SCRIPTURE
1Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (John 11:1-27, NRSV)
WHAT
Today, at the half-way point on our journey through John’s gospel, we begin chapter 11. Here we will encounter what is perhaps the greatest “sign” of the seven in John’s gospel -- the raising of Lazarus from the dead. We will also encounter the fifth of seven “I am” statements.
Before we get there, however, it is perhaps helpful to notice that this chapter begins with the disciples reminding Jesus that it is dangerous for him to go back to Judea (where Lazarus’ hometown, Bethany, is located) and the chapter ends with the high priest saying it is better for one man to die for the people. The tension between Jesus and his opponents is about to ratchet up big-time. The wheels of power leading to Jesus’s death are gaining momentum.
Have you ever asked something of the Lord in prayer and had to wait a long time to receive it? Maybe you haven’t received it at all -- yet. Did you ever wonder why you had to wait? There is a verse in this passage about that time of waiting for the Lord to respond.
Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha. That latter two sisters show up in Luke’s gospel, but Lazarus figures prominently only here. There is a Lazarus in Jesus’s parable in Luke 16, but there is no indication the same person is meant. It is a parable, after all. This family lived in Bethany, which means “house of the poor.” So they most likely were poor. They lived just 2-miles east of Jerusalem on the other side of the Mount of Olives. Jesus probably stopped at their house and stayed with them on many occasions on his journeys to Jerusalem for the Jewish festivals. He was undoubtedly very close to this family.
So it is very strange to read that when Lazarus grew deathly ill and the sisters sent Jesus a message about his illness, hoping that he would come heal their brother, Jesus did not immediately respond and go to Lazarus. Even in John’s gospel, not to mention the other gospels, Jesus has performed many healings. He could easily have done another for Lazarus. But no. Jesus does not go to Lazarus. He delays two days:
He stayed two days longer in the place where he was. (John 11:6, NRSV)
Even Martha recognizes the missed opportunity to heal her brother. She later says to Jesus, after Lazarus is dead and buried:
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:21, NRSV)
Was there disappointment, or perhaps even anger, in her voice? Perhaps she gave him the benefit of the doubt because she didn’t know what we know.
Mary says the same thing:
“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” (John 11:32, NRSV)
Again, what tone do you hear in Mary’s voice? She does not know that Jesus intentionally delayed his travel. But John makes sure we know.
Why? Why did Jesus decide to wait two days before going to Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, his good friends in dire need? What chance do we stand when we make a request of Jesus if even his closest friends couldn’t get him to act in time?
It’s possible Jesus waited the two days because he wanted to make sure Lazarus died so that the glory of the sign would be amplified. But bishop and scholar N. T. Wright offers another possibility that is more helpful to us. What if Jesus was in prayer those two days? What if Jesus asked the Father to intervene such that Lazarus’ body would not begin to decay?
Where do we get that idea? Evidence that this was the case occurs later in the story when Jesus actually raises Lazarus from the dead. Standing at the tomb where Lazarus’s body has been placed, Jesus prays. But he doesn’t pray that God would raise Lazarus at that point, as we might expect. After commanding the stone be rolled away in preparation for what is about to happen, Jesus looked upward and prays:
“Father, I thank you for HAVING HEARD ME. I knew that YOU ALWAYS HEAR ME, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” (John 11:41-42, NRSV)
“Thank you for having heard me”?? Past tense. Having heard what? Jesus hadn’t prayed yet! When they took away the stone, the stench of death that Martha had warned about, and which they all knew much too well, was absent. At that point, when they had rolled away the stone and there was no stink, Jesus knew that the Father had heard his prayer over those two days. Lazarus’s body had not begun to decay. All it would take now is a word of command, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he did.
But the second thing Jesus prayed for during those two days was wisdom and guidance for how he should conduct himself at that point. Lazarus lived in Bethany. Bethany was in Judea, near Jerusalem. As the disciples pointed out:
“Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” (John 11:8, NRSV)
Should Jesus go to Judea and risk being stoned before “his hour” had come? These two issues are related. It is not an easy choice. Jesus did not want to rush the Father’s timing just to meet his friends’ need. That would jeopardize the whole mission. So Jesus prays.
N. T. Wright shines a light into what Jesus may have been praying during those “two days:”
“He was praying for Lazarus, but he was also praying for wisdom and guidance as to his own plans and movements. Somehow the two were bound up together. What Jesus was going to do for Lazarus would be, on the one hand, a principal reason why the authorities would want him out of the way (verses 45–53). But it would be, on the other hand, the most powerful sign yet, in the sequence of ‘signs’ that marks our progression through this gospel, of what Jesus’s life and work was all about, and of how in particular it would reach its climactic resolution.”
This gives us confidence, I think, that when there is a delay in response to our prayers, there is a very good reason going on behind the scenes. A reason that we cannot discern but that is ultimately for our good. God is not “too busy,” or ignoring us. God has not turned a deaf ear to our plea. Just as Jesus had a very good reason for the delay in responding to Martha’s and Mary’s request, so Jesus has very good reason when he delays in answering our requests.
APPLY
I envision Martha being frustrated, perhaps even angry, and I hear her having a “tone” in her voice when she says to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” I imagine that because that is how I probably would have reacted in her shoes. There have been plenty of times in my life when I “sent a message to Jesus” about a need or request. Such as when we were trying to conceive our first child. Such as when my mother was sick and dying. Such as a church appointment I really wanted. Such as… Well, you get the point. The question of faith development is this: “Bob, can you trust that when Jesus delays his response, or says ‘no,’ there is a very good reason behind it, a reason that is based on ‘the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope’ (Jeremiah 29:11)”?
PRAY
Loving God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; forgive me when in frustration for a delay on your part in answering a prayer of mine, there has been a “tone” in my praying. Forgive me when my praying has gone silent out of frustration with waiting for your answer. I now see that you have a very good reason when that is the case. In Christ. Amen.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Have you ever experienced a delay in receiving an answer to a “message” you sent to Jesus? How did you respond to the delay?
2. N. T. Wright offers a very interesting possibility for why Jesus delayed in going to Lazarus after receiving word of his illness. What was that reason? How likely do you think that reason was and why? Why do you think Jesus delayed two days in going to Lazarus?
3. What do you think was Martha’s attitude toward Jesus when she said “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”? (John 11:21, NRSV)
4. Thomas, the twin, is usually known as “doubting Thomas” for his response to the risen Jesus. But here, with his life on the line, Thomas says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” What do you think was going through his mind? Why would he say this?
How will you apply these insights in your life?