Lazarus, Part 1 - When God Doesn't Do as We Ask

John 11v1-6

21^st October 2022

This week, I begin a short series of articles of the raising of Lazarus, one of them most remarkable and powerful miracles found in the Gospels. John sets the scene:

John 11v1-3
Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 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. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick."

Although Jesus loves everybody, John writes that Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus. They must have been his close friends. We can be sure that Mary and Martha's message to Jesus was a prayer that He heal Lazarus, before Lazarus died. Bethany is in Judea but we know that Jesus and His Disciples were in Perea, east of the Jordan, because Chapter 10, verse 40 says, "Then Jesus went back across the Jordan". It would have taken the messengers some time to reach Him and, when they arrived, Jesus's response would have surprised and disappointed them:

John 11v4-6
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."
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

I've often heard it said that God always answers our prayers, but sometimes His answer is "No", and sometimes His answer is "Yes, but not yet". Also, sometimes His answer is "I've got a better idea". When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, sick enough that his sisters sent a messenger many miles to tell Him about it, He did nothing, for two days. Jesus didn't answer their prayer with a "Yes". He waited until Lazarus was dead before travelling to Bethany. But He gave them two promises: "This sickness will not end in death." (although it would cause death) and "It is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it.". Lazarus's suffering would not be for no reason.

Jesus knew that His delay would result in Lazarus's death, and that He would go to Bethany and raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew that God would be glorified by the raising of Lazarus, more than by him being healed first. Here are some lessons that most Christians don't want to hear, and many refuse to accept:

1. Firstly, sometimes our sickness or other afflictions are for God's glory.
2. Secondly, God will sometimes delay our healing so that He will get more glory.
3. Thirdly, God considers His glory more important than our comfort.

Can you accept this? Of course God loves us, and of course God can do anything He wants, any time He wants. But Jesus chose not to go to Lazarus straight away, but to delay. The Bible is full of other examples of God allowing our suffering for His glory.

Job was a righteous man, but God allowed him to endure tremendous suffering for the glory of God. Job's story has been preserved for millennia to demonstrate God's sovereignty and perfection, but it cost Job dearly.

John writes about An unnamed man who was born blind for the glory of God:

John 9v1-3
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

The apostles gladly suffered for the glory of God. After being flogged by the Jewish authorities for the crime of speaking about Jesus:

Acts 5v41
The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name [of Jesus].

Paul suffered beatings, imprisonment, shipwreck, stoning, flogging, hunger, thirst and sleeplessness for the glory of God.

Jesus prophesied that Peter would be crucified:

John 21v18-19
"Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me!"

Peter followed Jesus all the rest of his life, although he knew how appallingly his life would end. Not only his life but his agonizing death glorified God.

When we sing "All to Jesus I surrender", or pray "Thy will be done", or when we pray for the glory of God to be revealed, we're accepting the possibility that God may choose that we will suffer, like these people, for the display of His glory. Are you OK with that?

How will other people find saving faith in Jesus Christ if your life and mine don't glorify God? Is it not true that our continuing to trust God and love our neighbours, even in times of suffering, speaks more loudly and clearly of God's goodness than our living in luxury and ease? As servants of Christ, our function is to glorify God in whatever way God chooses, and God may choose that we experience suffering, and some of us experience great suffering. Can you accept this? Is it not a privilege to suffer for God's glory? And will not God recompense us in glory for any suffering we experience on earth for His glory?

To be honest, I don't know my breaking point. I don't know how much I can endure before turning my back on God, but I trust the words of:

1 Corinthians 10v13
God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

In one way, this is a hard teaching but, in another, it's wonderful that people like you and me can glorify God, even by our suffering. And this story also shows this: if God doesn't answer our prayers straight away, or if His answer is "No", that doesn't prove that God doesn't love us. It proves that God is willing to use us and our suffering for His glory. We are part of His plan. This takes faith, but God has given us faith.