I’ve been absorbing the story of Lazarus lately. Not because I expect to somehow figure out how to come back to life someday… but because I’m really curious about why Jesus let Lazarus die in the first place. Lazarus was a really good friend of Jesus. In fact, he and his sisters, Mary and Martha, would be the type of people that would be Top Friends of Jesus’ on Facebook… or go to dinner and an action-adventure movie with Jesus… or hang out playing a card game… You get the point. They were the same age as Jesus, loved God passionately, believed in Jesus and everything he did and said, and supported Jesus no matter what it cost them. So when Jesus got the news that Lazarus was really sick, he didn’t go to visit. John, one of Jesus disciples, was amazed at this. John wrote (John 11) that "although Jesus loved Mary and Martha, he stayed where he was." Jesus actually waited for Lazarus to die… Not until Lazarus had been dead four days did Jesus finally show up on the scene. Mary and Martha couldn’t believe it either! "Lord," they both said, "if you had been here our brother wouldn’t have died."
Why do you think Jesus waited? Why do you think God sometimes delays his response to our troubling circumstances? Why do you think God chooses sometimes to not help out?
As far as Jesus delaying His coming to Mary and Martha when He heard Lazarus was sick. Lazarus died and Jesus knew it, He raised Lazarus from the dead, to show whose authority Jesus had, His Fathers. To show that He was the ressurection and the life, He has the power to raise the dead and if you remember many of the Jews wanted to destroy Jesus and Lazarus because only God could perform such a merical.
Blows me away. why wait? Maybe to ive us the opportunity to grow in Him, faith, patience, love, that kind of thing. Why did Jsus wait when Lazarus was clealy not growing? no idea.