John 11:1-6 – His ways are higher

Whenever Jesus was in Bethany, He would lodge in the home of Lazarus. He and Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, were good friends. Mary, as we know, was the one who had anointed Jesus with the costly perfume and wiped His feet with her hair. At this point in time, Jesus had just left Jerusalem and was in the region of the Jordan River, where John used to conduct his water baptism. Jesus’ ministry was fruitfully reaching many and He was experiencing success. Here we read of an emergency that emerged in Bethany in the home of His close friends. Lazarus was taken ill. We know that his sickness was serious and he could die anytime. So the sisters sent words to Jesus to inform Him of their brother’s condition.

One would have thought that Jesus would pick up His bag, find a donkey and immediately hurry to Bethany to attend to Lazarus. But He did not. We are told that He stayed two days more to minister to the people. As if that was not bad enough, He even suggested that they should go to Judea where the Jews had just tried to stone Him. Remember that the message of the sisters was not an invitation or a request. It was an expectation. Since they were good friends they must have presumed that Jesus would jump at the news. Remember this was the family that Jesus loved deeply. Jesus’ response was, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” From it we get a clue to what was going to happen. Could Martha and Mary, in anguish kept pacing back and forth, looking forward to the Master’s arrival that was not to be? At least not according to their timing. But unknown to them, the Lord will always be on schedule.

From human perspective, we do expect Christ to work in a certain way in our difficult moments. And when that doesn’t happen, we often conclude that He doesn’t care anymore. When calamity is allowed to end in what seemed like a tragedy, we often wonder if God really cares. But He does and His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts not our thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth so are His ways higher than our ways, His thoughts our thoughts. If we are honest with ourselves, there are times when things seem difficult, and it is hard to believe that He cares for us. Even in those moments we must keep on believing in Christ and His goodness.  As much as we dislike the Lord’s delay in attending to a matter, they are ways to build faith and trust in Him in the most trying circumstances of life. Let’s elevate our perspective and trust that God is far too loving to be cruel, and far too deep to explain Himself. Everything will become clear eventually when we see Him face to face.