Visiting Hour?

          Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
         When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
          “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
         Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light.  It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
         After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
         His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”  Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
          So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
         Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:1-16)

                We may have to spend more than one day on this passage. There are just too many perspectives and ideas to discuss. Today, let’s look at Lazarus’ perspective. Jesus seems to have spent quite a bit of time with this family. So when Lazarus got sick, they sent for Jesus. Of course, Jesus would heal him. Instead, Lazarus died.
           Sometimes, I see a meme on Face Book about getting a visiting hour in Heaven, or of having someone we love to return for a visiting hour on Earth. Would we go? Who would we ask to come? I don’t know for sure how the process works, but Paul wrote about being absent from the body meaning being present with the Lord.
           I cannot imagine the torture of spending an hour in Heaven and then being told, “Hour’s up, time to go home.” How do you give up Heaven? I know there are people who claim they have, but I can’t imagine it. It might be even worse to ask someone who lives there to come slum with us on earth for an hour. Really? You’d ask someone who is in a place filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, light, life, health, hope, truth, and rest to come back here? Even for an hour? It seems to me a hateful thing to do. Now, if the person were in Hell and you could given him an hour’s respite, that might be worth doing. The problem being tolerating someone for one hour who lives in a place where there is no love, joy, peace, patience…rest. There is also the torment when they have to leave after one hour.
         That visiting heaven and returning is what I believe Lazarus faced. I have no doubt that God, the Father, told him, “It’s OK. You must go back for now, but you will return, soon. I wonder if his heart was broken. Yes, his sisters were back there, and yes, he would go back there because he had a job to do, but I wonder how deep the longing was, or how constant.