"WHAT JESUS COULD HAVE DONE" (Pastor Tom Henry) ~ 9/23/25

“Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” (John 11:37)

As Jesus stood before the tomb that held the dead body of His dear friend, Lazarus; and just moments prior to calling him forth from death to life, He wept. The word here rendered “wept” is the same Greek word as found in Matthew 26:75, where Peter, his heart broken, “went out, and wept bitterly.” The word “bitterly” indicates a piercing, violent weeping. As Jesus wept, it was not with loud wailing like when He wept over Jerusalem, where a different Greek word is used. (Luke 19:41) In this case, we see heart-piercing grief expressed in a continuous flow of silent tears.

Clearly, our Lord was not, as some suggest, simply shedding a tear or two to assure that He sympathizes with His people in their times of sorrow. It was not loud wailing, but rather a copious shedding of tears flowing from genuine sorrow that caught the attention of some of the people, causing them to ask this question. Although this question was most likely asked in derogation by some who were still denying the miracle recorded back in chapter nine, we shall turn it about and consider it as a legitimate question: “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have cause that even this man should not have died?”

We are sometimes tempted to ask this, and related other questions. Could He not have kept His dear friend from dying, had He pleased? The answer is an unequivocal “yes.” He and His disciples were days away beyond Jordan when He received word from Bethany that His beloved friend was very sick. He did not immediately come to heal Him, which was what his sisters were expecting when they sent to Him the word. Our Lord remained in that place until He knew that death had occurred, because, as He told His disciples at the time, “This sickness is…for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” Clearly, He could have prevented the death, for which is easier, to heal a sick man, or to raise him from the dead? In truth, for Omnipotence, there is neither easy nor difficult, only the exercise of will.

Considering what this miracle was intended to picture (The spiritual resurrection, bodily too) primarily our passing from death into life at His call, the question might be, why does He wait so long in some cases. Lazarus was a four-day man, and as Martha stated in her objection, “Lord by this time he stinketh.” Why, should those whom He has come to save be allowed to continue in death so long, allowing sin to have its corrupting effect. It has been suggested that one reason, perhaps the primary reason, why Jesus wept so bitterly was because of what sin had done to His creature. Had sin not infected the race in the beginning there had been no death with its putrefying effects upon God’s marvelous creatures. Why then allow it to continue?

But then, how do you avoid the obvious question: Why did He allow sin to enter at all; why did He allow the fall? Could He not have prevented it? Again, the answer is the same. He who has the power to restore fallen man to his former state; to renew him to the original image of his Creator (Eph. 4:23, 24), could certainly have kept him from falling.

Let us, however, not forget that “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children...” (Deut. 29:29) All questions that would pry into the Secret Counsels are vain and inappropriate. We must not allow ourselves to fall into the fruitless practice of fretting over what might have been. Let us avoid the crippling trap of hypothesizing. All of the “what ifs” and “if onlys” are vain utterances that add up to vanity - vanity that only breeds more emptiness. Let us be thankful for what God has revealed, for thereby we are assured that His secret Counsels are infallible and infinitely wise.