It’s one thing to believe Jesus is who he said he is. It’s another thing entirely to believe that he has power over every evil, so that we can trust all of our circumstances entirely and fearlessly to him. That level of faith gets risky! But Jesus said that if we believe this, we will see the glory of God, and that glory will be greater than we could possibly imagine. Do we really believe?
Here, the story of Lazarus finally reaches its culmination. Jesus delaying, the sisters grieving, and Jesus calling himself the resurrection and the life have all brought us to this moment before the dead man’s tomb. And what did Jesus do first? He prayed to his Father. Because the main point was never just to keep bad things from happening to us. The main point has always been God’s glory—that we would see the great things he does, and worship and glorify him. That’s the greatest good. And Jesus made sure everyone around the tomb knew that.
And then, with only a couple divinely authoritative words, Jesus commanded life back into the dead man. With the greatest miracle of his ministry up to that point, he displayed the glory of God by doing what everyone else thought was impossible. He could have just prevented Lazarus’ death. He could have cured his illness and saved everyone the trouble. But here’s the key point: the awe and joy and faith and worship experienced by all the people there—all of these good things that glorified God—were far greater than they would have been had Lazarus never died.
I think this story is one of the Bible’s strongest answers to the painful question we all have of why God would allow bad things to happen. It’s a vivid example of the kind of redemption that God can and will bring about. This world is consumed by death, and perhaps any kind of redemption that would make it all worthwhile seems impossible. But Christ is the resurrection and the life. He will make all things new and bring every dead thing to life, even though we can’t possibly fathom what that will look like yet. But this much we know: when he does, our joy and worship will be far greater than they would have been had nothing evil ever happened. God will be glorified. So I ask once again: do we really believe?
