--and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him. John 11:15
If you didn’t know the story, you might think that Jesus was being kind of insensitive here. I know the story, and yet, as I was rereading it this week, I found some of it a little hard to take. But as I began to consider and to pray and to study, what wonderful insight this story gives us into the ways our Savior works!
John is relating the account that culminates in Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. That’s great and wonderful and we all love the miracle stories. I know I do, anyway.
But verse 15 of John 11 comes on the heels of Jesus telling the disciples that their friend Lazarus is dead. They knew he was sick. I feel like they weren’t really worried about their friend at this point because Jesus had already told them that Lazarus’s illness would not end in death. So they’d all just been taking their time getting to Bethany, unconcerned about Lazarus’s ultimate well-being.
But Jesus has just told the disciples that Lazarus is dead. If I put myself in their sandals, I’m probably feeling a lot of things in this moment. I’d be sad, obviously, that my friend was dead. I think I’d have been really confused because I thought Jesus said Lazarus wasn’t going to die. Maybe I’d be feeling a little guilty that we hadn’t gone to Bethany sooner, and that I’d probably even cautioned Jesus against going because it was potentially dangerous. I suspect that the disciples were feeling all of those things, and probably a whole lot of other things.
You know what I think they weren’t feeling? Glad. I really don’t think that “glad” was a feeling that came to the minds of the disciples in that moment.
But Jesus said that He was glad. And that seems a little weird. It almost seems like Jesus didn’t care. But nothing could be farther from the truth.
A little further on in the story, we will see Jesus’ compassion toward Martha and Mary. And we will see Jesus weep. Certainly Jesus cared.
Jesus understood what we often forget. Just because something is difficult or painful does not mean that it is bad. Sometimes there are growing pains. And sometimes, life is just hard. And when life is hard, often, we cannot look past “the hard.”
But Jesus could. Even though Jesus was hurt by the death of His friend, He was able to look past the pain, knowing there was purpose.
Most obviously, Lazarus couldn’t have been raised had he not died. OK. But Jesus had raised other people from the dead. Was it really necessary for Lazarus to be raised too? I guess it depends on your perspective.
Jesus said that it was good for the disciples. Jesus knew what was coming in the next weeks and months, and He recognized that the disciples’ faith was still weak. So, Jesus said that that His not being there to heal Lazarus was to help the disciples’ belief.
But it was not just for the disciples’ sake that Jesus delayed. Scripture tells us that many of the Jews believed in Jesus because He raised Lazarus. I figure that probably made Jesus glad, as well.
Now the truth is, we can’t always see the purpose in our pain. We sit in the midst of circumstances, overwhelmed and hurting. And from our perspective, all that pain could have been prevented. After all, our God does miracles.
But sometimes, He chooses to wait. And while He is waiting, we are waiting. But while we are worrying, He is working. And while we may not understand why He’s waiting, we can trust our God. Period. That’s the bottom line.
We don’t have to understand. We don’t have to be glad. But we can trust.
In these days when we find life so difficult to understand, when circumstances are overwhelming at times and just painful at others, faith is growing in us. When Jesus delays, it’s so we can believe. Perhaps it’s really that simple.
…Just a thought…
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