Waiting On Jesus

In our waiting, we become more assured of Christ's love for us.

“Now 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

Every time I read these words - that because Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he didn’t go when he heard Lazarus was sick and they asked him to come - they catch me by surprise, even as I've read them many times. They are jarring and unexpected.

We expect, actually demand, that the God who is powerful and loving will come when we ask him to come for our sick brother. And when he doesn't, we decide that he's not good and, therefore, doesn't exist. And, of course, that god doesn't exist, because he's the product of our demands and imagination.

That because he loves, he doesn't come when we ask, is beyond our demands and imagination. Such truth and reality and wonder is not the product of any human mind. The real God, who doesn't come when we ask, is actually more powerful and more loving than we could ever imagine.

It is here, in his not coming because he loves us, that the greatness of his power, the depths of his love and goodness are opened up to our hearts and minds and our lives, now and forever. It is here that you can begin to live with a hope that nothing can take from you.

When Jesus finally arrives after delaying, Martha says to him that if he would have come, her brother would not have died. Jesus says to Martha,

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26.

What a claim to make about himself. These too are words beyond human imagining. Neither the most fantastic storyteller nor the most grandiose person could have ever spoken in such a way.

A few weeks later, for having made such and similar claims, Jesus is hung in great shame and agony on a Roman instrument of torture and execution, after having been mocked and severely beaten. He died on that Friday afternoon and was buried. He remained dead and buried all day Saturday.

If he’d continued in this state, I wouldn’t be writing this because none of us would have ever heard of him or any of his followers, who wouldn't have had anything to tell or write about, as their hopes would have also been dead and buried forever with Jesus.

But on Sunday morning, his words proved true. He is resurrection. He is life. And whoever believes in him, as he promised, has resurrection and life, because he is joined to the One who is the resurrection and the life.

And, in the waiting, the heartache, the sorrow, as we pray, as we seek, we become more assured of his love and power as we trust him who is with us, and are strengthened and confirmed in resurrection life in him, looking forward to that day when Jesus returns and death shall be no more.

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18. Our troubles, which feel heavy and enduring, are light and momentary in light of the incomparable weight of glory. As a matter of fact, in the resurrection life and power of Christ, the troubles serve and prepare the glory.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?”

John Hanna is the State Capitol Minister of MTS-New Jersey