Jesus and his disciples went to Bethany and learned that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Sometimes we are eventually allowed to see how it works out for good, but often we just have to take his word for it.
We have to trust God to work it out in the way that he knows is best. We simply cannot see the bigger picture, and sometimes we stumble in the darkness. He sees beyond death, and his mastery of events is no less today than it was back then - but it is often just as invisible to us as it was to his disciples in John 11. I don’t want to imply that every tragedy that happens to us is actually planned by God, or is good, but I do believe that God is able to bring good out of evil, and he sees realities that we cannot. He became mortal so that he could die, and what looked on the surface to be a tragedy was actually for our salvation. The man who gave life to the dead would also give his own life for the people, for he had power over death, even his own death. He chose to do what he did because that’s what he had come for. He could have avoided arrest if he wanted to he could have stopped the proceedings with a simple word, but he did not. He was in complete control of the events. He had light that they could not see - and this light told him of his own death in Judea, and of his own resurrection. But the miracle was not just in raising Lazarus back to life - it was also the knowledge that Jesus had of what was going on perhaps 20 miles away, and the knowledge of what would happen to him in the near future. Jesus would do a miracle that would be more astonishing than if he had merely prevented a sick man from dying.
But he also said, I’m glad I wasn’t there. If he’s asleep, then he’ll wake up by himself, so why do we need to risk our lives to go? The disciples were apparently used to the mysterious nature of some of Jesus’ comments, and they had a round-about way of getting more information: They pointed out that the literal meaning didn’t make sense. 9-10), and then telling them that he had to go wake Lazarus up. They did not understand why Jesus would want to go back into the danger zone, so Jesus responded with a cryptic comment about walking in the light, and the coming of darkness (vs. Two days later, Jesus surprised his disciples by suggesting that they return to Judea. There’s a lesson there for us, too, for we do not always understand what Jesus really meant. Nevertheless, he let his disciples think that Lazarus would not die. He knew that the purpose was to bring more glory to God and his Son (v. Was he mistaken? No, because Jesus could see beyond death, and he knew that in this case, death was not the end of the story. Nevertheless, Jesus said that the sickness would not end in death. Rather, it means that he has a different plan in mind, because he can see something that we cannot.Īs it turns out, Lazarus was probably already dead by the time the messengers reached Jesus. To me, that sounds like a request for help, but Jesus did not come.ĭoes it ever seem to you like the Lord is slow to respond? It surely did for Mary and Martha, but the delay does not mean that Jesus doesn’t like us. “The sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick’ ” ( John 11:1-3 ). Notice the way that John tells the story: Lazarus was not just a random resident of Judea - he was the brother of Martha and Mary, the Mary who loved Jesus so much that she poured perfume on his feet. I pray that I do not do injustice to the story as I share some of my thoughts with you. But there is more to the story than that, and John includes some details that may have deeper meaning for us today. It was a tremendous miracle, showing that Jesus has the power to raise us from the dead, too.
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