John 11:5-6 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
There are some moments in life that you know you must be some place, to be with a certain person. Lives aren’t filled with these moments. For most they are rare occurrences. Looking back over the years, these moments have turned out to be some of the moments of greatest connection with other people.
I remember years ago, I was doing construction, building additions and remodeling. My boss and I were in the middle of a project. And then the news came; a mutual friend had become gravely ill several states away. We felt prompted to go and be with them for a few days. We left the job, or I should say, I was let go. I understand my bosses position. We were in the middle of the project. But I felt that we should go, so we went.
We have felt this sense of urgency with our finances as well. Some missionary projects just grip our hearts and we must give. And these moments change lives, ours and others. Some of the projects we have helped finance are in distant countries. We won’t know until eternity what our financial response has accomplished.
Have you ever felt this type of prompting, this push in a different direction? Have you followed it? What were the results, if you know them?
One of Jesus’ close friends was sick, and what did Jesus do when He heard about it? He waited two more days. He knows that His wait will prove fatal, and yet He stays put. This is a close friend, remember. Would you stay put if a close friend was dying and had asked you to be presence?
And yet, this is exactly what Jesus does. I allows the grieving and desperation to continue for two more days. And things get even worse in those two days. Death arrives at their door. Funeral preparations happen and the graveside service is completed. And the mourning and grief continues.
Can you imagine what is running through their minds as those extra two days tick forward. I wonder where Jesus is? I wonder why He hasn’t responded yet. Did something happen to Him on His journey to us? Is He coming at all? Maybe He isn’t as good a friend as we thought.
And all the while Lazarus gets worse and dies. And all without Jesus being present.
Sometimes the LORD’s prompts have timing that is different than what we would expect. As we look at the surface of this story it seems as though Jesus made a mistake by delaying two days. Mary even puts this into words, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” And Jesus doesn’t deny that reality.
But Jesus’ purposes are deeper than the surface. He is here, not just to put a bandaid on our boo-boos, but to radically alter the course of history. He is here to change lives that will reshape events here on earth. He is here to bring the Kingdom through His people to a world that needs the stability of Kingdom!
So Jesus does more than cure Lazarus of an illness, He has done that kind of thing before, so it would be just one more in the narrative of His life. Jesus is here to do more than make sick people well. Jesus is here to bring life from death.
And this is what is so scary about Christianity. The Gospel isn’t about making sick people better. It is about making dead people come to life. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, not sick in our poor choices and bad decisions. We were dead.
Are you proclaiming life from death or cure for sickness?
The Arnold Journey 