“Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man
have kept this man from dying?”
—John 11.37
No.
Even the “Son of God”
can’t save his most beloved friend
from death and suffering.
When Mary confronts him
he has nothing to say.
He weeps.
Brokenhearted,
he stands with the grieving in grief.
This is where he has come,
and why.
Your wisdom will not arise
from near misses,
but in the deepest failures,
your healing
not from near the wound
but deep within it,
your salvation not beside the cross
but on it.
Decline the narrow escape.
Thomas says,
“Let us go and die with him.”
Let him lead you through the shadowed valley,
the full descent, the utter loss,
to the place too late.
Only there, defeated and helpless,
without excuse or recourse,
fully wrapped in the cloths of death,
do we hear the radiant voice:
“Come out!”
―November 2, 2018