ACTIVE WAITING
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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your good gifts—for faith, for family and friends, for my Christian community. Help me to remember that all that I am and have come from you.
Read JOHN 11:1–16
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Death of Lazarus
11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (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.) 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 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.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, 7 and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light. 10 It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”
11 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.”
12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Footnotes
- John 11:16 Thomas (Aramaic) and Didymus (Greek) both mean twin.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend.’1
Dear Thomas, when you say, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’ (v. 16), I suspect I understand something of your confusion and compulsion about Jesus’ ways. Even knowing what happens next, as I do, the poignant message from Martha and Mary to Jesus triggers so many memories of bad news meeting with a baffling response. The promise here that this story is not primarily about death sometimes sits uneasily next to grief so eloquently expressed in tears and longing and anger. Jesus’ talk of sleeping and waking and dying gets tangled up in the realities of illness and loss, comfort and hope.
Thomas, what do you make of Jesus’ attitude to time? His pace is unique. The plea from the sisters is not a demand to come, yet when most would rush to the side of suffering friends, in love he delays the journey for two days. Are you relieved by the mention of Lazarus’ restorative sleep, fearing danger and death for Jesus if he goes anywhere near Jerusalem? But then, when Jesus is ready to set off, you must feel that foreboding afresh in his sense of urgency. Those twelve hours of daylight he mentions focus on making the most of limited days. So how do you understand this movement between delay and deadline? In the future, when you look back, how will Jesus’ surprising initial reaction to this crisis inform your growing understanding of him?
Is it Jesus’ love that captivates you, Thomas? The deep affection that somehow mysteriously directs Jesus’ puzzling response, both to linger and then to leave safety? Are you drawn to follow this man even to death, because you believe that being with him in his brilliance, even for a short time, is worth more than a lifetime in the dark without him? I get it, Thomas.
Apply
What do you think Jesus was doing during those two days? How might you honor him in your waiting?
Closing prayer
Even with the benefit of hindsight, Jesus, I admit there are times when your words and actions perplex me. Thank you for the Holy Spirit, for learned friends, and for free access to Bible scholars, who help me understand or simply to trust you, strengthening my faith.
1 Ps 5:3, The Message
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