Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4 But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when he heard that Lazarus[a] was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”11 After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12 The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” 17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles[c] off,19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[d]Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[e] in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Jesus, when hearing of the illness of his friend, of one that he loves deeply, did not leave and go to him right away, He waited. There is little doubt when Mary and Martha sent to tell Jesus they expected the Lord to come and probably expected him to come as soon as he heard the news. But he did not.
Jesus is informed of the trouble…he is aware of it and yet He does not come as quickly as they thought he would. And then in verse 14 we read that after the death of Lazarus, Jesus actually says that he is glad he was not there. How could He be glad, there is deep sorrow and yet Jesus was glad???
You see, God is not just ‘doing the best he can’…rather there is purpose, divine purpose in the events of this world and in God’s teaching us to desire Him…to desire home…
Mary, Martha and Lazarus were loved by Jesus, they had a special relationship with Him and yet the Lord would send them such a difficulty. Many have commented that the Lord’s special favorites often receive special afflictions, special trials, deeper waters to pass through. The Lord may choose to spare some men and women from certain trials and troubles. But upon others, and we might say, upon those closest to Him, He seems to bring heavy burdens to bear.
Spurgeon once said: “You who are God’s favorites must not marvel at trials but rather keep your door wide open for them and when they come, say, ‘Hail messenger of the King! The sound of your master’s feet is behind you, you are welcome here, for my master has sent you.”
The Lord comes to Mary and Martha, he comes to reveal the truth of His kingdom, he comes to impress upon them the reality of who He is and what they must think, love, know and live. He comes to them to teach them of heaven, but he does not always come WHEN or HOW we think He should…Some of you know that pretty well, don’t you? So, will you trust him?
There was in the 17th century a young Huguenot named Marie. She was brought before the authorities and charged with Huguenot heresy, which simply meant faithfulness to Jesus. She was asked to deny her faith. She was not asked to commit an immoral act, she was not asked to become a criminal, or even to change the day-to-day quality of her behavior. She was only asked to say, I deny, no more, no less. She would not. Marie was beautiful, bright and she was 14 years old at the time.
She was put into a tower by the sea, and locked up…for 38 years…and instead of the hated word, deny, she scratched on the wall the word resist. The word is still seen and gaped at by tourists on the stone-wall at the tower.
Brothers, sisters, do we understand, the terrifying simplicity of a religious commitment that asks nothing of time and gets nothing from time? We can understand a religion that enhances time…but can we understand a faith that is NOT nourished by the temporal hope that tomorrow things will be better?
To sit in a prison cell and to see the day change into night and summer into autumn, to feel the slow systematic changes within one’s flesh; the drying and wrinkling of the skin, the loss of muscle tone, the stiffening of the joints, the slow stupefaction of the senses, to feel all this and still to persevere seems almost idiotic to a generation which has no capacity to wait and no capacity to endure, no capacity to see beyond what is seen and life in its light.
You see, the problem is that few have the faith that Marie had and we sell out our Savior for far less…a passing pleasure, a pat on the back, or acceptance from the world.
The trials that come, serve to rid us of such affections and to focus our hearts upon that which is forever and then to give us the ability to live that forever, right now.
Have you ever thought about how different things would appear to us, even the darkest, heaviest things, if we could see how they fit into God’s gracious plan for our lives? And in the same way, how dark even the brightest, happiest things, done without faith would appear in our lives if we could see what their temporary pleasures and successes were really leading us to in the end!
Samuel Rutherford once made this point in a letter to Lady Kenmure, a woman who more than once felt sorrows and bitter disappointments such as Martha and Mary felt in the death of their brother and a woman that Rutherford wrote to often:
“Madam, when you are come to the other side of the water, and have set down your foot on the shore of glorious eternity, and look back again to the waters and to your wearisome journey, and shall see, in that clear glass of endless glory, nearer to the bottom of God’s wisdom, you shall then be forced to say, ‘If God had done otherwise with me than he has done, I had never come to the enjoying of this crown of glory.” [Letter XI, p. 52]
I guess the question is quite simple really: do you believe that God knows best even when your circumstances seem dark and God’s blessing seems distant?
We don’t know, of course, how a particular sadness will turn out to our blessing and our salvation any more than Martha and Mary knew that Lazarus’ death was going to turn out. But this miracle is intended to be a picture of how God blesses and sanctifies all sadness, all disappointment in the lives of his children.
Prayer: Father, although many times I have lived without balance, seeking to be noticed but never seen, I repent of my foolishness and rejoice that I am seen and known by You. Help me Father, to live out of that truth, to concern myself with Your pleasure. Help me to be faithful with what You have given and find joy, peace and rest in serving my Savior and Lord, through Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.
Hymn: Let the Words of My Mouth (Psalm 19:14, Phil. 4:8)