God Will Help
A Devotional on John 11:1-45
I’ve never understood the saying, “God helps those who help themselves.” If God is only going to help you after you’ve done all the work, then why bother? It reminds me of an early Simpsons episode where Bart is asked to give the blessing before dinner — a poor decision — and he says, “Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing.”
I think the saying comes from the idea that God isn’t going to do all the hard work for you. If you put in some effort to start things, then God will step in and finish the rest.
That sounds nice. But what happens when a loved one is sick? What if that loved one dies? Then the whole “do your part and God will do God’s part” doesn’t make much sense.
In John 11, Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead. I was today years old when I realized what the name Lazarus means. It’s the Greek version of the Hebrew name Eleazar, which means “God has helped.”
Two commentaries stress that the name wasn’t used in the story intentionally, and I think that’s true. That said, you can’t ignore what the name means in light of the story.
Here are Mary and Martha weeping for their lost brother. Here is an emotional Jesus telling them that he is the resurrection and the life. He comes to “wake” Lazarus from the dead — and he does. God has helped.
But God in Jesus doesn’t wait for Mary and Martha to help themselves. They can’t. They don’t have the power to raise the dead. They didn’t even have the power to heal their brother. They had to rely totally on God to do the impossible in their lives.
God doesn’t wait for us to do something in order to help and save us. God comes into the parts of
our lives that are as dead as Lazarus in order to bring them back to life and make us whole. We don’t have to do our part.
Oh, Mary, don’t you weep — so goes the old gospel tune. The version I remember best is by the a cappella group Take 6, who tell this passage in song. Don’t give up hope, the song says, because God is in the business of doing the impossible.
God has helped us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That work didn’t just happen long ago — it happens now, creating life where there was death.
God helps. You don’t need the rest of that old phrase.