May 20, 2013 [What do you expect?]
"Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe…Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:14 and 40)
How much did Jesus really love Mary, Martha and Lazarus? The beginning of this account seems pretty cruel. Lazarus is sick; everyone knew Jesus to be a Healer; so, why wait around for an extra two days? Everyone was right. Had Jesus just gone to Bethany He could have prevented the death of Lazarus easily. In fact, he really didn't even have to go anywhere. He could have performed one of those long-distance miracles like what he had done for the royal official's son (John 4:46-53). All Jesus had to do was to heal Lazarus from his sickness. He had done this many times before – why not just heal again? I mean, isn't this what everyone was expecting? There's no way that Jesus would allow all of this heartache when He is able to do something about it.
Jesus waited for Lazarus to die so that many would come to believe. He waited until it seemed like there was no hope left. He waited until it was impossible for anyone to do anything. He waited until faith completely left this situation before He decided to enter the situation.
I'm glad Lazarus is dead – now you can believe…(11:14, paraphrased)
There is a difference between believing God (trusting God) and expecting God to do what we want. Believing God is God-focused. It places all of the responsibility for what and how God operates on God with the faith that whatever God decides is for a good reason. Expecting God to do what we want is self-focused. It places all of the responsibility on God to do what we want God to do.
Mary and Martha wanted Jesus to save Lazarus' life.
Jesus wanted to give Lazarus life.
Sometimes the pain that we go through seems to be without any purpose at all. We pray, cry, scream, hope and nothing seems to change at all. But, I believe that more often than not God is working in the middle of our painful circumstances to bring about a revelation of His glory. That's exactly what happened in this account.
May we believe God and expect God to do more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
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Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (James 1:2-4, The Message)
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