When Jesus Waits...

This morning I am reading from John 11:

(NIV)John 11:1-7, 40
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. [2] (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) [3] So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
[4] When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” [5] 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, [7] and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

As i was reading through these verses this morning, I was struck be verses 5 & 6. Read together they are a powerful statement about God's love for us. It says Jesus loved All three of them, Lazarus, Martha and Mary and He waited to go to them.

So often we associate delayed answers to prayers as a some indication of the degree that God loves us. But here it clearly states that Jesus loved them. In fact later in verses 33, 35 & 38 we are told that Jesus was deeply moved by their sorrow, and that He even wept. There is no judgement of them associated with His delay. We need to understand that delayed answers does not mean that God doesn't hear, or that God doesn't care, or that God doesn't have a plan. Also, Jesus was being obedient to the Father in waiting...for He knew the Father would be glorified, and that this was the Father's will.

Its hard to know all the reasons for the delay, but it might be because He loved them so much that He wanted them to experience His greatest glory. He had previously raised others to life, Jairus's daughter, the widows son in Nain, but those were all very recent deaths. Here Lazarus was dead 4 days, and decomposition would have already been at work, for they did not practice embalming as we do. The person was often buried the same day they died, to help avoid the stench that would surely come. So, in raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus demonstrated God's power to not only speak life back into a dead body, but restoration of those things that have experienced death and decay. In other cards, nothing is too far gone for the Lord to move.

How often do we think things are too far gone and give up our hope in God, or think because He didn't answer immediately that He doesn't care? The Lord loves us deeply, and feels real concern and knows our pain, for He lived as we do.

Lord, help us to hold onto You, in faith, trusting that You do love us, and do have a plan for us!