My Family Drama & Lazarus.
I love the story that is told in John 11, because it’s about God bringing life to a dead, hopeless situation.
In John 11:32 Mary cries, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” If I didn’t know what Jesus was about to do, I’d be angry with Him too! I’d look at Jn 11:6 and be very upset, “Yet when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days.” Mary’s cry is very much like my own anguished cries in these past 2 months, “Lord, where were you in this? Where were you? Why weren’t you there?” The feeling like God had abandoned us, that He had allowed for such a terrible, wrong decision to be made.
Why, Lord? I keep asking. But the answer is so clear. Even though Jesus had stayed back in Jerusalem, in actuality, He was there in Bethany with them. He knew Lazarus was dying, because He was there. It didn’t seem like He was there, because things weren’t happening the way Mary & Martha wanted (i.e. Lazarus’ health did not get better), but it doesn’t mean that God wasn’t there. Jesus stayed back 2 days because He had a special purpose. That purpose was to let Lazarus die so that He could bring him back to life again, so that v. 45 would happen, “many of the Jews…who had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in Him.” Not only would Lazarus be healed physically but spiritually as well. Not only Lazarus but a whole LOT of other people too. It was for God’s greater glory.
Jesus was there. It didn’t seem like He was, but He was. My sister’s situation has felt like “death” to me… darkness, hopeless. I have sobbed over it like it was the end of the world. And I have shut God out of it because I haven’t wanted to deal with the unreal pain of it at times. And I have wanted to ask many times, “Lord, where were you in this?” But His answer to me, “I was there.” If He was there, then He’s sovereign over it. He loves. He will bring back to life. He has a greater plan. And there’s comfort in that.
