The account of Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead is a foundational passage in the New Testament. Not only was a dead man brought back to life, this passage in John 11 also contains the shortest verse in the Bible and a glimpse into the humanity of Jesus. John 11:25 says, “Jesus wept.”
In this historical account of the death of Jesus’ dear friend, Jesus is questioned three times for not arriving sooner. The primary reason He is questioned can be found in the words of both Mary and Martha: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” (John 11:21,32)
Mary, Martha, and others around them had seen and heard of the miraculous things that Jesus was doing. They had only seen Him miraculously prevent death. Their framework for how Jesus worked was limited to their experience with Him.
Martha showed a glimmer of hope in John 11:22 when she said, “Yet even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” However, she still seemed to limit what Jesus could do to her previous experience.
It can be easy to put God inside of a box, to limit what we believe He can do to what we’ve seen Him do before. Yet Jesus’ delay served a greater purpose: to give Him the opportunity to perform an even greater miracle—and thus display God’s glory.
Today, we often struggle to pray with confidence that God could heal physical ailments or save those that seem most unlikely to repent. In our minds, we limit what God can do to what we have seen or can explain.
What if we prayed with the confidence that God is a wonderworker, doing more than we could ever ask or imagine? What if we believed that God isn’t bound by our opinions or perspectives? What if we demonstrated our confidence in a God who is beyond our full comprehension, but is always within our reach? Not only would this type of faith change us, but it would also greatly impact those around us.
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