"Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.'" – John 11:25
Trigger Warning: explicit description of death and violence from WWII
The 1940’s saw some of the worst death and loss in the history of Israel and the world at large. Hitler’s Holocaust snuffed out the lives of over six million Jews and left the world deeply scarred. Somehow, Death’s thirst was still not slaked–near the end of the conflict the USA detonated not one but two of the largest and most deadly weapons of mass destruction known to mankind at that point in history. The epicenter of the second plutonium bomb was the Urakami district of Nagasaki, coincidentally the thriving center of Japan’s growing Christian community at the time. Miraculously, a young Christian doctor, Takashi Nagai1 survived only to escape out of the rubble into the hell that used to be the valley he called home. After days of attending to the innumerable people trapped in rubble and burning alive nearby, he eventually found his way home only to find it destroyed, along with the charred remains of his beloved wife, Midori, clutching her rosary. Not long after, Takashi would gather the surviving believers together at the rubble of the church, urging them to forgive and love their American enemies, even suggesting that perhaps God Himself had directed the second bomb toward their valley so that, like Jesus, the largely Christian community would absorb the death and destruction meant for the rest of the unbelieving world.
Must it always get so dark before first light? In the story of Lazarus, we encounter nearly all the questions, emotions, doubts, and confusions of a lifetime, distilled into 57 potent verses. God waits for death to claim “the one He loves,” allowing the hope for Lazarus’ healing to decay beyond the point of no-return. He lingers long enough for this deferred hope to sufficiently sicken the heart, the painful loss turning to inconsolable grief–bitterly speechless at the paradox of Jesus’ willful negligence. This story also contains some of the greatest displays of emotion that we’ll see from Jesus in the Gospel accounts. Perhaps He could hear in Mary & Martha’s words the same groan of Israel and the rest of His creation, also subjected intentionally to a similar fatal frustration “by Him who subjected it,” (Romans 8:20). King David gave words to the groan in the opening line of Psalm 22: “God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Just like David’s poem, Lazarus’ story doesn’t end in darkness, but becomes the first glow of a more glorious dawn than anyone’s sleepy eyes were ready for. Jesus’ “anything” might even include our deepest loss–are we ready for that to be possible?
Reflection:
- What area of your life needs Jesus’ resurrection power?
- How does this story help you trust God in seasons of waiting?
- How can you bring hope to others facing despair?
- Art: Resurrection of Lazarus by Mauricio García Vega, painting and photograph of Mauricio García Vega, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24220494
- Songs:
- “Raised to Life” – Elevation Worship
- “I Speak Jesus” – Charity Gayle
- “Living God” – Red Rocks Worship
- Takashi’s story is documented in Paul Glynn’s book, A Song For Nagasaki ↩︎