I wrote this letter years ago — 2014 when my family was going through a devastating situation. I re-read last night. It encouraged me, so I’m sharing.
So, last night I was reading a devotional, and it was the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11. We’ve read and heard this story so many times that it becomes predictable when talking about it. Anyway, when I was reading it last night, I noticed for the first time that their family is like our family – 2 sisters and 1 brother, where the brother is in a challenging situation. The Bible talks about how very sad Mary and Martha were that Jesus had not come before Lazarus died because, as both sisters said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Think of it, when they knew that their brother was sick, they sent word to Jesus to come and heal Lazarus because they had seen Him heal the sick, so they knew it could be done, and they knew how much Jesus cared for Lazarus. They had faith when the situation was difficult but manageable in their eyes. Just like them, we prayed so hard for a quick and easy resolution when we saw you in distress, when we thought your situation was difficult, but appeared to be manageable to a point. Like Mary and Martha, we made assumptions about the possibilities, and we made decisions about what we wanted from God. It’s like we sisters knew that we needed Jesus to step in, and that Him stepping in would make a big difference. Still, we wanted to put limits on how we wanted Jesus to intervene and when.
All the while, Jesus was ministering to other people, attending to other needs, and He knew all along that what Lazarus was going through was not going to end in death. Jesus did not race to Lazarus’ side. Instead He assures the questioning disciples that God will get the glory from the situation. “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” And even though He said it, the disciples and those around Him didn’t understand – they didn’t comprehend the extent of God’s love for Lazarus or His foresight or His omniscience and omnipotence.
When Jesus decided after 2 days that it was time to go to Bethany and see His friends, the disciples were so worried because people were trying to kill Jesus. By this time of His life and ministry, Jesus had acquired many enemies. The disciples were scared for Jesus, but they were also scared for themselves because they knew they would be targets, too. But God was unafraid. He knew what was ahead of Him in every sense. He knew what was ahead of you, too. He went to Bethany, and He went to His friends.
As comforted as Mary and Martha were when Jesus arrived at their home, they were so sad when their brother died, sad and hurt that Jesus allowed Lazarus to die, as if Jesus chose to hurt them, as if their timetable was the same as His. They had Jesus in a box, and that hurt Jesus and it angered Him. It’s like people keep saying, “I trust, I trust, I trust,” but when it comes right down to it, they trust for a specific result, but judge when the desired result doesn’t happen. That’s not trusting. That’s wishing. And Jesus wept, cried real tears as a result.
As the people watched Jesus, they continued to make assumptions about Jesus, commenting on Him wanting to be taken to Lazarus’ burial plot. They saw regret in Him, but they were wrong. This was the moment that Jesus would again show His unfailing love for the world, for His people.
And Martha… funny one, she is. When Jesus told them to move the stone from the grave, the always practical Martha said, Lord, he’s been in there for 4 days. He will smell awful! As if Jesus didn’t know that Lazarus had been dead for 4 days. Maybe she was trying to rub it in a little that Jesus had allowed so much time to pass before coming to them. As if Jesus is held to life’s time constraints! It’s almost like saying to God, If you don’t do it this way, it can’t be done at all.
You know the rest of the story. You know that Jesus called for Lazarus to come out, and he did. But before we get to that part, notice in the text how the scriptures stop referring to Lazarus by name. They call him the dead man. For everyone but Jesus, the situation is done and over. They have all quit. But God… thank God for the But God’s!
Jesus prayed to God, thanking Him for listening. He said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. 42 You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” God could have healed Lazarus from a distance. He could have done the simple and the expected. We wanted that. We wanted for this whole situation to just go away. We did not want to deal with the pain, the fear, the unknowns, the loss, the doubts, the consequences. And we would have been happy, just like Mary and Martha would have been happy. But Jesus had something different in mind for them, and He has something different in mind for all of us.
If Jesus allowed Lazarus to just heal up and be fine, His miracle could have been dismissed as coincidence. “Oh, Lazarus got better on his own. He just needed to gargle with some peroxide! That was chance, that wasn’t God.” And if “nothing” happened in your situation, we could have said the same thing, “That was chance. That wasn’t God.” But the truth is that there are so many things that happen, or don’t happen in our lives that are not chance at all. They are God working, God performing miracles, God being God, and we just take those things for granted day in and day out. There are so many accidents we aren’t involved in each day because God worked out the timing on the road. There are so many sicknesses we don’t get, so many fights we avoid, so many jobs we do well, so many blessings that really are miracles from God. They are NOT chance at all.
Instead, God performed a very public miracle. He showed not just Mary, Martha, and Lazarus that He loved them and that He had the power to change their worlds, He did what He did “for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” After all these unbelievers saw what Jesus could do and did, the Bible says they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Some didn’t, but some did, and their lives were forever changed. On that day, Jesus didn’t just raise Lazarus from the dead. He prevented many others from going to hell as a result of unbelief. He did more than the expected. He did more than He could. He did more, he did greater, he did better than Mary and Martha could have ever wished. I cling to that. I cling to the Lord’s love and power and grace and mercy for all of us, and in my heart, I believe it!