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Thursday, December 19 John 11 | I Am the Resurrection and the Life Author: David Bibee

God does many things we wouldn't do, don't want him to do, and don't even understand why he might do it, but he is God and we are not. Remembering God's character, however, helps. The God who demonstrates his love for us by sending Christ to die to redeem us (Rom. 5:8) is the same God who works out everything that occurs according to the purposes of his will (Eph. 1:11). He is not just trustworthy, but his plans are for our ultimate good.

Our passage today shows one example of God doing things we wouldn't have done were we in charge. After receiving word that Lazarus was dying, John tells us, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was" (John 11:5-6). In this life-and-death situation, Jesus has the sense of urgency of cold honey. But Jesus reassures them, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified…. Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe" (John 11:4, 14-15).

Everything seems backward. Jesus loved them, so he waited. Jesus loved them, but he was glad Lazarus had died. Doubtless, the disciples wondered if Jesus had begun cracking up. To make matters more confusing for his disciples, once they arrived—only three days too late—"Jesus wept" (John 11:45). First, he tells them not to worry and tarries for days as if there really were nothing to worry about, only to arrive and be utterly overcome with emotion. These seemingly contradictory responses are a testament to the depth of Jesus' love and understanding of our human experience.

Resolving these two responses is, I believe, the greatest source of comfort available to us. How can Jesus be unconcerned? Because, as God, he has all the knowledge and power necessary to orchestrate events in order to produce the best possible outcome. In a world where sin is real, when evil has infected humanity, and where human morality is a true frailty, we live in a world of death and tragedy. But in this very sort of world, we also have a Creator who made the world and humanity for good purposes and will stop at nothing until the world he created is restored in full.

Then how can Jesus weep? What would it have been like to understand God, yet the emotions of a man walking in our midst under the shadow of death? Who could understand the great depths of evil more than the Holy One of Israel? Who else could weep the purest of tears and rage with the holiest of hatred at death than he who calls himself "the Resurrection and the Life"?

In a world of sin and death, Jesus isn't after our immediate happiness or comfort, at least not on its own. If we remain perfectly happy but lack faith, we're as dead as Lazarus, even if we're still breathing. Jesus is far more concerned about our eternal security than our feelings of temporary security. Jesus didn't want Lazarus to live, but to live again and for his disciples to grasp without question that Jesus alone has power over death.

The same is true for us. I don't know what traumas you've suffered, what losses you've sustained, or those bleak moments when you begged God to act—just to do something, anything—and yet found that God had no answers for those desperate prayers. No one will ever be able to give you a satisfactory reason why it had to be this way instead of another. But what I do have, I give to you: cling to the Lord Jesus.

Although there are times he tarries, he does so for the sake of your salvation. All that our weeping Savior does, even in the midst of our suffering, is ultimately for your good, for your spiritual growth and eternal life. Though you suffer under the darkness of death's shadow, this Advent know that the Lord—He who is the Resurrection and the Life—has come to shed tears and stain the blood with ground to make all things new.