John 11 opens with word reaching Jesus from the town of Bethany that Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, was sick. These three siblings were close to Jesus. Of course other than the inner circle of the disciples (Peter, James, and John), these may have been three of Jesus’ best friends. Notice how the sisters report that Lazarus, the one whom you love is sick and later how John tells us firmly that Jesus loved these three.When we read ahead, we could see that Lazarus didn’t just have a mere sickness here – he was deathly ill. Literally and clearly, the sisters knew this and knew that Jesus could heal their brother, so they sent word to Him about Lazarus’ illness thinking Jesus would rush to His friend’s side and heal him.After all, Jesus loved Lazarus.And when you love someone, that’s what you do, right? You rush to the aid of someone you love. You don’t waste time but in the contrary:So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was.Now we have to be careful here. John is not telling us that Jesus was just really uptight for two more days before He could visit the place where Lazarus was.It’s just the opposite. Jesus intentionally chose to wait for two days.Why? Well, John tells us in this verse. Notice the little word, “so.” The little words of the Bible can be so important This little word presents a cause and effect to us. What follows the “so” is the effect and what precedes it is the cause.“I am hungry so I ate.” My hunger is the cause. Eating is the effect.Here the effect is Jesus waiting. What is the cause before the “so”? Verse 5. Jesus loved these three.His love caused Him to wait for his friend to die instead of rushing to his side.Sure seems counter intuitive, doesn’t it? Why would love cause Jesus to wait instead of rushing to his side?Let’s move to the latter verse. Here’s verse 4:When Jesus heard it, He said, “This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may beglorified through it.”Jesus knew that his friend’s illness would result in death, but not end in it. That’s because Jesus also knew that He would shout “Lazarus, come out!” and life would come to his friend once again and a man who was once dead would walk out life out of the grave. This is why He waited. He wanted Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and His disciples to experience something that would completely change them from that day forward.Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and the disciples had seen Jesus heal plenty of people. Remember, that is most likely what prompted the sisters’ message in the first place. ButJesus wanted them to experience something more. Something much more. Jesus wanted them to see that He has power over death because that is what they would need to know about Him when they would see His lifeless body in a tomb not long after this.Basically, Jesus used this miracle to help His disciples take a big step forward in developing saving faith in Him. Skip down to verse 15 where Jesus tells the disciples this:I’m glad for you that I wasn’t there so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.”Jesus’ delay led to Lazarus’ death which led to Jesus’ miracle which led to faith (v. 15) which always leads to God’s glory (v. 4).Had we written the script, we would have settled for so much less, wouldn’t we have? Our version would have had Jesus rushing to Lazarus’ sideto heal him followed by a festive party of some sort. And we would have missed somuch more that Jesus actually gave to His beloved friends. Jesus gave His friends a great gift when He allowed Lazarus to die. He gave them the gift of advancing their faith and drawing them that much closer to eternal life in Him, the Son of God.The resurrection of Lazarus is a wonderful demonstration of the power of Jesus, bringing to light of Jesus’ resurrection, and picture of our new life in Jesus.
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