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TEMPORARY FIXES
#1
SUCH A BRIEF AWAKENING
There was a great story of triumph and faith which
took place in my own denomination a number of years ago. A Pastor Dick
Barron, who served God as a singing evangelist, came down with cancer.
And because he was a kind of high-profile minister, many, many believers
around the country watched and prayed on his behalf. It was a long, agonizing
battle, with chemo and radiation and all the rest.
Well, slowly the tide was turned, and this godly man actually licked the
disease which had threatened his life. He got well! Not just into remission
— he was cured. And with a collective sigh of relief, these thousands
of Christians who had prayed breathed a second prayer of thanks and got
on with life.
Well, it was almost dumbfounding when, just a few years after that, the
news went out over the grapevine. This same preacher, Dick Barron, had
now been killed in a plane crash. And immediately we all had to wonder:
WHY? Why would a faithful Christian go through such a hard battle, months
and years of tubes and tests and torture, get well . . . and then have
that RESTORED life get snuffed out in one fiery moment? It didn't make
sense. These many years later, it still doesn't make sense. And we wonder
aloud about the workings of God.
A few weeks ago here on the radio, we spent some wonderful time together
in the Gospel book of John, chapter 11. Which, you might recall, contains
the very shortest verse in all of the Scriptures:
"Jesus wept."
Of course, this is the wonderful story of the resurrection
of Lazarus, where Christ calls out with the strong voice of God: "Lazarus,
come out!" And he does! Listen, when Jesus speaks out at full volume,
even the dead hear Him! The Bible says:
"The dead man came out, his hands and feet
wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face."
Well, that was a miracle even more startling, more
immediate, than the healing of Pastor Dick Barron. I mean, Lazarus was
dead and gone. He'd been in the tomb for four days already, and now he
was restored to perfect health.
I'd like for you to think with me for a moment about the health of Lazarus
at that moment. He'd been very, very sick, obviously. To the point of
dying. He WAS dead. And now he's up and around again. Question: Did Jesus
Christ simply pull Lazarus BARELY back across the line? Was he alive —
but still needing to go back into ICU or an oxygen tent? Did he walk out
of that tomb and straight into a Code Blue, with his cancer or his black
plague or whatever illness had struck him down? Of course not. Friend,
the Bible doesn't tell us, but I would suggest to you that he stood there
among the mourners, straight and tall and healthy and strong. At that
moment, with the healing, resurrecting power of Jesus surging through
every vein, every artery, every capillary, Lazarus had to be the healthiest
man in Bethany. No wonder Jesus turns to the crowd and says: "Take
off the grave clothes and LET HIM GO." Not "Let him go back
into surgery, or to the Urgent Care Center." No, "let him go"
back to the fullness of abundant life.
So that's point one. But there's a point two to follow. Sooner or later
— and this is a sobering thought — Lazarus died again. That's right. Mary
and Martha and Lazarus, and we have no word to the contrary, all got old.
Eventually all three of them — Lazarus too — finally closed their eyes
in the sleep of death. Here's a man who, even though Jesus, the Healer,
was his best Friend, ended up dying two times.
And what do we make of this?
Many of you may be aware of the medical work that has been done over the
years by a Dr. Oliver Sacks. There have been a couple of high-profile
medical stories that made it into the mainstream media; in fact, Hollywood
has latched onto them and shared his miracle moments with a wide audience.
In the story entitled Awakenings, Dr. Sacks and others began to work with
men and women suffering with what is commonly called "sleeping sickness."
These people were basically catatonic; they would sit in wheelchairs all
day staring blankly into space. Were their minds working? No one really
knew. They couldn't talk, couldn't respond, couldn't even blink, it seemed.
Sometimes a hand or arm would jut out at an awkward angle all day, for
weeks and months at a time, as though somehow the mind had frozen in that
position.
Well, the experiment he tried involved the drug L-Dopa. Lo and behold,
this test group of men and women abruptly woke up. It was almost like
a resurrection; at the very least, the story earned the title: Awakenings.
If you've rented this video, you remember a man played by Robert DeNiro,
and he was now awake! Conversing, remembering. The hospital offered field
trips, activities, exercises to help them re-emerge into regular life.
Before, this patient and others couldn't even feed themselves, or care
for any body needs. They were adults in diapers. But now he was able to
function — not fully, but certainly at an acceptable level.
Then suddenly, there was a turning point. The L-Dopa, which was working
so miraculously, began to have less impact. Patients started to slip back,
just imperceptibly at first, but then more noticeably. Old symptoms began
to return. So they increased the dosage. It didn't work. They increased
it more. Pretty soon cost began to be a factor — and there was a poignant
scene where hospital staff workers, one by one, brought their paychecks
to the office and signed them over. They would forfeit their own incomes
if it could keep these reclaimed treasures awake. But it soon became tragically
clear that the miracle had been short-lived; a whole truckload of L-Dopa
wouldn't be enough to stave off the return to the darkness of sleeping
sickness. And by the end of the story, DeNiro and all the others were
back in their wheelchairs, in their diapers, in their state of catatonic
blankness.
Well, you know, this is how things are in a world infected by sin. And
again, we have to point out that it was the same even for Jesus. He raised
up Lazarus, only to have this good friend die again. He healed people
of blindness; maybe you remember the story in Mark chapter 10 of a man
named Bartimaeus who began shouting when he heard that Jesus was going
by: "Son of David, have mercy on me!" And Christ stops right
there. "What do you want Me to do for you?" Probably the most
obvious question He ever asked. "Rabbi, I want to see," Bartimaeus
told Him. Immediately, Jesus made him well.
But again, we have to point out something. I'm sure that at that wonderful
moment in time, Christ didn't then hand this restored beggar a pair of
glasses. "Uh, here, I'm afraid you'll still need these." Or
a box of Bausch & Lomb disposable contact lenses and some saline solution.
"I got you up to 20-40 in each eye, Bart, and this will fix you up
the rest of the way. Here's a prescription refill slip you can use."
No, when Jesus made a man well, he was perfectly well, completely restored.
Bartimaeus had the two best eyes in the whole town of Jericho.
BUT ONLY AT THAT MOMENT. Did Bartimaeus get old? Did he age? And when
he got to be 85 or 90, did his eyesight perhaps fade again? We don't know,
but certainly the day came when those two eyes so lovingly restored by
Jesus were closed in death. Even Jesus, while here on this earth, was
working in a kind of L-Dopa environment; He could heal, but not for good.
He could restore, but only temporarily. Even His own mother, Mary — if
you subscribe to orthodox Protestant theology — eventually got old and
was laid to her rest.
So a very fair question comes to our minds. Why is healing so limited?
If Jesus is the so-called Great Physician, why don't His healings have
more permanence than those of this Dr. Oliver Sacks?
Back in the Old Testament book of Genesis, there's a scene where God is
planning to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And Abraham,
bless his heart, a great human champion for this God of heaven, remonstrates
with his own Maker. "Come on, God," he says — almost. "There
are righteous people in Sodom. You can't kill these who are obedient along
with those who are rebelling and living in sin." Maybe you recall
the line: "Far be it from You." And then this ringing challenge,
going from the human to the divine:
"Will not the Judge of all the earth do
right?"
Well, we look at this plane crash of Dick Barron,
and that cry comes into our hearts, and maybe into our throats. "Shouldn't
the Judge of the earth make a better decision?" We look at hospitals
filled with patients, and kids who are dying because someone else gave
them AIDS. And there's the question: "Should not the Judge of all
the earth intervene?" Really, all of the temporary healings on this
planet, including those performed by Jesus Himself, make us wonder why
even miracles have to come with a disclaimer: "Offer good for a limited
time only."
We're just getting started, so be sure to stay with us.
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