One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--Ministry YearsSample

In the Dark: The One who is your life   

God said no. Or worse, He said nothing. You’re praying for something important, urgent. Specific. Even a matter of life and death. You pound on heaven’s door, but the silence crushes you as you watch what concerns you slip away. 

Jesus had best friends in Bethany. He stayed with them whenever He was in town. The long evenings over Martha’s good cooking and Mary’s gentle ways brought Him joy, relief, comfort. He and Lazarus shared the same humor and could laugh hard, till the women rolled their eyes and laughed just at them. 

Jesus was on the east side of Jordan when Lazarus suddenly got sick. Martha, being Martha, sent word to Jesus by the fastest messenger that they needed His help—now. He healed plenty others, come heal your friend. She and Mary watched the road, expecting Him to show up any minute. 

Just like us. “Pray about it,” people say and so we do. “Trust Him,” and we try. Then   nothing happens—and sometimes people die. 

Just like Lazarus did. When Jesus shows up four days later, He doesn’t even explain   Himself. Neither does God when He doesn’t seem to be there when you need Him.   You’re left in the dark. 

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Martha first, then Mary said it to Jesus, maybe the same way they had reassured each other while they   waited. Jesus will come and Lazarus won’t die. (But then he did.)

Their grief touched Jesus even though His plan all along was to surprise them (especially Lazarus). A quiet tear rolled down Jesus’ face as He stood before his   friend’s tomb. 

Look at how Jesus loved him, some onlookers remarked. Yeah? So why did He let him die? 

Better question: Why did Jesus cry when He knew Lazarus would be back at the dinner table that night? Was He sorry for what His delay put them through? Maybe He grieved on a deeper level the personal cost of sin. Or maybe He was thinking of His own death just a couple days away? 

His face still wet with tears, Jesus did what no one seemed to imagine He could do. He shut down death and raised Lazarus up. In one moment. Everyone’s grief turned to shock, turned to joy, turned to amazing. With His two words, Come out! Wide-eyed, Lazarus stumbles out of the tomb, wrapped like a mummy in grave clothes.

Jesus told us to walk with Him by faith. Usually the way He trains us to do that is to put us in the dark. Only then will we reach out our hand and take His. 

He told Martha in her grief, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who   believes in me will live, even though they die.”

The wait forces us to trust Him. Someday He will explain why. 

Tomorrow: One on one with Jesus catching people be faithful