“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” – John 11:21
When it comes to having to wait, we humans are naturally inclined to complain. “What? Our flight was delayed? You can’t be serious!” Or, “Why has my item not arrived? I ordered it three days ago!” Want to see your company’s Google ratings completely go in the tank? Simply make your customers wait.
Thanks in large part to Jeff Bezos and his company Amazon, our culture has become quite accustomed to not only getting what it wants, but getting what it wants precisely when it wants it. With one click of a button we can order a product just before midnight and have it delivered to our doorstep the very next afternoon. And while society is eager to point to this shining example of instant gratification as another step toward human progress, the truth is that we’ve never been a more restless, impatient and intolerant society in the history of mankind.
Imagine if God was in charge of shipping at Amazon… the company would go bankrupt within a week!
A.W. Tozer, an early 20th century pastor and author, once said, “God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which he must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves.”
The day that Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus, the one Jesus loved, was sick, they offered no further details. Nor did they make any special request. Jesus loved all three of them, they were like family. He would spend time with them as he was traveling through the area and spend the night at their house on occasion.
So even though it wasn’t communicated in the message they sent him that day, there was an expectation by the sisters that Jesus would immediately respond, that he would drop everything and make his way to see his dear friend Lazarus. And for those of us unfamiliar with this story, that expectation is there for us, too. Isn’t this who Jesus is? The Great Physician? The Great Healer? The compassionate Lord who brings sight back to the blind, who heals the lame and the sick? Surely Jesus would see to his friend Lazarus! And, of course, he would.
It was just that he arrived four days later than the sisters had hoped. And it is here where we find ourselves in the tension of this moment. What could have possibly been more important to Jesus than healing his friend?
The truth is that Lazarus was already dead by the time Jesus had received the sisters’ message. His disciples were confused, however. They thought he was simply asleep. “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” (v.12) Jesus had been speaking of his death, but the disciples thought he meant natural sleep, not death. “So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” (v.14)
Now we have even more tension. One would never expect to hear Jesus say these words about someone he loved: “He’s dead, and I am glad that I was not there.” In no way does this seem to represent the Jesus that we’re familiar with!
So, Lazarus had been laying in the tomb for four days when Jesus finally arrived to the sisters’ home in Bethany. His body had begun to decay, and there was a foul odor coming from the tomb where he laid.
“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21)
O, how we can so relate to Martha’s first words to Jesus… they reflect the questions, doubts, and frustrations that often plague us in times of loss and heartache as well. How many of us have wondered where God was in the midst of our sorrows and sufferings?
And yet God never changes. He’s the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He’s still in control of everything. He’s calling all the shots. Nothing happens unless He allows it. He’s working behind the scenes; everything that happens is being used for His glory and our good, even though we greatly struggle to see it and understand.
Jesus would raise his friend Lazarus from the dead and restore him to life. But why did he decide to wait around for two more days before coming back to Bethany?
In the ancient rabbinical writings, tradition states that the Jews had this superstitious belief that even though someone was dead, their spirit would hover over the dead body for three days, just in the unlikeliest of events that the body may somehow resuscitate itself. On the fourth day, the spirit would officially leave. (courtesy of David Guzik)
Jesus wanted to remove any and all doubt that he had the power and authority to raise truly dead people back to life.. By waiting two additional days to make his way to Bethany, yes, this would mean that Martha and Mary would have to anguish in their sorrow a bit longer. But there was a purpose. Jesus would not only be revealing his true glory to his disciples firsthand, but also to Martha, Mary, and to all of their neighbors who had come to mourn and weep with them over the loss of their brother. And in doing so, Jesus was proclaiming authority not only over the death of Lazarus, but also pointing to his authority over even his own death soon to come.
That aside, it’s also worth noting that Jesus was always intentional in his timing. There are other examples in the gospel of John that tells of certain instances when Jesus initially refused someone’s request. In John chapter 2, Jesus denied his own mother’s initial request to make more wine for the wedding feast in Galilee, and in John chapter 7, Jesus denies his own brothers’ request to accompany them to the great Feast of Tabernacles in Judea so that he could reveal his divine glory to the public.
In both of those instances, Jesus replied, “No. My time has not yet come.”
So let us take heart today in knowing that even though our prayers may not be answered according to our own desired timing, that’s not a bad thing. When we take the waiting out of wanting, what we get is seldom what we need. As the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”
It is in our waiting that we are able to see the glory of who our Lord and Savior truly is. His power is sovereign; His timing is perfect; and His grace is sufficient.
Former Blackout Artist 