When Jesus Takes Too Long
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jeremy_1_12-03-2025_121242: [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith. These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts, and today we're beginning John chapter 11. We're gonna ask the question, what do we do when Jesus doesn't seem to make sense?
On top of that, when Jesus takes too long to give us an explanation, when Jesus takes too long to even show up, perhaps you've been there before and we're gonna see that we're not the only ones who have felt this with Jesus, that they were people in his day that felt the exact same thing, even when he was around.
And so we're gonna explore the implications of this in a powerful story today and see what it might mean for us. As well. This is John chapter 11. Beginning in verse one, A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters Mary and Martha. This is the Mary who later poured perfume, the expensive perfume on the Lord's feet and wiped them with her hair.[00:01:00]
Her brother Lazarus was sick, so the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, Lord, your dear friend is very sick. Now, obviously they think Jesus can do something here. They know something about him, so they're sending a message, look, he's very sick. We need you to come and do something.
Um. I'm gonna need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow.
jeremy_1_12-03-2025_121242: Now, I recently noticed a detail in this story that I have never noticed before.
The story of Mary anointing Jesus that is referenced here, is not recorded until the next chapter. This is gonna show up in chapter 12. We haven't looked at it yet, so if you're going, Hey. He's referencing something. I don't know what he is referencing. You're not wrong. We haven't got to that story yet.
It doesn't happen in the order in which John writes it, which would imply that John is assuming the original audience who is reading this or hearing this read [00:02:00] would've understood this story. They would've known who this Mary is. They would've known this other story about Mary. Either they had. Heard one of the other gospels or this story had been passed along orally, through that culture, but they seem to be familiar with it.
And we get to verse four. But when Jesus heard about it, heard that his dear friend Lazarus is sick.
He said, Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. Okay? So file that one away. That's an important statement for our story today. Know it happened for the glory of God, Jesus says so that the Son of God will receive glory from this. So, although Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days.
Now, some scholars have suggested that this, the beginning of verse five, this like aside about how much he loved them was added in later because [00:03:00] the otherwise this reads too coldly. Like Jesus has these people and he seems to have a relationship with 'em, but he doesn't come. When they need him. He doesn't go to his friend when he is sick.
He waits intentionally two more days. Take note that we've already seen numerous references, how close they are, that this is a family that Jesus is very close with, but he is not rushing.
To go to their aid. He is not rushing to respond the way they have requested, which if we're honest, this is a tough pill for a lot of us to swallow. Why is Jesus doing this now? Where we are in the season of life right now, we're toward the beginning of what's called advent, and advent is a season of expectation.
When we acknowledge things aren't as they should be, but we look ahead, we wait, and we hope with expectation, that's what Advent is all about. And I'm reminded that waiting on [00:04:00] Jesus expecting things of Jesus is part of the experience. It was part of the experience for them and it's part of the experience for us today as we celebrate with Christians around the world this time of year.
Now, what often happens, the reason we often feel these feelings is because Jesus doesn't always make sense. If you look at the things that have already been said so far, he's said that his sickness, Lazarus sickness will not end in death. And then just a moment, we're gonna see that he's also gonna tell them.
Lazarus is dead. And so you can understand from their point of view they're going, look, you said it's not gonna end in death. Then you said he's dead. Like these both can't be true.
Brilliant. I have absolutely no idea what's going on.
jeremy_1_12-03-2025_121242: And I can imagine people following him going, what on earth are we supposed to make of this? When you say too contradictory statements [00:05:00] from their point of view, these things do not go together.
But what we can see today, looking back, which we have the advantage in their story, which we don't have in ours today, but we get to look back and we can see that Jesus is indeed doing something unexpected as we watch this story play out verse seven. Finally, he said to his disciples, let's go back to Judea.
But as the disciples objected, rabbi, they said only a few days ago, the people in Judea were trying to stone you. We've looked at this story. Uh, are you gonna go there again? Jesus replied, there are 12 hours of daylight every day during the day. People can walk safely. They can see because they have the light of this world, but at night there is danger of stumbling because they have no light.
Then he said, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go wake him up. [00:06:00] The disciple said, Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better. They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. Now notice here, his disciples are saying what you and I would probably say if we were following Jesus in that point, like Jesus, like, all right, we're gonna go back.
We're gonna go to Bethany, we're going back to Judea. They'd be like, um, do, do you remember like a couple days ago, they all tried to kill you there and somehow you got away? I don't think it's a great idea, Jesus, to go right back. Maybe we let that one die down a little bit. Like they want to kill you and you want to go right back.
And this is why when they hear Jesus talk about Lazarus being asleep, they're so. On board with this idea, like, yeah, oh, that's great to hear Jesus, because if he's asleep, then he's gonna feel better when he wakes up. He probably just needs a good nap. And you can just sense them out of their own fear, trying to say [00:07:00] why there's no need.
Now, if he's just asleep, there's no need. For Jesus to go and put all of them in danger to go back to this area. Then you get to verse 14 and Jesus is gonna make it real clear. So we told them plainly, Lazarus is dead. He's like, look, you're not getting it. Let me just shoot you straight, and for your sakes, he says, I'm glad I wasn't there for now.
You will really believe. That's a key insight to what is going on here. What? What do you mean? Now we will really believe, come, let's go see him. Now, Thomas nicknamed the twin, said to his fellow disciples, let's go to and die with Jesus. Now, this is the disciple we now lovingly refer to as doubting Thomas, but I want you to notice he thinks they're all walking into their deaths to go back there, and he willingly goes.
He willingly follows [00:08:00] Jesus. So although we're quick to dunk on Thomas because he has doubts after everything, notice that Thomas is with him ready to go to his death.
Whoa. We're gonna have company.
jeremy_1_12-03-2025_121242: Now this story, we're gonna stop it here, we'll pick it back up next week. But I wanna ask this question, how good are we at following Jesus when it doesn't fully make sense?
And when Jesus seems to take too long, is this something you feel comfortable with? Or would you say, no, if Jesus doesn't make sense to me, or Jesus doesn't show up when I want, then I'm out. See, for all of the flaws and the faults of the disciples, they went with him.
They, they were with him, and it's only in hindsight that we can figure out what Jesus was doing. Now here's what I wanna close with. There is a tradition in Judaism that's still around today where they believe that when a person died, their soul would hover above the body for three days. And during those three days, they believed resurrection [00:09:00] was possible.
So Jesus arrives into this area on the fourth day, and this explains why after hearing that Lazarus was sick, after figuring out where they are in the timeline, he intentionally stays two days later. Because Jesus is not just trying to arrive after Lazarus's death. He's trying to arrive after they believe resurrection is no longer possible.
They would've held out hope until day three. When day four comes around, they're all moving on and on day four, Jesus shows up and we'll look at that story next week. I believe that this was an example of Jesus defying their expectations, and I believe Jesus is still doing this today, even when it doesn't make sense to us and even when he takes too long.
I'll see you next week. I rebuilding faith.
