God is not to blame
John 11:20, 21
20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Maria stayed at home. 21Then Martha said to Jesus:
– If you were here, my brother would not have died!
Brothers, this is the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, a friend of Jesus. This passage is very rich and is a source of preaching in various aspects of trust in Jesus.
Marta and Maria were deeply suffering from the loss of their brother. They knew that Jesus would have been able to heal him, and when this did not happen, Martha and Mary (in verse 32) blamed the Master for this death!
Today we are going to start with this passage to convince ourselves that God is not to blame!
It is inherent to the current human being to always look for a culprit for what happens. In an increasingly connected society, interactions between people become much more frequent, even if digitally. This way, it is also easier to place the blame for something that happens to us even in someone far away. However, it is very difficult to admit that the real culprit for what happens to us is actually us!
Why is my brother sick?
Why did this plane crash happen?
Why can’t I get a job?
Where is God?
These questions have no logical answer from the point of view of our human capacity. In the story of Lazarus, when Martha blames the absence of Jesus as the cause of the death of her brother Jesus, she also did not explain to her or Mary why Lazarus died. In John 11: 4, however, He had told his disciples that this situation would be valid to reveal the divine nature of the son of God.
We don’t know God’s plans, but they are perfect!
Returning to our topic, we need to watch our behavior. In a universe of “posts”, it is enough to see an image or a text containing a message that displeases us that already awakens in us a bad feeling for the owner of the “post”. This bad thought begins to grow within us and, without realizing it, we are arguing with people close to us. At that moment we forgot that the “post” was only seen because I opened the application.Said in just one sentence, this thought seems obvious and old-fashioned, yet that is how the enemy has dominated many people. Let’s look at some fundamentals in the Bible:
Psalm 37: 4
4 May your happiness be in the Lord! He will give you what your heart desires.
My personal experience: if I am sad or discouraged, I immediately grab my cell phone and start looking for videos on Youtube to distract myself. I believe that many do something similar on social networks. So we have a first confirmation: when our joy is not entirely in the Lord, we seek distractions. And what is it that catches our attention more than bad news?
Luke 6:45
45The good person takes good from the store of good things in his heart. And the bad person takes the evil out of his deposit of bad things. For the mouth speaks of what the heart is full of.
Look at that. Once we seek distractions, these distractions fill our hearts. And if we don’t watch distractions, we fill our hearts with bad things.
So it’s not about abandoning social networks or the internet, that’s not the topic today. But we need to open our eyes, because when we don’t watch, slowly, without realizing it, we are absorbing bad things. If we watch a lot of murder news, we get the impression that murder is normal, because it happens every day!
If we see many beautiful images of people having fun with alcohol and drugs, we start to think that this is not so bad, after all these people are happy!
If we fail to seek God because we have other commitments, we begin to think that God is not so important and, when we do not receive a desired blessing, it is God’s fault!
Let’s look at 2 well-known stories in the Bible.
Luke 15: 11-2411And Jesus said,
– A man had two kids. 12One day the youngest said to his father, “Father, I want you to give me my share of the inheritance now.”
– And the father divided the goods between the two. 13A few days later, the youngest son gathered everything that belonged to him and left for a country that was very far away. There he lived a life full of sin and wasted everything he had.
14 – The boy had already spent everything, when there was a great famine in that country, and he began to be in need. 15Then he sought out one of the inhabitants of that land and asked for help. The latter sent him to his farm to look after the pigs. There, hungry, he wanted to eat what the pigs ate, but nobody gave him anything. 17 Coming to his senses, he thought: “How many of my father’s workers have food to spare, and I’m here starving! 18I will return to my father’s house and say: ‘Father, I have sinned against God and against you 19 and I no longer deserve to be called your son. Accept me as one of your workers. ’20So he left there and went back to his father’s house.
– When the boy was still far from home, his father saw him. And, feeling very sorry for his son, he ran and hugged him and kissed him. 21And the son said, “Father, I have sinned against God and against you and I no longer deserve to be called your son!”
22 – But the father ordered the employees: “Hurry! Bring the best clothes and wear it. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Also bring and kill the fat calf. Let’s start to celebrate because my son was dead and lived again; it was lost and was found. ”
– And the party started.
See how this father, who is a human being, gets his son back. What a father always wants is to see his children well. The son, for his part, immediately showed his regret. He learned how hard life is away from his father, from his family.
At the beginning of the story we also see that there is no objection on the part of the father when the son asks for the goods and decides to leave. So also God acts with us: if we decide to leave with what we already have from this world, He allows us. Not so that we suffer, but so that we can feel how bad it is to live away from your protection and provide.
Brothers, if you feel far from God, come back to Him with a sorry heart. He will welcome you with a party, Psalm 51:17 shows us that God does not want a sacrifice to accept us, because God cannot resist a repentant heart!
But what about the oldest son who stayed at home very close to his father?Luke 15: 25-32
25 – Meanwhile, the eldest son was in the field. When he returned and came close to the house, he heard the music and the noise of the dance. 26Then he called an employee and asked, “What’s going on?”
27 – The employee replied: “Your brother came home alive and healthy. So your father had the fat calf killed. ”
28 – The eldest son was angry and refused to enter. Then the father came out and urged him to come in. 29But he replied: “I have been working as a slave for you for so many years and I never disobeyed your order. Even so, you never gave me even a kid to have a party with my friends. 30But this son of yours wasted everything that belonged to you, spending money on prostitutes. And now he comes back, and you have the fat calf killed! ”
31 – Then the father replied: “My son, you are always with me, and everything that is mine is yours. 32But it was necessary to have this party to show our joy. For this brother of yours was dead and lived again; it was lost and was found. ”
Brothers, it is not enough to believe that God exists. The son who left believed that his father existed, but abandoned him. Even so, he returned after humiliating himself and his father received him back; the son who remained also believed that the father existed, but, despite being with the father, he did not enjoy his best blessings. He didn’t ask his father for what he wanted, because if he did, it would have been granted. Once again, it was not the father’s fault. It is not God’s fault!
So we can also see God’s way of acting. He knows what we need, but we have to ask. It is necessary to pray with a humble heart, declaring your dependence on God. Thus, through Jesus, who opens the way to the Father, we can be blessed.
If we are far from or close to God, the Creator is never to blame for bad things, He only wants our good!
To reflect, let’s watch a short video that I really like:
…… We can see the man coming to the barber´s and he is asked whether he wants the cut as costume. The barber is doing his work, the man is reading the bible. After finishing work, the barber said: “I do not believe in god – if there was a god, there would not be so much catastrophes in the world!” The man left the shop and saw a man standing outside with long hair. He asked the man to come with him into the shop. He said to the barber:”There are no barbers , barbers do not exist.” …. Why, I am a barber, I am quite standing here before You!” .. No, there are no barbers. …. If there were barbers, there would not be so many persons with long hair.” … “Yes, but they don´t come to me! ……. ha …. ha… there are such a lot of catastrophes, because people don´t come to God !!”
Sir, I appreciate your message. I declare Father that I belong to the Lord and depend entirely on the Lord. Sometimes I don’t even understand this dependency, but I ask the Lord to accept me as his son, through Jesus Christ, our teacher and savior. Amen!