27.10 | When Love Waits
John 11:1-37
‘Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.’
John 11:5-6
The branch he was standing from was a good three metres from the ground. I’d seen him do this before—many times. He loved to climb, and, despite being only five, he’d got pretty good at it.
Suddenly, the branch snapped—and Jake (our son) fell straight to the hard ground below, taking the full force of the fall on his back.
Parents tend to develop an instinct for how bad an injury is. For some, you watch them trip over their laces or fall off their bike, and know that they’re fine. But for this one, I was running. Within a few short seconds of him hitting the ground, I was right there beside him, checking him over, running fingers down his spine, my heart rate running high.
As it turned out he was fine. He’d landed precisely between the protruding hard roots of the tree on a Jake-sized patch of soft earth. He was back on his feet in a minute, and asking to climb again. Kids.
In such moments, your level of urgency communicates your level of concern.
In today’s reading, Jesus is presented with a catastrophic situation. Lazarus is sick. Lazarus is dying. Lazarus is a dear friend of His. How will Jesus respond?
He stayed two days longer.
Two days? What was He doing that was more important?
As the story unfolds, we realise that, even if He had left immediately, Lazarus would have been dead already for two days. His delay meant that He arrived a full four days after Lazarus had died. His body was in the tomb, his sisters were deep into grieving, and life had stopped for those friends and family members of Lazarus in the town of Bethany.
What is going on?
There was a Jewish belief that the soul of a deceased person stayed near the body for three days after the person had died. That meant that, during those three days, there was a small but significant measure of hope that the person may revive. Hope that the soul may return. Hope that the grief and pain may end.
But day four was different. Day four was when all hope was abandoned. Day four was the darkest day.
And on this day, Jesus arrived.
Why did He wait until then?
John tells us:
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So … he stayed two days longer.
The word so is the Greek word that can also be translated therefore. Because He loved them, He waited. Because He loved them, He didn’t rush.
Love.
Friends, this runs deep, for this speaks to our moments when we find ourselves in our darkest days and and our grief of waiting. It is for when we find ourselves lying in a heap at the bottom of a tree, and yet, rather than finding a Lord who is racing to answer our every prayer, we find a Lord who seems to be absent. And in such moments, His absence can truly feel like the very opposite of love.
And yet, this reading—that travels into the darkest moments of the human experience—we are being offered another option.
For the greater love for these sisters required them to enter the darker moment. To abandon superstitious hopes in a third day revival. To turn their sights from a true—and yet maybe clichéd—confidence in a resurrection to come at the end of the age. For in such a moment, it was and is the way of Jesus to turn our every tear-stained eye back to Him, and only to Him, and to find that, in Him alone—and His resounding voice that rings from His own tear-streaked face—the inversion of our every pain is truly, beautifully, and endlessly possible.
In such moments, know this:
He is loving you while you wait.
He is weeping with you by this tomb.
And most certainly, dear friends, in such moments as these, more truly than ever before comes life to the reality that He alone is our resurrection hope in the very darkest valleys through which we walk.
And His every choice, every timing, every way is only, always, and ever
Love.
Reflect:
In your moment, which do you need?
To recall that He is loving you in the waiting?
To remember that He weeps with us in our grief?
Or to set your gaze and confidence on Him alone as you await the fulfilment of every resurrection yearning in your soul?
Pray:
Lord Jesus,
When I fall,
And when I find myself in darkness
And when I feel those hot tears on aching cheeks,
I’m with Martha:
I want you to come quicker.
I want to tell you what might have been
If you had been here.
And yet, Lord,
The Messiah I want may be lesser
Than the Messiah I need.
And thus I trust in the Lord who waits;
And the Lord who weeps.
That, in my darkest days,
I may know nothing more greatly than
You:
My resurrection hope.
In Your Name,
Lord Jesus,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Nehemiah 12-13 | Psalm 119:145-160