Not long ago, my grandfather passed along to me an expression of his father’s: “God is never in a hurry, but He is always on time.” There is a lot of truth in this saying. God has no reason to hurry because He knows the future intimately. At the appointed time He acts deliberately. But our crowded lives, checkered with necessity and unpredictability, can never attain to such perfection. We need help. We need to be changed. A life in Christ now is the beginning of that transformation; it is a journey in which we can experience “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Phil. 4:7) in the midst of life’s uncertainties. John’s seventh sign speaks to these truths — contrasting our weaknesses with God’s wisdom, and teaching us that “all things work out for good for those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28), even when those things are beyond our understanding.
At a distance from Bethany, Jesus received a message from Mary and Martha: “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick” (John 11:3). There had been many times before this moment that Jesus had been approached by those who either requested healing for themselves, or desired it for a loved one; and he had healed. But the sisters requested nothing, though they certainly desired it. They knew that Jesus loved Lazarus; and they believed it to be enough that Jesus was aware of his condition. But Jesus did not rush into Bethany to be at Lazarus’ bedside. He spoke no words to heal his friend, as he had to strangers. “When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was” (v. 6).
As a prelude to his sign at Bethany, Jesus clearly identified himself as “the light of this world” (v. 9). In a natural sense, the light of the world is the sun — in the light of which “if any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not.” In the gospel of John, Jesus uses night as an expression of death, and day as life. We see this in his words before the sixth sign: “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4). More than two dozen times, Solomon declared that all the affairs of life transpire “under the sun” (Eccl. 4:15). And so Lazarus’ days under the sun were fulfilled, and he slept in the night. But when the Sun would rise again, at its appointed time, so Lazarus would rise and “awake out of sleep” (John 11:11). The disciples misinterpreted Jesus’ words, believing that Lazarus was actually sleeping. Jesus, however, was speaking of his death.
He seemed to be in no hurry. Lingering two days at the same place outside of Bethany, Jesus allowed Lazarus time to die. Jesus gave his sisters four days to grieve. Humanly speaking, it is difficult to imagine anything more cruel. What would they have thought about Jesus’ words? What did Jesus mean when he said, “This sickness is not unto death” (v. 4)? His words would have added grief to grief. In the eyes of men, Lazarus was dead; but this was not so through the eyes of God and His Son. Lazarus, though dead four days, was alive because he loved Jesus, and Jesus loved him.
How is this possible? The Lord regarded Lazarus to be living because of the certainty of his resurrection. Even though Lazarus was as unconscious as the rock into which his body was deposited, he was alive in God’s eyes, because God will raise him. It is the same principle upon which God could rightly say to Abraham, “I have made thee a father of many nations” (Rom. 4:17) before the old man had any children. God is able to “call those things which be not as though they are” (Rom. 4:17) because He possesses the indisputable power to bring His promises to pass.
Jesus finally arrived with his disciples. Mary greeted the Lord with the same words that Martha had used just moments before. The words give us a glimpse into the sisters’ conversations while Jesus delayed: “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died” (John 11:21,32). This was not to say that they believed it was necessary for Jesus to be present to heal their brother — they certainly must have known about the healing power of Jesus’ word. Mary and Martha knew that distance made no difference. They also knew that Jesus was a man of compassion. It seems the sisters believed that if Jesus had arrived in Bethany while Lazarus was still alive, he would have seen their grief, and had compassion, and healed. Hadn’t Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law the same way? Jesus had said to his disciples, “I am glad for your sakes that I was not there” (John 11:15). Maybe this was because Jesus knew that if he was present with Lazarus, he would have felt compelled to heal him.
Nevertheless, his delay gave time for an even greater work. Our Lord had other plans for his friends in Bethany — plans far beyond that little family’s ability to comprehend. In this case there is good reason to believe, just as before the feeding of the five thousand, that Jesus “himself knew what he would do” (John 6:6). Even though he tarried outside of Bethany, Jesus would soon show how he “loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus” (John 11:5).
Jesus elicited from Martha her belief in the resurrection: “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24). This is a point not to be glossed over. The hope of every true believer in the gospel, and the comfort of those who mourn the dead in Christ, is the resurrection. “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (vv. 25,26). Jesus told Martha that he was the resurrection AND the life. It is nothing for God to raise someone from the dead. Indeed, the Bible contains several instances where the dead were restored to life. But those victories over death were only temporary, and in the process of time those raised fell asleep once again. Immortality is promised to those in covenant relationship to God who are found worthy at the judgment of Christ. It is raising and bestowing immortality that is the truest “gift of God”.
Martha protested when Jesus commanded that the stone be taken away from the sepulcher. “Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” (v. 40). Martha would have remembered that. That was the message he sent to her: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby” (v. 4). She yielded to his words, and they took away the stone. Jesus then offered a prayer that was probably spoken loud enough for the multitude to hear praising his Father — leaving no one in doubt of the authority by which he worked his signs.
Every eye was fixed on the Lord. After four days of mourning, the appointed time had come. The heavy hearts that day in Bethany experienced a joy that few ever have, when Jesus cried with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth” (v. 43). And he did. It would be presumptuous of us to believe that we can fully enter into thoughts of those who witnessed a dead man stagger out of a tomb, after being commanded to “come forth”. They all saw the glory of God that day. They saw it in His Son — “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Looking back through John’s gospel record, we can understand why Jesus did not come to Bethany when it appeared that his friends needed him the most. Jesus was not late, despite the appearances. He had other plans for them — greater plans. He knew they would understand with time. In his absence, Mary and Martha would have wrestled with his words — “The sickness is not unto death” (John 11:4) — when Lazarus had died. But though distressed at their situation, Martha faithfully clung to what she knew had to be true — “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world” (v. 27).
The exhibition of Martha’s faith is a wonderful practical lesson in this sign. The world gives us so many reasons not to believe. Perhaps within earshot of Martha, some of the crowd faithlessly asked, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” (v. 37) — as if even Jesus was impotent in Lazarus’ case. But Martha held on — clinging desperately to her belief in the Lord despite her questions, and the faithlessness of those around her. No wonder the Lord loved her.
We have never spent a day with the Lord in the days of his flesh, in the way that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus did; but our experience is in many ways the same. The sisters had to wait for the appointed time to understand the message that Jesus sent them, when he said Lazarus’ sickness was not unto death. At the appointed time, the light of the world dawned on their darkness. At the appointed time, we with them will see the glory of God. With allusions to resurrection, it is written, “Arise [ye saints], shine; for thy light [the light of the world] is come, and the glory of the LORD [the Lord Jesus] is risen upon thee” (Isa. 60:1).
When he does at last come, no matter when it is, he will be on time. He was on time for his friends in Bethany.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One