The High Price the Sin Curse Demands
By: Frank Tunstall, D. Min.
“Deeply moved in spirit and troubled” is an apt description of the Lord’s emotions when He arrived in Bethany. The Greek term for “deeply moved” conveys a variety of feelings, such as anger, indignation, groaning with sorrow, and the stern voice that starts giving orders. The term translated “troubled” communicates the word picture of the churning waves of the ocean; roiling waves, stirred and agitated.
It is very interesting that Jesus showed no anger at all to Martha and Mary, even though they were saying ugly things to Jesus like “You could have saved our brother’s life if you had wanted to.” And the implication was, “Jesus, you’re to blame; you didn’t want to help our brother.” That kind of language is a hard hit for anyone to take, but Jesus did not respond in kind.
Jesus knew to whom the blame should go, and it wasn’t to Him or to Mary and Martha. The blame belonged to the devil who pours the sin curse on all people.
It was a stern Jesus who faced what the curse of sin had done to Lazarus and his sisters. The best of us is a son of Adam; we all are fallen and very much in need of God’s grace. “No one does anything good; not even one person” can ever claim he has earned the benefits of Jesus’ death on the cross (Romans 3:12; Psalm 14:3 gw). Suffering, therefore, motivates us to surrender to God in repentance and send down deeper roots in His loving grace.
Who can deny, even while this painful process is happening, suffering is yielding good fruit in our lives?
“In Adam all die” is the ultimate toll of the curse of sin on all people. Death always demands a high price of the survivors left behind too. Grieving family members are a major part of the toll. But resurrection hope shines brightest at the point where the curse has done its worst: “In Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Jesus’ emotions were churning, akin to the roiling waves of the sea. How many times in Jesus’ ministry He had listened to the cries of brokenhearted people. In addition to their wails Jesus suffered routinely the attitudes of ugly disdain on the faces of His critics day-after-day and knew its pain well. In fact, Isaiah prophesied Messiah would live as a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. Isaiah continued to describe the typical response of His own countrymen: “We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way when He walked by. He was despised and we didn’t care” (Isaiah 53:3 tlb; see Luke 13:34.) Consider also the death of his stepfather, Joseph, and the many funerals Jesus no doubt had attended growing up.
In a few words, Mary had poured out her heart to Jesus, but in His sovereignty Jesus did not try to answer her or explain to her as He did to Martha that He was the resurrection who held eternal life in His hands. At this point, Jesus’ words might not have stopped Mary’s weeping, as she was inconsolable. So were the tears of her relatives and friends. Instead of trying to reason with Mary, the Great Physician showed her only love and no anger at all, not even an ounce of defensiveness. He could have said to Mary, ‘If you only knew the pain ahead for Me you wouldn’t talk to me like that,’ but He didn’t. He simply moved forward toward the purpose of His sovereign goodness that pointed directly to the cross.
Jesus wept.
Surely one of the greatest achievements of the ministry of Jesus was His ability to stay focused in the midst of the tsunami of satanic opposition He routinely faced. Fury has tripped so many people through the centuries. In anger, for example, even Moses smote the rock instead of speaking to it as God told him to do (Numbers 20:8-12). Without doubt Satan’s goal was to make Jesus blow up and do something independently of His Father and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 27:39; Mark15:32; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 1 Peter 2:23-25).
We recognize Jesus today as our ultimate champion because He never did break and slap-back, not even once. Instead, He kept doing His mighty works only God could do as He continued His march to Calvary. Raising Lazarus from the dead was Jesus’ next big step.
A benefit of suffering is it helps people see clearly what the sin curse has done and explains why bad things happen to good people. The devil gets the blame. Sin is the great terminator. While Jesus uses pain to heal, Satan uses that same pain to destroy. It kills opportunity; it blinds vision and hope; it squanders wealth; sends every person back to dust; and eternally destroys the soul of all who will not repent and accept Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world.
The curse of sin has also corrupted nature and explains its aberrations: tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, mudslides, wildfires, and the list goes on and on and on (Romans 8:22-23).
Little wonder Jesus’ salty tears at Bethany mingled with those of Mary and her friends and were quickly absorbed by the dust-covered rocks in front of Lazarus’ tomb.
Yes, sin is the curse but Christ Jesus is the cure!
Raising Lazarus from the dead was probably no more than thirty minutes away!
