could not since He also did His own weeping. We accept the fact that they may have been weeping for different reasons. Mary and Martha were weeping for the loss of their loved one, the Jews were weeping maybe because Mary and Martha were weeping, Jesus wept because all were weeping, He was troubled probably due to their unbelief and their lack of understanding of His mission. But, they wept, so weeping cannot be outlawed.
Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians (I Thessalonian 4:13) admonishes us not to weep as those who do not believe. Here he makes a distinction between crying in despair and crying in hope. It is clear therefore that he is not opposed to weeping as such.
In the last book of the Bible, we are told that God will wipe away tears from our eyes (Revelation 21:4). Wiping obviously follows weeping for whatever reason. God will not rebuke us for weeping but those that are responsible for the weeping are the ones who will be rebuked.
We are angry at God
Yes we are angry at God because we do not understand why He did not prevent that which has caused us so much pain. Like some of the Jews we find ourselves asking if it was not possible for God to prevent the one we love from dying, especially when we know that He had done many other miracles before. We are angry because we feel disappointed. We prayed, but seemingly our prayers were not answered, God kept quiet and did nothing when He could do something.
I believe it is better to be angry at God than for God to be angry at us. Will then God be angry at us for being angry at Him? No, God is not threatened by our anger, and does not need to protect Himself from us. Anger can also be viewed as a sign of belief and trust. In this case we are angry because we believe that God is Able to do that which is impossible. We have seen Him do this before and are disappointed and confused why He is silent today.
We are angry at God because we know He exists. We are angry at Him because we know He is a loving Father who is opposed to evil. We are angry at Him because He is an almighty God and to Him nothing is impossible. Angry because we do not understand why He did not intervene, why He did not answer our prayers.
Tears are a language
Weeping is a clear statement that we do not accept what we are going through. With tears we register our disapproval of what we are experiencing and God understands the language. When we cry we give God the reason (as if He needs one) to act and deal with the cause of our tears. An African proverb says, a child that does not cry shows that it is comfortable and as such it may die with no one intervening (Usana olungakhaliyo lufela embelekweni).
Our cry is an indication to God of our discomfort. While He has promised to comfort us, but the final comfort will take place when He personally wipes the tears from our eyes. This will happen when God has finally dealt with death and the one who is behind all the misery and pain that death brings. When Satan and death are destroyed, then and only then will God begin to wipe the tears from our eyes. This will be perfect “after tears” party. One day we will understand why we are shedding painful tears today. We will understand why God seemingly kept quiet when we know He could have done something.
II. Lazarus was brought back to life but John died!
We are going to take a pause from weeping and do some serious theological reflection as we ask ourselves the question found at the end of our text: Was not this Man who opened the eyes of the blind able also to cause that even this one should not have died? This question does not pose any problems especially when read within its immediate context. Indeed the events of the day did show that Jesus was able to prevent Lazarus from dying. He raised him to life which is by far more difficult than keeping him from dying. We see today in our hospitals how doctors manage to keep patients alive for days but fail dismally to raise them up when they are pronounced dead. So Jesus accomplished far much more than the question demands.
When one looks at a broader picture, the question is worth asking and even gets more complicated. Lazarus was brought to life but John the Baptist died and was buried and that is the end of the story. This happened before the Lazarus event, why then was John not prevented from dying or why was he not raised back to life?Was Jesus who raised Lazarus not able to either prevent John from dying by releasing him from prison or to raise him up?
When we loose our loved we at times find ourselves asking the same question; why did God allow this to happen, we know He could have prevented it. When one person stands up and praises God for His miraculous intervention another stands perplexed for God’s silence in spite of repeated appeals for His intervention.
In grappling with this it might do us good to reflect more closely on the life of John. I believe the story is there for us to find comfort when we face such difficult questions.
Events around John’s death
In Matthew 14 we are told about the tragic death of John the Baptist. The request to behead him was honored and so John died and his headless body was buried by his disciples. The disciples reported the matter to Jesus, but this was after burial. They were obviously not asking Him to do anything; it was just a matter of information so it appears. Jesus did not respond, he drew aside we are told but did not utter a word.
Few days ago when the same disciples came to Him with a nabbing question from John, Jesus had a lot to say about John. This happened back in Matthew 11 when John decided to send his disciples to ask if Jesus was the real Jesus or an impostor. The question was, “should we wait for another or are you the one?” Seemingly John was struggling with Jesus’ lack of intervention. He had not even visited him in prison and yet John had played such a vital role in His life to the point of baptizing Him.
No direct answer was given to the disciples except to invite them to sit and watch what was happening. They saw, the blind receiving sight, the lame walking, Jesus performing wonderful deeds. They were instructed to report this to John who after hearing this seemingly was satisfied. The response was a clear indication that Jesus was able to release John from prison and could have raised him back to life, but had rather chosen not to.
Why Jesus chose not to intervene in the life of John
The question is not about John as such but about us. Why does God at times seem not to be concerned about our plight? We pray but nothing happens. The reasons why Jesus did not save John’s life might give us a clue as to why the same things at times happen to us. There are at least three reasons why John was allowed to die.
- God is in control, He knows why
- John was given the strength to endure
- John will be resurrected
A. God is in Control
It might come as a surprise to us that Jesus while on earth never followed His own agenda. Jesus lived to glorify His father and all that He did was in harmony with the will of His father. We see this clearly towards the end of His life when He chose to follow God’s will even when it meant death to Himself – “not my will but thine…” This characterized His whole life even to the smallest detail.
Jesus healed the sick not for political reasons but as one following God’s will. His schedule originated from heaven and His was to follow it to the latter. In John 5, only the man who had been sick for 38 years was healed. The rest we hear nothing about. In Mark 1:38 responding to a request to make Himself available to those who were seeking for Him, Jesus indicated that there are other places that need Him, and He left.
We have already alluded to the fact that even His death was a sign of obedience to God the Father. When Paul later asked for some kind of thorn in his flesh to be removed, the request was denied. Paul had done miracles everywhere but one miracle was denied in his life his physical ailment was never addressed. Actually all the disciples died in the end and none were raised to life.
God is God and we need to trust that He knows what He is doing. We cannot expect Him to consult us and to decide what to do through a popular vote. Job was not consulted not was he later told why he went through all the pain in his short life. It was when Job came to a point where he started questioning God’s ability that God responded. In chapter 38 to 41, God speaks to Job reminding him that He alone is God and does not need anyone to assist Him in running this universe. Job was forced to admit that God is indeed capable of doing everything.
God chose not to intervene in the life of John for reasons best known to Himself. John was given a mission by God and it is the same God who is supposed to know when that mission has been accomplished. John resigned himself to God’s will and so did his disciples. One may ask what the purpose of prayer is, if God does what He wants to do anyway.
Prayer and God’s Programme
Sometimes we are tempted to think that God is controlled by our prayers. That when we pray we somehow dictate to God what He must do and not do. That is why we stand confused when He does not respond and rather chooses to do something different to our request. We have made a God who hears prayer to be a God who obeys us. We expect Him to listen to us and do as we tell Him failing which we get angry to the point of rejecting Him.
God has a programme prayer should be a way of finding out what the programme is and then to ask Him to do as He has planned. In other words prayer does not give God a “to do list” but accepts a “to do list” from God. Prayer does not get God into action but rather prepares us for a God who is in action. It does not set Him in motion but allows us to be ready for this moving God. It does not bring Him down but brings us up to Him. It does not inform God as if He does not know what we want but prepares us to receive Him.
When we pray we are in actual fact asking God to give us that which He is planning to give us. We are admonished to pray according to His will and in His name meaning that our requests must be in line with His programme. Prayer is not asking God what He should do but is rather finding out what God is already doing. It is true that the disciples healed the sick and performed miracles without saying if it is God’s will. This was so because they knew it was, so prayer is a response and willingness to follow God’s agenda.
The difficult thing for us is to accept the fact that we are humans and are limited in our knowledge. We struggle to let God be God, we sometimes think we can advise and assist Him in running the universe. God loves us and knows what is best for us and not just us but what is in line with His will. God is in the business of running the universe and He will not allow anything that will jeopardize His plans. God is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silent (Habakkuk 2:20).
B. John was given the strength to endure
John did not die a lonely death in his prison cell. The angels were there, the Holy Spirit kept him company. He did not die as a miserable and depressed man in his cell. He was given the strength and the courage to face the demise of his life. God never allows us to carry a burden that is beyond our strength (I Cor. 10:13) and He has promise never to leave us alone.
It is also true as we see in 2 Corinthians 1:8 that when we go through difficulties the feeling is that these are beyond our ability to endure. The same Paul makes that observation. The theory is true, God will never allow us to carry that which is beyond our strength. The experience is true, we often feel tempted beyond our ability to endure. Something can only be a challenge if it feels as if it is beyond your power. We would never pray if we were equal to our challenges. It is when we feel hopeless, weak that we appeal to God for strength. We are often amazed at what we can accomplish in spite of our weakness.
We have yet to understand what it means to have God on our side. In 2 Cor. 4:8, Paul says we are hard-pressed on every side but are not crush, perplexed but not in despair, struck down but not destroyed, all because of God’s presence with us. David says, “even though I walk… I will fear no evil.” Why does God not remove these valleys of death, sometimes He does but at other times HE allows us to walk through. His promise is that He will be with us.
Valleys of death do not remain the same after we have passed through them. Our passing through the valleys has a transformative effect on them. We change them, they turn into a blessing, they become a source of inspiration for all those who come after us. People like Mandela descended down into the valley of death called RobernIsland, when they emerged the Island became a tourist attraction. Some go through difficulties in their lives and powerful inspirational books are produced as a result. Others walk through the valley of HIV/AIDS but emerge as powerful motivators and the very scourge turned into a blessing to many.
Yes the valleys are transformed and the walkers in the valley do not remain the same. Others might be worse than they were before and the valley might be deadlier than before. But many are saved by walking through the valley of death. They are brought to their senses and begin to embrace life in its totality. So it was with the prodigal son, his walk through the valley brought a change of direction in his life.
The death of John the Baptist has brought life to many confused and bewildered minds. It has brought courage and fortitude to many who had had to face torture and premature death.
c. John will be resurrected
John’s death however tragic it may appear, was not the end and was not final. There is something called resurrection and without it life has no meaning. It is indeed true that Lazarus was raised and we would like our loved ones to be raised. But does that mean they should never die? Lazarus is dead, he died again. The only true and lasting resurrection is the one that John is waiting for. John’s death was not failure on the part of God, He will bring him back to life.