So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he
whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not
lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be
glorified through it” (John 11:3-4).
Mary
and Martha clearly believed that Jesus had the power to heal their brother, and
they believed that Jesus was the Messiah (John
11:27). However, Jesus wanted to teach them a far more beautiful lesson
about His lordship — one of the most difficult lessons in the Christian life.
Jesus wanted the sisters and his followers to recognize that our sufferings are
never pointless. Lazarus suffered “for
the glory of God.” Two chapters earlier, Jesus likewise taught his
disciples that a man who suffered blindness from birth had endured this
hardship so that “the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3).
Jesus wanted to teach his
disciples that our greatest glory is found when we invest our sufferings to
advance His kingdom. The Lord could have healed Lazarus prior to death. God
could have prevented his illness altogether. However, Jesus intentionally waited
until Lazarus was dead before making the perilous trip to Bethany. When Jesus announced
to his disciples that Lazarus had died, he also told them that he had deliberately
waited for Lazarus’ death “so that you
may believe” (John 11:15).
While Jesus had ordained that
Lazarus would die for his glory, this was not a cold and callous exercise for Jesus.
The Gospel of John tells us that upon seeing Mary and the other mourners experiencing
genuine grief, Jesus “was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.”
Indeed, “Jesus wept” with them.
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the
tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the
stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time
there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did
I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they
took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank
you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on
account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you
sent me.” When he had said these
things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:38-43).
Neither
the sufferings of Lazarus nor the tears of his sisters were in vain. Instead,
the Lord invested their sufferings to advance His gospel and to enable a large
crowd of mourners to witness the power of Christ in overcoming suffering and
death. In fact, John tells us that “many of the Jews therefore, who had
come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him” (John 11:45). When we meet Lazarus in
glory, we will also meet many Jews who embraced Christ upon seeing His power to
overcome Lazarus’ sufferings.
Likewise,
as we suffer through the great hardships of this life, we must realize that
Jesus is not indifferent to our pain. He remains the same God who wept alongside
Mary! Our God “intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). However, the Lord also
has a purpose for our sufferings! To the watching world, the power of Christ is
most amplified in the midst of our sufferings! When we trust that God is using
our most intense sufferings to advance his greater purposes, our sufferings are
given purpose — even beauty. In our fallen world, everyone is faced with some
degree of suffering. As we walk through these painful seasons, the Gospel of
John calls upon each of us to ponder this question: “Do I trust that Christ is good,
and He will use my suffering to advance His glory and my good?"
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