WEBVTT 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:07.480 Well, good morning again. My name is Jeff. I'm one of the pastors here at Church of the Advent, 00:00:07.740 --> 00:00:11.800 and if this is your first time joining us, I just want to say welcome. We're so glad you joined us 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:16.399 for worship this morning. I would love to meet you after the service and hear your story and 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:22.240 get to know you more. Our passage this morning, the gospel reading from the lectionary comes from 00:00:22.240 --> 00:00:28.960 John chapter 11, and it's a passage that causes us in this season of Lent to think about 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:38.179 the reality of suffering and death in our lives. When I was in college, I experienced what was 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:46.740 perhaps one of the most painful seasons of my life. I was dating a girl at the time, and I 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:52.439 was, I probably would have told you that I was in love with her. I was pretty sure we were going to 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:58.820 get married, and, you know, we were dating for several months. But after dating for several 00:00:58.820 --> 00:01:07.019 years, for some time, our relationship ended when, to my great surprise and sadness, we actually 00:01:07.019 --> 00:01:13.060 broke up. And I still remember the pain of that time. It was the greatest pain I'd ever felt. 00:01:13.719 --> 00:01:19.439 I still remember what it felt like. I remember it felt like someone had cut me open with a knife and 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:25.599 had just filleted me wide open. And I can still recall the pain and the emotions of that season of 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:30.939 my life. It didn't just last for a day or a week, but it lasted for months and almost a full year. 00:01:31.059 --> 00:01:38.439 And in that season of pain and difficulty, I remember asking the Lord, God, where are you? 00:01:39.919 --> 00:01:46.359 Where are you in this? Why would you allow this to happen? Do you even care? And are you even present? 00:01:47.219 --> 00:01:51.919 Maybe this is a question that some of you have asked before in different seasons of life. Maybe it's 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:56.420 a question that you're asking in this season of your life right now. God, where are you? 00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:00.960 Where are you in these circumstances of pain? Where are you in these circumstances 00:02:00.960 --> 00:02:06.740 of suffering? And if you've ever asked that question, I want you to know that you are in good 00:02:06.740 --> 00:02:12.780 company with every Christian who has ever lived across time and space. And you are also in good 00:02:12.780 --> 00:02:17.520 company with the people in this story here in John chapter 11, because it is the question that they 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:25.100 are asking as well. Martha and Mary and Lazarus were siblings who were friends of Jesus. And we're 00:02:25.100 --> 00:02:30.640 told at the beginning of this passage that their brother Lazarus became sick. And we're not told what 00:02:30.640 --> 00:02:36.800 sort of illness we had, but as the story progresses and goes on, we learn that he eventually succumbs to 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:43.000 this illness and passes away. And as they're grieving the loss of their brother, Martha and Mary ask Jesus 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:48.699 a question, it's the same question that I asked in my season of pain, and it's the question that a lot 00:02:48.699 --> 00:02:57.800 of us would ask. And twice, Martha and Mary both tell Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:03.240 would not have died. If you had been here, this wouldn't have happened. Now, this is a statement, but 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:09.580 underneath this is an implicit question. Underneath this statement is the question, so then where were you? 00:03:09.580 --> 00:03:17.680 We sent word to you. We told you that Lazarus was sick. You could have come. Why didn't you? Where were you? 00:03:18.760 --> 00:03:23.980 It's this admission of this common experience that all of us have whenever we face suffering, whether 00:03:23.980 --> 00:03:29.340 we're Christians or not, whether we're religious or not, whether we're believers in God or not. Some of us 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:34.800 do believe in God. We believe that he's real. We believe that he's loving, that he's powerful, that he's good. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:40.719 And so, because we believe that, we know that it is possible for God to prevent pain in our lives, 00:03:41.340 --> 00:03:48.780 to prevent it from happening. But sometimes he doesn't. And so, we wonder if God is absent, 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:55.700 if he's abandoned us, if he's withheld his love from us. Others of us perhaps may not be, 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:00.760 maybe consider ourselves Christian believers, or we may not consider ourselves to be people of faith. 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:09.859 And yet, others of us, this is a challenge for us as well. And before we really dive into our text 00:04:09.859 --> 00:04:17.139 here in John 11, I just want to acknowledge that there might be some of us who may not be able to 00:04:17.139 --> 00:04:24.099 even hear a sermon about how God could be present in our suffering because we're already convinced 00:04:24.099 --> 00:04:29.579 intellectually that he couldn't. We may not even be able to hear how God could be present in our 00:04:29.579 --> 00:04:33.539 suffering because we're already convinced intellectually that he's not. Perhaps you've 00:04:33.539 --> 00:04:37.459 come to the conclusion that because there's so much pain and suffering in the world, therefore, 00:04:38.139 --> 00:04:44.579 there couldn't possibly be a loving and good God. Perhaps this is an issue that has caused you to 00:04:44.579 --> 00:04:49.819 question your faith. Perhaps this is an issue that has even led you to reject belief in God or 00:04:49.819 --> 00:04:56.199 Christianity. Even if this isn't you, you probably know someone, perhaps have a family or friend for whom 00:04:56.199 --> 00:05:01.399 this is true. And so, before we look more at our passage, I just want to address this briefly because 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:08.920 I think it's an important issue for us to address. And even though we couldn't possibly fully address 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:14.219 the problem of suffering in one sermon, I think it's important for us to consider 00:05:14.219 --> 00:05:21.719 where is God in the face of suffering from the perspective of someone who's not a Christian. 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:30.420 And here's what I would like you to at least consider. I'd like you to at least consider 00:05:30.420 --> 00:05:36.660 that if you say there's so much suffering and pain in the world, therefore, God doesn't exist or 00:05:36.660 --> 00:05:43.320 probably doesn't exist, that you're not actually done dealing with a problem. You're not actually 00:05:43.320 --> 00:05:48.740 done dealing with a problem. You actually have to still find a better way of thinking about suffering, 00:05:48.740 --> 00:05:54.740 and you also have to find a practical way to get through it. You still have to find a better way 00:05:54.740 --> 00:05:59.939 of thinking about it, and you still have to find a practical way to get through it. So, what are some 00:05:59.939 --> 00:06:06.259 of our possible other options? Well, in his book, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering, 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:13.420 pastor and author Tim Keller gives a framework, an overview of ways different philosophies and 00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:18.860 religions and different people have thought about suffering across the centuries. Now, this is not 00:06:18.860 --> 00:06:23.560 a comprehensive list by any stretch, but it represents some of the major ways that human 00:06:23.560 --> 00:06:28.000 beings throughout time and space have thought about this issue of suffering. And so, I just want to cover 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:33.660 a few of them and just look at them real briefly. And the first is the moralistic view. And this is a 00:06:33.660 --> 00:06:39.020 view that you might find in Hinduism or other religions like that. And it's the view that suffering is the 00:06:39.019 --> 00:06:43.479 result of sin or wrongdoing. It's the idea of karma. So, if you're suffering, if you're going through 00:06:43.479 --> 00:06:49.799 difficulty, it's the result of something that you did in your past life. And so, therefore, to get 00:06:49.799 --> 00:06:55.740 through suffering, you have to repent and change your ways so that you won't experience it in the 00:06:55.740 --> 00:07:01.779 next life. It's a moralistic view. Another way to approach pain and suffering is its self-transcendent 00:07:01.779 --> 00:07:07.539 view. You might find this in a philosophy like Buddhism. Buddhism, for example, would teach that 00:07:07.540 --> 00:07:14.760 suffering is not necessarily a result of past sins, but of unfulfilled desires, that desire is at the 00:07:14.760 --> 00:07:19.260 core of why suffering exists in the world. And so, therefore, the way to deal with suffering is 00:07:19.260 --> 00:07:25.520 actually to transcend the self. The way to deal with suffering is actually to remove our attachment 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:31.560 from the material world, to remove our attachment to people and things like money and food and power, 00:07:32.420 --> 00:07:36.900 and therefore to detach from our own human desires. So, the goal in Buddhism, for example, 00:07:36.899 --> 00:07:43.419 would be nirvana. Nirvana means to be extinguished. The goal is to extinguish our desire and, therefore, 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:49.659 to deal with the problem of suffering. There's a fatalistic view, ancient Greek-Roman mythology, 00:07:50.599 --> 00:07:58.120 some streams of Islam, that life circumstances are predetermined either by the will of God or by 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:04.159 forces of fate or by nature of biology. And so, because everything is predetermined, so is our pain and 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:09.300 suffering. And so, the best thing that we can do is just submit to it and endure it. We don't have 00:08:09.300 --> 00:08:15.360 the ability to complain or question the gods or God or the forces of fate, but we just have to face 00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:23.020 it and endure it and submit to it. Finally, here's the secular view, a fourth view. In the secular view, 00:08:23.100 --> 00:08:27.940 suffering and death are just part of a natural process. They're just part of the natural evolutionary 00:08:27.940 --> 00:08:33.759 process, and therefore, suffering and pain are non-moral in the sense that they're not related to good 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:39.299 and evil. They're just part of how things are. They're just a natural part of the fabric of the 00:08:39.299 --> 00:08:46.980 material world. No one has probably, perhaps, articulated this more clearly or with more precision 00:08:46.980 --> 00:08:58.279 and directness than Richard Dawkins, who's a British biologist. And Richard Dawkins, a British biologist 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:05.279 from Oxford, puts it this way. He says, in a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, 00:09:06.299 --> 00:09:11.559 some people are going to get hurt and other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme 00:09:11.559 --> 00:09:18.799 or reason to it nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:29.159 if there is at the bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:37.139 DNA just is. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music. Now, 00:09:38.059 --> 00:09:44.659 that's a pretty direct summary of the secular view, but what Dawkins is saying is that suffering and pain 00:09:44.659 --> 00:09:49.559 are just part of a natural part of the way things are. So, you have the moralistic view, which says 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:54.399 that suffering is a result of sin, therefore you have to repent and change your ways. You have the 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:57.819 self-transcendent view, which says that suffering is a result of desire, so you have to get rid of your 00:09:57.819 --> 00:10:02.240 desire, get rid of your attachment to the material world. You have the fatalistic view, which says that 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:06.919 everything's predetermined, including our own pain and suffering, and so therefore, to get through it, 00:10:06.919 --> 00:10:10.980 we just have to endure it and submit to it. Finally, the secular view, which says it's just part of a 00:10:10.980 --> 00:10:18.100 natural process, and therefore, it's really not a problem in the sense of its being related to good 00:10:18.100 --> 00:10:27.200 and evil. Now, here's what I'd like to put forth. Consider the nuance, consider the ways in which 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:32.680 Christianity might talk about suffering in ways that would be different than these ways of thinking 00:10:32.680 --> 00:10:38.840 about suffering. So, counter to the moralistic view, which teaches that suffering is always just, 00:10:38.840 --> 00:10:47.840 the Bible teaches that suffering is very often unfair and unjust. Bad things often happen to 00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:53.960 good people. We see in Proverbs that the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. Counter to the 00:10:53.960 --> 00:10:59.240 self-transcendent view, the way forward in suffering is not to eliminate our desire. Actually, biblically, 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:04.240 desire is a good thing. God has given us desire, especially for love, and therefore, if we were to 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:09.279 eliminate desire, we would be eliminating our capacity for love, which is what life is primarily about. 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:16.320 And so, therefore, Christianity says that desire is not primarily the main problem. 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:24.460 Counter to fatalism, the Bible teaches that human beings have agency. It's perfectly okay, therefore, 00:11:24.700 --> 00:11:31.440 to question God, to complain, to acknowledge that suffering is a problem, that it's difficult. 00:11:31.440 --> 00:11:37.060 We see this all over the Psalms. The psalmists are constantly complaining and questioning God 00:11:37.060 --> 00:11:44.080 about the existence of difficulty in their life. And counter to the secular view, Scripture would say 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:49.480 suffering is not natural. It's not part of the way things are, not part of the way things should be. 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:57.860 We see pain and suffering and death as an enemy intruder. It's an enemy in God's good creation. It's not 00:11:57.860 --> 00:12:05.340 part of how God originally intended the world to be. And this affirms our deepest intuitions whenever 00:12:05.340 --> 00:12:13.320 we face suffering that this is not the way it should be. Now, if you want to think more about this, 00:12:13.539 --> 00:12:17.240 I really recommend Keller's book to you. It's called Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering. 00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:24.379 But here's the point. Here's the takeaway. If you dismiss belief in God, if you say there's so much 00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:29.340 evil and suffering in the world, therefore God doesn't exist, you're not actually done dealing 00:12:29.340 --> 00:12:32.799 with the problem. You actually have to come up with a better way to think about it, 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:38.799 and you actually have to find a better way to get through it. And what I would put forward, 00:12:38.919 --> 00:12:46.580 what I would at least ask you to consider, is that to say suffering exists, therefore God doesn't, 00:12:46.580 --> 00:12:55.600 is a bit too simplistic, and it's not very practical. And that the Christian view of suffering 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:01.400 actually might be more nuanced, it might be more robust, it might be more explanatory, 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:05.200 and it might be more practical than maybe you've considered before. 00:13:07.220 --> 00:13:12.520 And that leads us back to our story here in John 11, because I think what's here in John 11 00:13:12.519 --> 00:13:18.600 actually gives us something practical, it gives us something that helps us answer our question, 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:23.899 where is God in the face of suffering? And I think in this passage, in John 11, 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:29.220 there are at least three answers to this question. There's at least three answers to the question, 00:13:29.419 --> 00:13:34.879 where is God in the face of suffering? And I want to show them to you from our story here. 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:43.820 So first of all, throughout this passage, we see Jesus interacting, we see the dynamics of his 00:13:43.820 --> 00:13:48.460 relationship with Martha and Mary and Lazarus. If you look at verse 5, verse 5 says, 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:55.720 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. It's evident from the story, Jesus had a close 00:13:55.720 --> 00:14:02.259 relationship with them. He was good friends with them. Such a close relationship that actually in verse 3, 00:14:02.259 --> 00:14:11.519 when Martha and Mary send word to Jesus, they say, Lord, the one you love is sick. The one you love. 00:14:12.139 --> 00:14:17.000 They didn't even have to say Lazarus' name. They said the one you love, and he would know who that is. 00:14:17.100 --> 00:14:26.179 It shows a deep personal relationship of affection and love. In verse 36, when Jesus gets to Lazarus' tomb, 00:14:26.179 --> 00:14:35.199 those who are standing nearby say, see how he loved him. See how Jesus loved Lazarus. 00:14:36.839 --> 00:14:44.799 And friends, don't you see that the same thing is true for us? The same thing that is true about 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:51.319 Mary, Martha, and Lazarus is true for us, and that is that the presence of pain 00:14:51.320 --> 00:14:59.540 is not evidence of God's absence. The presence of pain is not evidence of the absence of God's 00:14:59.540 --> 00:15:04.920 love. Just because we experience suffering does not mean that God has stopped loving us. In fact, 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:11.480 God's word tells us the opposite. We see the opposite here in John 11, Jesus' love for Martha and Mary and 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:15.300 Lazarus, but we also see it throughout Scripture, perhaps most clearly in Romans chapter 8. 00:15:15.299 --> 00:15:45.279 Romans chapter 8, Paul says, 00:15:45.299 --> 00:15:54.339 So where is God? Where is God in the face of suffering? Well, first of all, he's loving. 00:15:55.599 --> 00:16:02.339 He's there. He's present. His love hasn't stopped. The presence of our pain is not evidence of the 00:16:02.339 --> 00:16:08.919 absence of God's love. And this is a short point. It's a simple point, but it's a point that we can't 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:17.219 miss. It's a point that can't be overstated. Not even death can separate us from the love of Christ. 00:16:18.219 --> 00:16:27.159 So where is God? Well, he's loving. But what else is he doing? Where else is he in this story? Well, 00:16:27.219 --> 00:16:33.620 when Jesus finally comes to Bethany, he has a conversation with Martha outside the village. 00:16:33.620 --> 00:16:40.220 Martha runs out to meet him, and Mary initially stays in the house, but then eventually Mary comes 00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:47.580 out to meet him. And what we see in verse 32 is this. Now, when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw 00:16:47.580 --> 00:16:54.120 him, she fell at his feet, saying, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 00:16:55.259 --> 00:17:03.240 And when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:10.819 in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, Where have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come and see. 00:17:10.819 --> 00:17:21.619 And then it says in verse 35, Jesus wept. Jesus wept. This is one of the most moving accounts, 00:17:21.740 --> 00:17:26.240 I think, in all of Scripture, because we see the humanity of Jesus and the divinity of Jesus 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:31.980 coming together in a profound and unique way. As he sees Mary weeping and those around her weeping, 00:17:32.599 --> 00:17:40.679 it says that he is deeply and greatly moved in his spirit and troubled. And the word here in Greek, 00:17:40.680 --> 00:17:48.460 even goes beyond that, the word here actually means angry and indignant, even outraged. That's the 00:17:48.460 --> 00:17:55.440 picture that we get here of Jesus, that he is so deeply moved in his spirit with indignation and even 00:17:55.440 --> 00:18:06.200 anger. Jesus looked at those who he loved, who were grieving, who were in pain. He thought about 00:18:06.200 --> 00:18:15.480 his friend Lazarus, who he loved, who had recently died. He looked at the effects of sin and death 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:20.640 that had ravaged the good creation that he had made. And from the depths of his being, 00:18:21.539 --> 00:18:30.299 he is outraged. He's indignant. He's angry over the fallen world. And then in the shortest verse in the 00:18:30.299 --> 00:18:38.220 entire Bible, we have perhaps two of the most profound words in the entire Bible. Jesus wept. 00:18:39.579 --> 00:18:48.579 Jesus wept. Do you want to know how God feels about your suffering? Do you want to know how God feels 00:18:48.579 --> 00:18:57.099 about pain? Do you want to know how God feels about death? Look at Jesus. He's deeply moved. He's 00:18:57.099 --> 00:19:10.379 outraged. He's indignant. He's full of emotion. And he weeps. God weeps. Where is God in the face of 00:19:10.379 --> 00:19:22.799 suffering? He's weeping. He's weeping. We worship and serve and follow a God who is not aloof from human 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:32.680 suffering, but who weeps over the creation that he loves, who weeps over the people that he loves. 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:40.419 In Jesus Christ, God has actually entered into our suffering. And in the same way that he wept with 00:19:40.419 --> 00:19:47.700 Martha and Mary, he weeps with you. He feels your pain. He is righteously angry and indignant over the 00:19:47.700 --> 00:19:54.140 suffering that you face, over the fallen effects of sin that you endure even right now. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:03.059 And friends, you just got to know, you won't find this anywhere other than Jesus. You won't find this 00:20:03.059 --> 00:20:11.640 in a different philosophy or framework or religion, but you'll only find it in Jesus. And this is 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:17.980 something I really do not want us to miss, especially if we come into the room this morning hurting, 00:20:19.420 --> 00:20:30.420 grieving. Because Jesus not only weeps over suffering and death, but also experienced it himself, 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:38.740 our own suffering can become a means of entering into communion with God. 00:20:38.740 --> 00:20:46.940 Our own suffering can become a participation, a fellowship with the suffering of God. This is what 00:20:46.940 --> 00:20:55.059 Paul says in Colossians chapter 1 verse 24. Paul says that we participate in Christ's afflictions. 00:20:55.160 --> 00:21:00.500 This is not about meriting salvation. This is not that we add something to the atonement of what 00:21:00.500 --> 00:21:07.059 Christ did on the cross. It's about fellowship with Jesus. It's about being united in Jesus. As Christians, 00:21:07.059 --> 00:21:12.839 we believe the gospel is about union with Christ, that it's about being united to Jesus in his life, 00:21:12.919 --> 00:21:24.859 in his death, in his resurrection. But do you not also see that to be united to Christ is also to be 00:21:24.859 --> 00:21:33.859 united to his tears, is also to be united to his suffering, that your suffering is a communion, 00:21:33.859 --> 00:21:40.619 is a participation in a suffering God, that your indignation over suffering and death is a 00:21:40.619 --> 00:21:47.879 participation in the God who is righteously indignant and angry about sin and death's effects of his 00:21:47.879 --> 00:21:55.879 fallen world. I can't put it better than Tish Harrison Warren, who writes these words in her book, 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:01.779 Prayer in the Night, which I commend to you. She says, the church has always proclaimed that if we want to 00:22:01.779 --> 00:22:09.720 see what God is like, we look at Jesus, a man acquainted with sorrow, no stranger to grief, 00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:14.859 a peasant craftsman who knew suffering big and small, and dies as a criminal, mostly alone. 00:22:15.539 --> 00:22:20.319 He met with fractured relationships and the death of friends, with an oppressive empire, 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:27.700 the indignity of poverty and the terror of violence. One night he sweat blood, asking the Father to spare 00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:33.700 him from agony, weeping in the lonely darkness while his friends fell asleep, and soon after he was 00:22:33.700 --> 00:22:42.799 tortured to death. God did not keep bad things from happening to God himself. To look to Jesus is to know 00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:50.120 that our creator has felt pain, has known trouble, and is well acquainted with sorrow. But our hope in 00:22:50.120 --> 00:22:55.559 suffering is not merely to gaze on the biography of an ancient man frozen in the pages of the Bible. 00:22:55.559 --> 00:23:02.119 The story of the gospel is not a mere mantra or relic of history. It is alive and ongoing. The work of 00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:10.799 Jesus continues even now in our everyday lives. So in hardship, we do not look to Jesus solely as one 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:19.339 who has been there before once upon a time in the distant past. We find that he is here with us in the 00:23:19.339 --> 00:23:30.220 present tense. He participates in our suffering. Even as mysteriously in our suffering, we participate 00:23:30.220 --> 00:23:33.319 in the fullness of Christ's life. 00:23:36.919 --> 00:23:44.259 Make no mistake, this does not mean that we look forward to suffering or wish it for ourselves or for 00:23:44.259 --> 00:23:50.400 others. But what it does mean is that when pain inevitably comes into our lives, and it will, 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:59.420 that we know that the same Jesus who wept with Mary and Martha at Lazarus' tomb is weeping alongside 00:23:59.420 --> 00:24:06.319 us, that he participates in our suffering even as we participate in his, that our tears 00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:17.339 are mingled with the tears of the God who weeps. And this, brothers and sisters, is the basis of our 00:24:17.339 --> 00:24:25.419 calling to also share in the sufferings of one another as the body of Christ. Just as Christ shares 00:24:25.419 --> 00:24:31.159 in our suffering and we share in his, so also we share in one another's sufferings as brothers and 00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:39.600 sisters who are united to him. That is part of our calling as the church to, as Romans chapter 12 says, 00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:48.880 to mourn with those who mourn, to weep with those who weep. And in this way, God is present, he is real, 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:57.800 he is tangible in the face of suffering through his body, the church, through his people who show up for 00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:09.139 one another with meals, with hospital visits, with groceries, but most of all with our presence 00:25:09.139 --> 00:25:19.419 and our tears and our prayers. We don't just show up for one another when we're grieving and hurting 00:25:19.420 --> 00:25:30.300 just out of pity. We do it because it is our calling. As those who are united to Jesus, the God who weeps, 00:25:31.100 --> 00:25:39.920 as we participate in the sufferings of Christ, he is present with us. So where is God in the face 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:49.980 of suffering? Well, he's loving. And he's also weeping. But what else is he doing? What else is he doing? 00:25:50.060 --> 00:25:57.600 Jesus tells Martha in verse 25, he says, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in 00:25:57.600 --> 00:26:04.400 me will live even though they die, and whoever believes by believing in me will never die. And this 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:12.360 is the central hope of the Christian faith, that those who believe in Christ not only participate 00:26:12.360 --> 00:26:19.740 in his suffering, but they also participate in his glory. They also participate in the glory of his 00:26:19.740 --> 00:26:24.720 resurrection. He's saying to Martha, I'm not just the God who loves you and who weeps with you and 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:30.500 who's with you in your suffering. I am also the God who conquered death itself so that one day your 00:26:30.500 --> 00:26:37.099 suffering will end. If you believe in me, if you trust in me, death does not get the final word for 00:26:37.099 --> 00:26:44.779 you. Death is not the end for you. You will have eternal life in me. In fact, even though you die, 00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:52.539 it will be as if you never actually taste death because you will live. But Jesus doesn't just tell 00:26:52.539 --> 00:27:00.960 this to Martha. He shows it to us in verses 38 through 44. Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came 00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:09.379 to the tomb. It was a cave and a stone lay against it. And Jesus said, take away the stone. Martha, 00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:13.720 the sister of the dead man, said to him, Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been 00:27:13.720 --> 00:27:19.960 dead four days. Jesus said to her, did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? 00:27:19.960 --> 00:27:26.019 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you 00:27:26.019 --> 00:27:30.460 have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I say this on account of the people standing 00:27:30.460 --> 00:27:36.779 around that they might believe that you sent me. And when he had said these things, he cried out in a 00:27:36.779 --> 00:27:46.539 loud voice, Lazarus, come out. And the man who died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips 00:27:46.539 --> 00:27:52.799 and his face wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to him, unbind him and let him go. 00:27:54.500 --> 00:28:00.659 This might be a familiar story for some of us, but don't let the familiarity of the story 00:28:00.659 --> 00:28:08.500 keep you from seeing the wonder of this moment. Jesus Christ, by the power of his word, 00:28:08.500 --> 00:28:16.720 raises a man from death to life. And this is not just a one-time event. This is a preview of what 00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:22.500 he will do for every person who believes and trusts in him to be the resurrection and the life. 00:28:23.859 --> 00:28:31.079 Where is God in the face of suffering? He's resurrecting. He's resurrecting. And this radically 00:28:31.079 --> 00:28:37.299 changes how we think about life in this world, that life in this world is inevitably and sometimes 00:28:37.299 --> 00:28:45.899 unbearingly painful. And some of you know that right now more than others. Some of you have 00:28:45.899 --> 00:28:53.639 experienced this in the past year. But for the believer in Christ, that pain always coexists 00:28:53.640 --> 00:29:00.880 with a deep-seated hope that because of the resurrection, that pain and suffering do not 00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:07.840 get the last word. There's a scene in the last book of the Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, 00:29:08.520 --> 00:29:15.860 after the great battle has been fought, after the ring has been destroyed, Sam and Frodo wake up in 00:29:15.860 --> 00:29:21.180 Gondor and they're not quite sure where they are. They're not quite sure if they're dreaming or if 00:29:21.180 --> 00:29:28.880 what's happening is real. They realize that Gandalf is in the room where they have been sleeping. And so 00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:33.960 once they realize they're conscious, they start talking to Gandalf who's with them in the room. 00:29:34.539 --> 00:29:39.220 And eventually in the conversation, Sam asks Gandalf this beautiful question. 00:29:40.759 --> 00:29:41.840 And Sam says, 00:29:43.060 --> 00:29:47.900 is now the time when everything sad is going to come untrue? 00:29:47.900 --> 00:29:54.980 is now the time when everything sad is going to come untrue? And for those who've trusted in Christ 00:29:54.980 --> 00:30:02.440 to be the resurrection and the life, that is our hope. That everything sad will eventually become 00:30:02.440 --> 00:30:08.300 untrue. That death doesn't get the last word. That sickness, cancer, disease doesn't get the last word. 00:30:08.600 --> 00:30:16.060 Heartache doesn't get the last word. Jesus does. Because he is the resurrection and the life. 00:30:16.059 --> 00:30:25.619 And the question that Jesus asked Martha, he asked you and I this morning. It's a very simple question, 00:30:25.700 --> 00:30:31.440 but it is a very important question. He asked Martha and he asked us, do you believe this? 00:30:32.980 --> 00:30:39.940 Do you believe this? Maybe you've been interested in Jesus for some time. Maybe you've been open to 00:30:39.940 --> 00:30:42.920 considering what he has to say. Maybe you've gone to church your whole life. 00:30:44.779 --> 00:30:51.059 But perhaps you've never actually trusted to be the resurrection and the life for you. Maybe you've 00:30:51.059 --> 00:30:58.400 never actually trusted Jesus to be your only hope for life at the moment of your death. 00:30:58.400 --> 00:31:07.019 And friends, I want to invite you to consider trusting in Christ for that today. Maybe today, 00:31:07.140 --> 00:31:12.680 maybe this morning is the first time that you would ever do that in your life. Jesus says, 00:31:12.800 --> 00:31:23.200 whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live. Believe in him for this. Trust in him for this. 00:31:23.200 --> 00:31:37.059 So where is God? Where is God in the face of suffering? He's loving. The presence of our pain 00:31:37.059 --> 00:31:48.279 is not evidence of the absence of God's love. Nothing in all creation can separate us from his love. 00:31:48.279 --> 00:31:58.779 And he's weeping. Christ is the God who weeps. He participates in our suffering even as we participate 00:31:58.779 --> 00:32:05.819 in his. And as we participate in one another's suffering, as we weep with those who weep and 00:32:05.819 --> 00:32:14.500 mourn with those who mourn, Christ is present there. God is present there through us. And he's 00:32:14.500 --> 00:32:20.299 resurrecting. Those who believe in him not only participate in his suffering, but they also 00:32:20.299 --> 00:32:29.680 participate in his glory. They participate in the glory of his resurrection. And in the places of 00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:36.240 pain and suffering in my life, including the example and story that I shared at the beginning, 00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:41.599 in the places of pain and suffering in my life, these things have been an incredible source of 00:32:41.599 --> 00:32:49.559 comfort. These things have been a balm for my soul. These things are some of the most profound things 00:32:49.559 --> 00:32:58.119 that we could ever know about Jesus. They're some of the most profound things that could ever shape us 00:32:58.119 --> 00:33:04.379 as a church and ever be true of us as a church. And these things are some of the greatest things 00:33:04.380 --> 00:33:08.820 that we have to tell the world. Let's pray together. 00:33:13.500 --> 00:33:20.660 Lord, thank you that this story is in the Bible. Because it teaches us 00:33:20.660 --> 00:33:26.880 an answer for one of our greatest questions. God, where are you? 00:33:26.880 --> 00:33:33.140 Lord, thank you that you're there. We thank you that you're here. That you are, 00:33:34.780 --> 00:33:38.820 that you're not just the resurrection and the life. You're not just the God who promises us 00:33:38.820 --> 00:33:43.640 eternal life at the end of the age, but that you're also the God who weeps with us right now. 00:33:45.480 --> 00:33:49.340 Lord, would we experience fellowship with you in our sufferings 00:33:49.339 --> 00:33:56.119 in a way that leads us to taste the coming glory and joy of the resurrection. 00:33:57.659 --> 00:34:00.740 In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.