John 11:1-16

If you follow bicycle racing, you are probably with the Tour de France. For those of you who do not follow bicycle racing, the Tour de France is the most grueling of all bicycle races. The race lasts for three weeks and the competitors must ride more than 2,000 miles, or 3,000 kilometers. Six or seven days of the race are packed with excruciatingly difficult mountain climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees. The winner of the Tour de France is rightly considered the best rider in the world.

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times. In the more than 100-year history of the race only a couple other riders won the race five times and never more than that. So it was an incredible feat Armstrong to win it seven times, but it is especially astounding that Lance Armstrong should be the one to do that. For in 1996, at the age of 25 and just as his career was beginning to take off, it came to a screeching halt. Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer had spread to several parts of his body, including his brain and lung. It appeared to be the end of his promising racing career, and maybe even the end of his life, as he was given less that a 50% chance of surviving.

Yet amazingly Armstrong beat the cancer and within a couple years was alone at the very top of the bicycle racing profession. And what is even more amazing is that if it were not for the cancer Armstrong perhaps would not have met with such success. For in an interview Armstrong commented on how his training and attitude changed following the cancer treatment. He said:

“When I came back, I said if I ever get a chance to do this, I’m going to give it everything. I’m going to train correctly, eat right. I’m not going to mess up. That why I say all the time that the illness is the best thing that ever happened to me. I would never have won one Tour de France if I hadn’t had it (cancer). No doubt.”

So in a rather paradoxical way the cancer that almost killed Armstrong ultimately helped him to be the best rider in the world.

Sometimes that’s the way life is. What at first seems to be a tragedy in the end leads to a greater victory. Suffering paves the way for renewed strength. Sorrow is turned into joy. As it relates specifically to our spiritual life, we at times have experiences where we wonder where is God. Why has He deserted us? How can He allow us to go through this horrible experience. And yet sometimes it’s those very experiences that God works through to mold us, shape us, and strengthen us so that our faith is deepened and God can use us in more profound ways.

Today we’ll look at an event recorded in the Gospel of John that illustrates this truth. It’s an event in which things certainly were not as they first appeared to be. It is found in Jn. 11:1-16.

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.

Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

You may know the rest of the story. Jesus arrived and encountered Martha. Jesus assured her that He is the resurrection and the life, and then He raised Lazarus from the dead.

Let me highlight a few lessons we can learn from this account. First of all, as I have alluded to, things are not always what they seem.

Lazarus was dying. Mary and Martha sent word to their friend Jesus that their brother was sick. But they knew he wasn’t merely sick. He didn’t just have a cold or the flu. He was very sick. They would not have sent for Jesus to come and heal their brother unless he was very sick, for Jesus was several days journey away. Vs. 6 stated that Jesus stayed where he was for two more days before leaving. And when he arrived Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. So Jesus was at least a two-day journey away, maybe more depending on how long after Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus Lazarus actually died.

When the message came that Lazarus was sick, Jesus responded, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” Two days later, when Jesus decided to go the Bethany, He told His disciples, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

In both of these verses we see an important principle: as bad as things seemed, God was doing something good. What could be worse than the death of a dear friend. Nothing is as final as that. Sometimes we receive bad news, but we know with the passage of time things will get better. But when someone has died, that’s it! That’s as bad as it gets.

But not so with God. With God things are not always as they appear, and that means there is always hope. Sometimes we can’t see beyond the crushing present circumstances, but all the while God has a higher purpose, a greater good in mind. And in His perfect timing God will bring that about. Consider these examples from Scripture.

Paul writes in Rom. 5:3-5, “We…rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Paul affirmed he rejoiced in his experiences of suffering because his vision was not limited to the present suffering he had to endure. He was able to see beyond it to what would result from it. He saw that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance develops character. In other words, he knew that as a result of his suffering he would be a stronger, more mature person and disciple of Jesus.

So what may appear to be an experience of conflict, suffering, or trials in reality is an opportunity for growth in character. So often when we’re in tough situations like that, our first instinct it to find the nearest exit. We want to get out of the situation as soon as possible, and that’s understandable. But things aren’t always what they appear. Sometimes we need to go through difficult circumstances in order to learn lessons and be changed in terms of our character, and the only way for such transformation to occur is through difficulty. That’s when we are forced to ask questions of ourselves and examine ourselves in ways we would not do if everything was going our way. When we are enduring a serious illness, or we lost our job, or we suffered a broken relationship, that’s when we’re more likely to ask questions of ourselves such as: What direction is my life heading? What is the foundation of my life? What kind of person am I? Do my values and goals make sense when life is so unpredictable? Where am I in in relation to God? When everything is our life is going well we just enjoy the ride and typically don’t ask questions of ourselves that force us to seriously examine our lives. We are much more likely to do that when going through difficulty.

Or consider II Cor. 1:4. “(God) comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” When we are in the midst of troubles, often we can’t get our focus off ourselves. We ask, “Why me? Why do I have to go through this?” Not to make light of whatever troubles we may go through. Sometimes they strike at the core of who we are and the pain of the situation penetrates to the very depths of our being. But things aren’t always what they appear. Sometimes God wants to use such situations to help us help others. Only when we have gone through pain and sorrow can we know what it is like for others to go through pain and sorrow. God promises He will comfort us during those times, and we then are to pass that comfort on to others who are struggling. So what we call a trouble, God calls a chance to develop empathy for others.

Or again from II Cor. 1, this time vs. 8-9: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” Paul doesn’t describe the particular hardships he and his companions were under, but whatever they were they were so severe that they despaired even of life. It was so bad they didn’t want to go on living. It was beyond their ability to endure and they just couldn’t take it any longer. Death would have been easier than going on in their circumstances.

But there was more to what was going on than met the eye. God was using these horrible circumstances to deepen their faith. As Paul said, they were learning to rely on God instead of themselves. That’s a lesson we all need to learn, and the only way we learn is by going through situations for which our own strength and ability is simply inadequate. Only then do we fully rely on God and in the process we learn that God truly is faithful.

In Philippians 1 Paul writes of being in prison. That’s not a pleasant experience. But he also shares how he rejoiced in this because his circumstances really served to advance the gospel, with the result that the whole palace guard and everyone else there had the opportunity to hear the Good News. (vs. 12-14) On the surface, Paul was suffering in prison. At a deeper level he was an evangelist who had the opportunity to share the gospel with those who would not have heard it unless he were there.

There are many examples of this in Scripture. What we need to do is learn to trust God at all times and in all circumstances. For God is faithful, and often He is doing something that cannot be seen at first. But if we are open and yielded during those times, we will see how God is changing us and using us even when things don’t make sense to our understanding.

So it was with Lazarus. He was sick even unto death. On the surface, what could be worse? But God was in control, and He had a purpose in it. As we read later in that chapter, Jesus would raise Lazarus to life, with the result that God would be glorified and the disciples, having witnessed this incredible miracle, would come to believe in a deeper way than before that Jesus really was God the Son.

Secondly, and related to all this, when God makes us wait, it is not meant to discourage us but develop us. It does seem strange to us as we read this account. Jesus hears that a dear friend is sick and needs him desperately. So what does Jesus do? He waits for two days before leaving. And then it takes two days to get there. To us that just doesn’t make sense. If we are desperate and need help right away, we would expect a good friend to come running, not to shrug it off for a few days.

It’s difficult to say the least when we have to wait on God. Sometimes we have to wait for a prayer to be answered. Sometimes we must wait for guidance and direction. Sometimes we wait for a need to be met. During those times it’s easy to get discouraged. We may conclude that our problems are insignificant to God. But if we think that way then we have missed an important truth, and that is that God’s delays are meant to develop us not discourage us. This can have several specific applications.

Sometimes it is out of His mercy that God delays answering us. God wants to do something amazing in our lives, but the timing must be right for that. If Jesus would have been there while Lazarus was still sick, everyone would have pressured Jesus to heal him. And if that would have happened, it would have been just another miracle of healing. But by waiting the disciples and the others witnessed the power and glory of God in a greater way than they could have imagined. Lazarus had been dead four days. His body was decomposing. But the power of God brought him back to life. The disciples knew that Jesus had power to heal the sick, but their faith grew even stronger when they saw he also had power over death. Because Jesus was not there in time to heal Lazarus, the disciples came to believe that Jesus really is the resurrection and the life. Sometimes God doesn’t answer our immediate request because He has something far better in mind, but the timing must be right.

Then there are delays of preparation. Sometimes we ask for things that we are not ready to receive or we ask for the opportunity to do something for which we are not yet prepared. Consider even the life of Jesus. He was here only 33 years, and He did not start His ministry until He was 30. Why so much wasted time? And even when He did start, He spent the first 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan. Forty days is a lot when you have only three years.

Why the delay? We can only assume that Jesus was being prepared for His ministry, and the people were being prepared to receive it. Concerning specifically the 40 days of temptation, Jesus had to meet the devil head on, to face temptation in its cruelest and yet most appealing fashion, and still resist it before launching His ministry. Sometimes we must wait on God because He is still preparing us for what lies ahead.

And sometimes delays are for the purpose of developing our faith. That is why Jesus said we are not simply to ask, but to keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking (Mt. 7:7). Why doesn’t God answer after we have asked just once? It’s not that God is playing games with us. It’s just that faith is strengthened through perseverance, by holding on in times of waiting. God’s delays are meant to develop us not discourage us. It may be that God has something betting for us, or that we need to be prepared for what God wants to give us, or that God wants to strengthen our faith.

The third thing from this passage to make note of is that one of the pitfalls we must avoid when going through difficult or confusing times, or when God doesn’t seem to respond to us in as timely fashion as we desire is that of assuming the worst. This is what we see the disciples, and especially Thomas doing.

After waiting two days, Jesus said to the disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” That is where Lazarus was. But the disciples reminded Jesus, “Rabbi, a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?” We read of that event in the previous chapter – John 10:22f. There Jesus was teaching, and He claimed, “I and the Father are one.” The Jews interpreted that as blasphemy and picked up stones to stone Jesus. But Jesus eluded them.

With that fresh in their minds, there was no way the disciples wanted to go back to that place. That would just be asking for trouble. And when Jesus told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him,” the disciples thought, “Hey, there’s not even a need to go back there.” You know how if you’ve had the flu, by the next day you might be over the flu but you need a day just to sleep and rest to get your strength back. That’s what the disciples were thinking. If Lazarus is just sleeping, he’ll get his strength back shortly and be fine. So Jesus, there is no need to go, especially when there are people there who want to kill you.

So Jesus had to tell them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for you sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Then Thomas said to the other disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Now on the one hand I suppose we should applaud Thomas for his willingness even to die with Christ, although it was probably more just talk than anything else. But the negative side of his statement he didn’t see the possibility of a miracle. He couldn’t see how God could do something great and mighty in this situation. All he could envision was the worst. He knew that the Jews had tried to kill Jesus just a short time before. Jesus was lucky to get away that time. It would be pushing His luck to go again. Surely this time they will kill Jesus. And along with his lack of faith a bit of heroism takes root in him. “Hey, why don’t we all go and we’ll all die together with Jesus. Let’s go out in style!” Thomas assumed the worst – that they would all die.

Are you ever like that – assuming the worst? Especially during the difficult times of life, when there is no immediate answer to your cries, do you assume that the worst is going to happen. The sickness will surely lead to death. The wayward teenager is forever lost. Having lost your job you will never find a decent job again. There is no way the troubled marriage cannot be restored. How easy it is to let the circumstances overpower us, and when that happens we lose sight of God and what He can do.

Jesus returned to Judea and this impossible situation and He did the impossible; He raised Lazarus from the dead. The disciples were just wasting time assuming the worst was going to happen. With God there is always the possibility of a miracle, of something we cannot foresee or bring about in our own ability.

So let me encourage you to remember these things. Things are not always what they appear. When we are going through trials, times of confusion or even suffering, God may have a purpose we just can’t see. So don’t cave into the sometimes dismal appearance of circumstances. Instead anticipate what God will do through those circumstances. Secondly, during those times don’t be discouraged when you have to wait for God to answer. His wisdom is perfect and so is His timing. He sees the whole picture when we see only a bit of it. Trust God that He has a purpose in the delay. And thirdly, don’t be one who always assumes the worst. Instead, try to see the possibility of what God can do, and be ready to embrace it when it comes.

God is in control. He loves us with an infinite, unconditional love. And He never makes a mistake. In short, we can trust God, even when we don’t understand everything.