My Last Hope

Lazarus had died. What finality there is in those words, what separation. Most of us have faced death in the literal sense. I know of no worse sounds than the closing of the casket and the whine of the motor lowering it into the ground. Outer reactions vary: a father weeps silently, a widow cries out loud not caring who hears her, an orphaned child reaches out desperate hands unable to understand. Inwardly our reactions are much the same. We want to understand and we desperately wish that there was a way to fix it. Mary and Martha had the same response. Faithful, believing Mary and outspoken, busy Martha both said to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Where were you? You were my last hope. Jesus came too late. For four days they had been left in grief, all hope taken away the moment their brother had taken his last breath.

Some of us have faced death in other ways. We have lost a home, a job, a ministry, a dream. These are the things that also seem unfixable; they break our hearts so that we cannot see past our grief. So we bury the thing that meant so much to us. We bury it and place a stone in front of the grave. We waited, but Jesus never came. He didn’t stop the fire from consuming our home. He let others believe the lies that cost us our job or destroyed our ministry. He just watched as the last flame of hope was extinguished before our eyes. As we bury our dreams or our life’s work, as we give up on that marriage, we wonder where Jesus was when things were still alive and savable. Now that there is no hope, He has come and we are also saying, “If you had been here, this would not have happened....you were my last hope.”

When Jesus arrives he asks, “Where have you buried him? Where have you buried your hope?”
So we take him there and show it to him.
“This is all I have left. It’s ruined, unfixable.” we say.
But He replies, “Didn’t I tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?”
“Yes, you promised, but it’s too late! There is nothing left. Even You are crying.”

But Jesus has come to prove once again that he is the resurrection and the life. I don’t think this story is here solely to illustrate that Jesus has power over physical death, because we believe this. We believe that there is a resurrection for the body and that the spirit lives on. Though we grieve, we still have hope. It is in the little deaths that we need often reassurance. In these unfixable situations we begin to doubt. But Jesus wants us to see that it is never unfixable. You may not be speaking to your spouse. Addiction may have trapped you once again. Depression may be robbing you of your very will to live. Lazarus walking out of that grave, alive after all hope had been taken away, is proof that nothing is unfixable when Jesus comes. He is the resurrection and the life. We that believe in Him, though we die, yet shall we live.

It is in impossibilities that we usually find Jesus working. He fed thousands with just a few loaves and fishes. He healed when all the doctors have given up. He turned a morally ruined woman into a shining example of purity. He does it all the time. Finances are provided almost out of nowhere. We experience healing. He restores years we think we have wasted forever. Families are put back together. Hearts that are broken are mended and made into tools to mend others. Life is breathed into dead and ruined things every day. He is there when everyone else says “it is too late” turning unfixable situations into reasons to rejoice. All He asks is that we believe and trust Him enough to take Him to the place we laid our impossible, unfixable problem, roll away the stone, and let Him begin His wonderful restoring process. Whether immediately or over time, He is able and longing to fix our situation. Whether our problem is self-inflicted or we have been the victim of events beyond our control, He is waiting to meet us there.What have you given up on? Where have you buried it? Take Jesus to the place where you have laid it and let Him breath life into it once again.

If you still doubt that He cares, listen to this: it was this act of love that finally condemned Jesus. The Bible tells us that “From that day they sought to kill him.” He went to Mary and Martha knowing that this miracle would be the one that signed His death warrant. This is the love that Jesus promises us. That when we cry, He will hear us. When we call, He will answer us. When we cannot understand, He has a plan. Nothing is ever beyond His ability or beneath His notice. We are valued above His own life. He is our resurrection and our life.