Many of us were lucky to grow up with parents whom we knew, without a shadow of doubt, loved us. However, it was not uncommon to find, as little children, that they sometimes delayed in giving us the things we wanted or sometimes withheld them entirely. This wouldn’t mean they had stopped loving us. Instead, they saw that our desires and wants at that moment weren’t what we truly needed. Therefore, they either found ways to avoid fulfilling the desire or delayed it until much later.
In a sense, our parents’ actions are a shadow of how God deals with us as his children. Many are the times we go to him with a want that seems right in the moment and necessary, but because of his love for us, he chooses either to deny it or to make us patiently wait for it. This he does with the express purpose of displaying his glory and for our good. In our afflictions, this is especially true.
Psalm 119:71 states that “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” God withheld the immediate comfort the Psalmist was seeking and, in hindsight, the Psalmist is glad he did. He would not have learned God’s statutes otherwise. Just as the many who believed on account of Lazarus (John 11:14) would not have believed had Jesus healed him before he died. In fact, lingering a little longer on the account in John 11:5-6, we’ll soon see that it is always for our good that God makes us wait.
Why Waiting Seems Illogical
A first read of John 11:5-6 will make you scratch your head. “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,” it reads. Logic would suggest that if you can do something about a situation, you’ll do it immediately. When Mary and Martha sent for Jesus, they did so knowing that he could do something about their brother’s plight. They also knew that he loved Lazarus, which is why they said, “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (John 11:3). They did not doubt that the one who could do something about the illness threatening the life of his beloved friend would rush to do so. Which is why they lamented, upon Jesus’s ‘late’ arrival, that if he had come earlier, Lazarus wouldn’t have died (John 11:21, 32).
Perhaps they wondered why he did not in the least send forth a word to heal Lazarus, for, being such good friends with Jesus, they had probably heard about the Roman Centurion and how his servant was healed (Matthew 8:5-12). After all, they regarded him rightly as both Lord and the Son of God (John 11:27). So exemplary was their trust and belief–a trust we, as saints today, would do well to place in the triune God. Sometimes, in our attempt to correct the ills of the prosperity gospel, we end up at the other extreme, assuming we can’t ask God for big things. However, we shouldn’t shy away from doing so, for that would go against our Lord’s instruction in John 15:7.
God’s Love is Displayed in our Waiting
Nevertheless, while we ask, we are to understand that God may give us what we want but not how we want it. Did not even the apex of Scripture, our salvation, come about so outlandishly that many consider it foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:24) or madness (Acts 26:24)? Our focus text makes the argument clear as day, particularly verses 5 and 6 of John 11. Moved by his love for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Jesus wept (John 11:35). Yet how perplexingly did the Son express his love! Instead of leaving immediately for Bethany, he chose to display his love by… checks notes… delaying his departure by an extra two days.
Wait, what? Like a child, many would wonder how that is loving. The sisters and even the other mourners questioned the Lord’s delay. Some among the mourners wondered how one who opened the eyes of the blind could not have kept his friend from dying (John 11:37). Don’t we often wonder, when going through trials of various kinds, why God can’t just deal with them more quickly? Whether that be an illness, joblessness, family drama, singleness, etc. The answer is that not everything is clear-cut to us as it is to God. He loves us better than we love ourselves. Also, his ways and thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9-10). While our view is fixed on the one road to our destination, his view encompasses the entire surroundings leading to it.
His Delay is for His Glory and Our Good
That is what the account of Lazarus teaches us. For God to be glorified, Lazarus had to die. The glory, surpassing the many who believed in Jesus because of Lazarus, made a direct line to the cross. Lazarus’ resurrection was an inciting incident for the priests wanting Jesus dead (John 11:45-52). In short, Jesus not immediately healing Lazarus was the best way he showed his love for him and his sisters. And this, as I’ve already alluded, goes beyond the mighty miracle that happens later in the chapter (John 11:38-44), in which a dead Lazarus is brought back to life.
His love is chiefly shown in what Lazarus’s resurrection signified: that Jesus is indeed the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). It showed that all who believe in him have truly been brought from death to life by Jesus’ word. It showed that the one with life in himself chose to share his life with us for all eternity (John 5:25-29).
Therefore, however hard-pressed by the waiting season you now are in, trust that God knows what he’s doing. Saint, trust that even though it might seem unclear to you now, it will be made clear to you either here on earth or in eternity. Trust that for his glory and for your good, God will do much more than you can think or fathom.
Trust the God Who Makes You Wait
Is not the one who has you now waiting also the one who sent his Son to give up his life so that you may have life? If he could graciously give up his Son, how will he not graciously grant us all things (Romans 8:32)? Saint, rest, for the waiting game we are currently in will end with the triune God dwelling with us forever. Therefore, dear saint, as you go through the waiting, trust that the glorious God who makes us wait does so only for his glory and our good.