By Greg Hoffman
January 2009
A couple of
years ago my family spent a week in St. Thomas staying at the beautiful Frenchman’s Reef resort by Marriott.
If there is a heaven on earth, St. Thomas along with St. John are about as close to it as I have found.
We had a great time exploring the island and Magens Bay is unquestionably one of the greatest beaches I have ever experienced.
It was difficult
leaving St. Thomas knowing that we would be going back to our ordinary life of a five day work week. I
thought to myself, I could make a living here. I could buy a boat and charter it for fishing and diving,
and when that was slow I could work on my book and write articles. It was perfect. It
sounded good, if I could just convince my wife and family. Reality sat in when we boarded the plane and
I soon found myself back at the office in front of my computer with plenty of work to keep me busy for a long time.
Why would anyone want to
leave such a place? Why had I left? These were questions that I kept asking myself and
I think it might have been the question that another man asked almost two thousand years ago. In John chapter 11
we read a story about two sisters, Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus. Lazarus had become ill and
so Mary and Martha sent for Jesus but Jesus took His time and waited a couple of days. By the time He arrived
in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Martha met Jesus and complained that her brother
would still be alive if He would have come immediately.
Jesus then requests
to be taken to the tomb; He has them remove the stone from the front of the grave and then commands Lazarus to come forth.
This is one of the great miracles recorded in the Bible. There are other examples of someone being
raised from the dead by Jesus such as the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7:11) but I think what makes
Lazarus special is that he had been dead four days.
I felt compelled
to check a couple of commentaries about this passage recently. They all focus, and rightly so, on the great
work of Jesus, how it confirms His deity and looks forward to His own resurrection. But I have always been
interested in the story from the point of view of Lazarus.
Evangelical
churches have always affirmed their belief that when a person’s body dies that their soul immediately passes into glory.
(Question 37 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and II Corinthians 5: 6-8) So what happened to
the soul of Lazarus during those four days? Was he in heaven with God? The Scriptures
do not say nor does it record any of the thoughts of Lazarus on this topic but I do believe based on II Corinthians 5: 6-8
that he certainly had some sort of experience with heaven. We do know that Lazarus was a problem for the
religious leaders because they wanted to kill him. I think it is safe to say and subsequent passages seem
to confirm, that Lazarus was busy telling his story to anyone that would listen and I bet it was quite a story.
I also wonder if Lazarus was a little disappointed, perhaps a little more than I was to leave St. Thomas.
Why?
Life was hard in those days. They didn’t have the conveniences that we take for granted.
Sanitation was poor. Water was often scarce and of poor quality. Food couldn’t
be preserved for any real length of time. Work days were long and arduous and medical care was almost unheard
of. They lived in a dusty violent world where death always seemed very near. Many babies
died during child birth along with about one in a hundred mothers. Childhood diseases that we vaccinate
against were often fatal. So I ask again, was Lazarus a little disappointed about being raised from the
dead? I think he was, at the same time I believe it also made him a tremendous witness for our Lord.
Imagine being
able to give a firsthand account of what heaven was like. Imagine what heaven is like. I
have heard a number of people say silly things like, “it sounds boring if all we are going to do is play the harp and
sing hymns. I would rather go to the other place.” I don’t believe for a
minute that that is all we are going to do in heaven. This I do know, being in the presence of the One
that created me, you, this world, solar system, galaxy and universe is going to be anything but boring. We
are entertained by some of the most mindless television programs, yet we think that being in the presence of God is going
to be boring?
This may be reading
a little too much into the account of Lazarus coming out of the tomb but it doesn’t record him as jumping for joy.
Certainly Mary and Martha were happy to get there brother back but Lazarus, I picture him as having a shocked look
on his face. He was just in the presence of the Lord. Every detail was beautiful beyond
description. There was no pain, fear of death, tears, hunger, thirst or sin. Then suddenly
he is walking out of a dark, smelly tomb with his body covered in grave clothes as a crowd stares at him in shock.
I am sure that the Lord alerted him to his special mission, yet I think his expression would have been something like
mine if I were sitting on the beach at Magens Bay with my family one moment and then in an instant finding myself at the office
in front of my computer with a pile of work.
There is a perspective of this that is easy to
miss. If we truly are a child of God, trusting that Jesus died on the cross to take the place of death
that we deserve for our sins against Him, why wouldn’t we long to be in His presence? Think about
it. What is heaven like? The Book of Revelations gives us some clues but for many it
is a difficult book. I can’t give you a definitive answer to this question but I can tell you that
it is going to be far greater than sitting on the beach at Magens Bay.
So we are always of good courage.
We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away
from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 2 Cor 5:6-10 (ESV)
