At this moment, we are in John chapter 11 in our study of John’s gospel. At the beginning of this chapter Jesus is asked to come and heal a friend who is very sick, but His response was not something this family was expecting - it was not according to their plan.
John 11:1-16
1 Now a certain man was sick: Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 And it was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not meant for death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” 5 (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus.)
6 So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was. 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and yet You are going there again?”
9 Jesus replied, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks during the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks during the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
11 This He said, and after this He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going so that I may awaken him from sleep.” 12 The disciples then said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will come out of it.”
13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about actual sleep. 14 So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus died, 15 and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let’s go to him.” 16 Therefore Thomas, who was called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s also go, so that we may die with Him!” (John 11:1-16).
We can see in this passage that Jesus does everything:
For God’s glory
To accomplish God’s purpose
For our good
For God’s glory
A man named Lazarus was sick. His name meant “whom God helps.” He lived in a certain town called Bethany, about 2-3 miles from Jerusalem. Lazarus was the younger brother of Mary, the woman who cried over Jesus’ feet and wiped her tears with her hair and then anointed His feet with oil.
Lazarus lived with Martha and Mary and when he got sick his sisters were very worried about his condition. They had seen Jesus heal multitudes of people so they asked Him to come and heal him with the expectation that He would. The situation was dire and this was their plan.
So, in verse 3, the sisters sent this message to Jesus, “Lord, Lazarus, our brother and Your friend, the one You love is sick.” This family knew they were loved by God and knew Jesus personally cared about them and so they expected that He would come right away. But what was Jesus’ response? He said, “Lazarus’ sickness will not end in death, but will be for the glory and honor of God, so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” The word glory here means that
“people would see God’s visible splendor in this situation.”
Jesus knows that in God’s plan He will reveal His glory.
But for some reason after He received the message He stayed in the same place for two extra days.
As we see later, Martha and Mary were very disappointed that Jesus didn’t drop everything and answer their request. But Jesus’ loyalty was to something higher than human relationships, His loyalty was to God first.
This theme of Jesus glorifying the Father and the Father glorifying Him is found throughout the book of John. Jesus not only did everything for God’s glory, everything He did was so that people would see God’s visible splendor.
Jesus wanted people to see God’s holiness, His power, His mercy, His heart, His long suffering. And that’s why He went to the cross. It not only manifested the depth of our sin, it also manifested the magnitude of God’s love for this world.
To accomplish God’s purpose
We know from this passage Jesus did indeed love Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. He could have healed his sickness but He had a far greater purpose in letting this sickness take its course. We don’t know what He was working in their lives. Jesus knew His plan would bring God glory and would accomplish God’s purpose, and that it would produce an outcome that no one could have ever predicted.
“God has a plan and purpose for our lives that no human being could ever contrive or conceive of”
because His thoughts and ways are so far beyond ours. As the Creator of the universe, He created you and me in His image, loves us and knows what’s best for us.
In verse 7 after waiting two days Jesus said, “It’s time to go back to Judea.” You can tell by the disciples' reaction that they didn’t like this plan - “Lord, have you forgotten what happened just a few days ago? These leaders tried to kill you and you want to go back there! What purpose would it accomplish for us to put our lives in danger?” They were so caught up in the situation they forgot they were talking to the second Person in the Trinity, co-Creator of the universe.
Jesus was telling them, “Don’t worry about these people in Judea, you are with Me and we are going to wake up our friend Lazarus who is sleeping.” The disciples respond, “if he is only sleeping, leave him alone and let him sleep, he will get better on his own.”
“Their plan was to stay out of harm’s way but Jesus’ plan was to fulfill God’s purpose.”
Jesus had to bluntly tell them, “Lazarus is dead.” This was the shocking reality of the situation.
For them, death is final, but to Jesus death is merely a form of sleep. There is nothing final, nothing tragic about it. This seemingly tragic situation was an opportunity to reveal God’s visible splendor to his disciples, to Mary, Martha and to all those around them.
Jesus didn’t regret waiting, in fact He was glad, because what He would do next would not only glorify God and accomplish His purpose.
For our good
“Why did Jesus wait so long to answer their request?”
It is so that they would believe. Jesus is allowing a situation to deepen their faith, a faith that goes beyond the day of salvation. He was stretching them so that they would trust Him for greater things. In the OT when God did something powerful or miraculous it was so that His people would know that He is the Lord.
In fact, over sixty times in the book of Ezekiel alone, God says that He does all that He does in order that Israel and the nations and everyone “will know that I am the Lord.”
If only we will put every situation into His hands and trust Him. We may not think His answer or the timing of His answer is loving, caring, or even logical, but you can be assured that
“everything God does, everything He allows you to experience is within a greater plan, for a higher purpose and for your sake”
so that God’s splendor, majesty, grace, kindness, holiness, mercy would be displayed. So that you and others around you will know that He is the Lord.
