As I think of Jesus’ first coming, especially at this time of year, I wonder how long He’ll take to make good on His promise to return and make everything that’s wrong in this messed-up world right. I’m challenged by my secular friends who think I’m waiting on a myth. I begin to wonder if people like the loyal Cubs fans can relate in some small way to what I’m going through. I wonder how they were able to unshakably state their loyalty with heads held high while suffering nearly one hundred and ten years of drought between championships.
With Jesus’ first advent, Mary and Martha suffered severe hardship through the sickness, death and burial of their beloved brother Lazarus. To make matters much worse, it must have seemed that Jesus had utterly forsaken them in their most dire need of Him. As they chastised Him for this, they may have been wondering what good it is to follow Jesus if he bails when we need His help. They may have been showing signs of my secular friends today who ask: “Does this Christianity thing even work?”
When Jesus comes into the world, He fills us with fidelity – faithfulness, hope and perseverance. His fidelity is infinitely greater than any we can muster. Full of His fidelity, we can see clearly that He not only loves us, but He wants much more for us than we can imagine. Mary and Martha just wanted a miracle of healing. But Jesus had something infinitely greater to show them. Jesus wanted to show them the miracle of life after death.
We should note that Mary and Martha (like Job before them) did at least two remarkable things. In their grief, frustration and even anger, they spoke directly to God, not about Him. Additionally, their faith, while shaken with painful suffering, was never broken. Even after Lazarus was dead and buried, His sisters knew Jesus could still do anything and everything. Martha said to Jesus “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” It’s our Showtime now. Time for us to be the ones to show the world unshakable faith in the midst of our suffering. Let Jesus fill you with His fidelity and it will show for all the world to see, and by which to be saved.
The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. Job 42:12-13 NIV
