If you had been here

"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died" (John 11:21)

These are intriguing words. If you are familiar with the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, you will recognise them as spoken by Lazarus' sister Martha, and later echoed by Mary (verse 32). Several days earlier, when Martha and Mary saw how seriously ill their brother was, they had sent for Jesus, asking him to come quickly. But he didn't come, even though he was only a few kilometres away. Lazarus steadily grew worse, and died. They held a funeral for him. Still Jesus didn't show up. And then, four days after Lazarus' death, Jesus arrived, with no explanation and no apology.

As readers of the story we're told why Jesus didn't respond immediately to Martha's message. But Martha knew nothing of this. Surely there's more than a hint of disappointment, resentment, even anger in her words when she says to Jesus "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." And there's an unspoken question too: " I thought you loved Lazarus. I thought you cared for Mary and me. Why didn't you come?"

Anger towards God is not, in itself, a good thing. Yet anger towards God can only arise in someone who, like Martha, has some level of faith. Atheists, if they are honest with themselves, have no-one to be angry with when life is disappointing. Those with only nominal faith will simply shrug their shoulders when their prayers aren't answered - they weren't really expecting God to show up anyway. It's only the person who knows God, who knows God's character and understands what he can do, who feels disappointed and angry when they believe that he has failed them in some way.

Martha's initial request to Jesus to come quickly was based on her faith in his ability to heal Lazarus and her trust that he loved Lazarus, Mary and herself. She doesn't lose her faith that he could do something (verse 22). Note that Jesus' response to Martha's bitter words contains no rebuke. Instead he leads her to a deeper level of faith and understanding. Eventually she comes to see why Jesus didn't respond immediately to her request to heal Lazarus.

It seems to me that when we find ourselves angry with God, Martha's example is a good one to follow. She didn't reject Jesus, or rant at him, or tell everyone she met that he was a big disappointment to her. She expressed her feelings directly to him. She expressed her continuing faith in him. This is honest prayer from a faithful heart, and God listens graciously to such prayers.