Sometimes, Lazarus Must Die

On several occasions, scripture shows that what we might perceive as bad, even consider punitive, is really a framework for putting God on display. Consider the route through the Red Sea, the several storms over Galilean waters, and the blind man of John 9:

9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

John 9:1-3

Then we get to the story of Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, friend of Jesus. Let anyone familiar with Christian lore say “four days late” and the story of Lazarus immediately springs to mind. God moves on His timetable, and sometimes the plan is not the last minute rescue of Isaac, but the even greater experience of a resurrection after hope is surrendered.

As for me, I’ve done the Abram thing – leaving the familiar and lucrative to follow a quiet voice into a huge desert and an undefined destination. I’ve done the Isaac thing – facing the sacrifice of the whole missionary dream only to be pulled back in the last possible moment. Now, something tells me this episode is going to look more like Lazarus.

I’d rather it didn’t – nobody likes funerals – but the life of faith is about training…learning that no circumstance is beyond God’s sovereign plan, learning that His affection for us and activity on our behalf doesn’t rely on fulfilling the expectations of others, and learning that we are each individually His own with equal welcome to approach Him directly, even to ask for the impossible.

In any situation, it is premature to evaluate it in terms of good or bad, blessing or punishment. Instead, hang around and watch for God to display His glory.