John 11:20-23
So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
It had been four days since Lazarus took his last breath. His lifeless body was in the tomb. Hope was lost. Have you ever wondered why Jesus waited four days? Why not three? Five? Ten? Jesus waited four days because He knew the Jewish superstition of that day that said a soul stayed near the grave for three days, hoping to return to the body. Therefore, it was accepted that after four days there was absolutely no hope of resuscitation. It was nice of Jesus to come to comfort his friends and mourn, but if he had only come sooner…
“Not my will, but thine be done.”
Have you ever lectured the Lord? I know I have. Martha was a Type-A person and her first words to Jesus were classic passive-aggressive, letting Jesus know that she was disappointed with his tardiness, to say the least. It’s hard to imagine how much different your life would be today if Jesus had done this…or if he had done that. A broken marriage. A wayward child. A crippling accident. A deadly diagnosis. Financial trouble. Job loss. Why couldn’t Jesus have helped you with it? Where was he?
“Lord, if you had been here…”
I don’t think resurrection was on Marth’s mind. As we will see in the next verses, she believed that there would be an ultimate resurrection somewhere down the timeline of history, but not a bodily resurrection of her brother in the immediate aftermath of his death. Our vision is limited, and our faith can be weak. We dare not ask for the Big Miracle for fear of it not happening. Better safe than sorry, right? Wrong. If we believe that the God of the bible is the supernatural, super powerful creator of the universe then why would we limit our prayer requests by anything other than the constraints of holy living and thinking?
Does that mean we should pray for the resurrection of our dead loved ones? No, as that is clearly a rare phenomenon, even in scripture (8 times plus many saints when Jesus was raised from the dead). But what about the resurrection of a broken marriage? YES! The return of a child that has wandered far from the faith? YES! A way out of a financial pit that seems impossible to escape? YES! A divine healing of a deadly cancer diagnosis? YES!
Like Martha, we don’t know what Jesus will do in any given situation…but we do know what kind of a Lord and Savior that he is. No matter the outcome, and despite the hopelessness of our own perspective, we can rest assured that Jesus always has a bigger and better endgame planned for His Kingdom…as well as His Children. Just ask Mary, Martha, and Lazarus when you meet them in Heaven!
