Scripture Reading: John 11:1-15
During times when our efforts fail to resolve a looming crisis, there are often tangible consequences. If a bill is not paid on time, you can be charged a late fee. A car barreling through a red light crashes into your car, despite your best efforts to avoid the collision. In our Scripture reading, Mary and Martha were powerless to heal Lazarus, and he died.
If only God had showed up on time, the late fee, car accident and untimely death could have been avoided. In Psalms 13:1-4, we have another picture of God’s delayed intervention:
“For the choir director. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, And my enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him,’ And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.”
Why was Jesus late? And if God is providing money to pay your bills, why not provide the money on time?
1. God’s delays aid our faith. A number of years ago in the middle of a desperate situation, I came across Elizabeth Elliott’s article on Acts 27 entitled, Nevertheless We Must Run Aground. In that article, she highlighted how God can work something out down to the last detail and then suddenly take it all away. In those moments, it seems God does not make sense or He is blocking the way He previously made for us to take to accomplish His purposes.
Elizabeth Elliott went on the write that the point of life is not here but in heaven, thus, sometimes events transpire which are meant to remind us that our hope is not in this world. In that regard, we encounter difficulty to shape our faith and point us to God. Jesus said in John 11:15:
“’And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.’”
Jesus is glad He was not by Lazarus’ side and that Lazarus is dead?!? Jesus understood His power and that He was not limited only to healing people. Mary and Martha believed that if Jesus had come He could have healed Lazarus. Jesus instead created the delay that resulted in Lazarus dying, and told His disciples why. Jesus said, “So that you may believe.”
Sometimes God creates or allows delays, or perhaps we should say waits to intervene, for the purpose of strengthening our faith and belief in Him. If Jesus applied a bandaid to every scratch and caught us every time we stumbled, we would have no need for faith.
One of the reasons for believing in God is to let Him have the lead. When we have our every need met on time, it is difficult to clearly see how God is working in our lives. When we cannot see the Lord working, we have a tendency to lose our sight of Him and lose our way. Trusting the Lord and waiting only on Him for direction and providence gives Him the greatest latitude to work and lead.
2. God absorbs the consequences. We do not always believe this to be true. A person involved in an accident is disabled, maimed, paralyzed or forever changed in some other way. Here we have to draw a distinction between consequences from poor decisions and consequences from God’s delay. When we are following God, we will rarely have consequences from poor decisions. This type of consequence can be very long lasting and even affect our eternal destiny.
God absorbs the consequences of His delayed intervention. Lazarus was raised from the dead. If a bill is not paid on time because the money God raised up did not come on time, God will surely provide the funds to pay the late fee. Even if we endure some permanent physical consequence, what are the true consequences? If God allowed a person to be disfigured or disabled and uses the event to deepen your belief, bring others to belief and broadcast His glory, are there consequences at all?
When we wait on God to intervene, He brings not just what is needed to resolve the situation but also what is needed to cover the added cost. When we allow God to use a divine delay that results in what we think is tragedy, He turns it around for our good and for the good of others. He absorbs the pain and the ridicule. He absorbs the loss. If we take advantage of the power and comfort He offers, then He transfers the pain and the loss onto His shoulders because He knows it is beyond our ability to bear it.
3. God creates opportunities for His glory to be made known. In John 11:40, we read, “Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’” God orchestrated the events of Acts 27 for a similar purpose, to make His glory known among those who did not believe. In John 9:1-3 we have a similar account,
“As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”
God uses divine delays first to aid our faith and second to demonstrate His glory in the world. We can be used by God to give the world a glimpse of the living God. Tragic situations or even trivial situations can be used to bring God’s glory into the world.
Imagine, however, if Mary and Martha had been so embittered by the death of Lazarus that they entirely closed their minds to the work Jesus would have done otherwise. We do have the power to shut down God’s glory being channeled through our lives. We will not extinguish His glory but only stop it from coming through our lives.
The difference between being a vessel for God or not lies in our trust. If we trust that God knows what He is doing and will settle the accounts some day, if not today then in heaven, we release the pain and struggle of the situation to the Lord and become in return a vessel of His glory.
People ask the question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Perhaps the question should be rephrased: Do bad things happen to people who follow the Lord? It can sure seem that way in the moment, but when we receive in return a deepened faith and become a vessel of God’s glory, whatever may have started out as bad is surely turned into good.
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