For the Glory of God

John 11

King James Version (KJV)

11 Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

² (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
³ Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
⁴ When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
⁶ When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was

It is interesting to me that the author makes a point of stressing in this verse, that Jesus loved them therefore He waited longer to come to them. What reason does He have for not wanting to be there at this moment in time? What was He waiting for? The answer is revealed to us a little further down the page when Jesus is later talking to the His disciples about returning to Bethany where Lazarus is:

¹⁴ Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.¹⁵ And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.

Lazarus has now died a physical death which seemingly contradicts what Jesus had initially stated.  The only message that had been returned to Martha and Mary was, that the sickness would not end in death, but to glorify God and that He was not coming back right away to comfort or help them.  Can you imagine how this made Martha and Mary feel? Finally, when Jesus arrives back in town, Martha is able to confront her Messiah and try to understand why He waited so long to come:

²¹ Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
²² But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
²³ Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
²⁴ Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
²⁵ Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
²⁶ And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Jesus has made a point of asking Martha if she believes what He has just said to her. He wants her to voice with her own mouth. Where is your Faith Martha? Do you believe what I said?

²⁷ She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
²⁸ And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.

So, Martha agrees that Jesus is the Son of God but then runs to tell Mary that Jesus was calling for her. At no point however does it say that Jesus was calling for Mary. Did you notice that Martha only agreed to half of what Jesus had said to her before she left quickly to pass the buck to Mary? She had stated that she believed that Jesus was the Messiah but what about the part where He said that she would never die? If I put myself in her shoes, I may react the same way if I had just watched them roll a stone in front of my brother's,( a known believer and follower of Christ), grave four days earlier to this conversation. Let's see what Mary has to say:

³² Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
³³ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.³⁴ And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.³⁵ Jesus wept.³⁶ Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!

Did you notice that Mary stops at my brother would not have died. Martha at least was able to know that Christ could change the situation regardless.

It says that once He saw Mary weeping along with His other Jewish followers weeping, He was troubled in His Spirit and wept. The Jews apparently thought it was because He too was sad that Lazarus had died because they had noted how He loved him once He wept. Jesus however had stated when this all began that Lazarus was not going to die and He later told Martha that her brother would rise again. This tells me that He was not weeping over the death of Lazarus. If not that, then what was He weeping over? I am sure that compassion for the feelings of the other's played a great role in the reason for his sadness. I feel there is more to it. Perhaps He was also weeping, realizing that He had spent His time preaching the Resurrection to all of them, ( Martha knew so the others had to know), however all of them seemed to only focus on the death of Lazarus without hope of the promise that Jesus had left with them concerning the Resurrection. Perhaps this is what troubled Him more.

³⁷ And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?

³⁸ Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

³⁹ Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

⁴⁰ Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
⁴¹ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

⁴² And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

⁴³ And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

⁴⁴ And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

⁴⁵ Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him. 

Jesus knew all along that all of them in order to believe had to see all of this take place. If He had cured Lazarus before he had died, I am sure there would have been plenty a people that could have reasoned that he may have gotten better with or without Jesus. There is little room for argument once a person is dead that someone has brought them back to life. Especially when you have heard them speak out loud to God and see the miracle before your eyes.  

We don't always know why God allows death and sickness but we can rest assured, if we Trust Him and His promises, there is a reason for all that He allows and we will see our loved ones again.