Why?

This morning, our pastor was looking at the story of Lazarus.

John Chapter 11 tells the story. Lazarus was the brother of Mary and Martha. We've read of them before; Mary was the woman who anointed Jesus with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. Her sister Martha I think was fairly well named. I could just imagine if they were living today, Martha's last name would probably be Stewart ... Always busy, making sure everything was set perfectly.

Well, Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus wasn't doing so well. In fact, he was dying. So Martha whips out her iParchment and texts Jesus a message:
THE 1 U LOVE IS SICK

But Jesus didn't seem too concerned. He stayed where he was another couple of days saying He's not going to die. This is all so God's glory can be seen. Well pretty much as he's saying this, Martha sends another text:
THE 1 U LOVE IS DEAD
CAN U DO FUNERAL?

By the time Jesus and his disciples had returned to Judea, Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Both Mary and Martha came to Jesus and said, "If you'd just been here, our brother wouldn't have died." Its about here that, if you ever have to memorize Bible verses, is the easiest verse to memorize: John 11:35: "Jesus wept." (its the same no matter which translation you're using!) The verse is also poignant in that its shortness speaks of the lack of need for additional description. Jesus wept. He wept because someone He loved was gone. He wept because Mary and Martha (and the other family members not named around them) were crying.

There was no doubt that Lazarus had actually died. He wasn't just asleep. In fact, he'd been gone so long that the odor of decomposition was strong. Or as Pastor Walt would say "for surely, he stinketh!" In fact, as Lazarus' body was bound for burial, it wasn't just that Jesus had to bring him back to life, he loosened the grave clothes so Lazarus could move.

But Jesus had men move the stone away from the grave, and after praying he shouted, Lazarus, COME FORTH! And Lazarus came out. I'm sure he might not exactly have smelled like Madagascar cinnamon, but he was alive after having been dead.

We all have days like Mary and Martha. We find ourselves in a situation, one that we clearly cannot get ourselves out of, and we wonder how on earth we could have gotten in this far over our heads.

Sometimes, God will give you a way to get through a situation without even knowing that its happening. Sometimes something will happen and you will finally realize that there's only one way OUT of those situations. Yes, Jesus could have simply spoken the word, and Lazarus would have gotten better (he did it for the centurion's servant after all...), but sometimes the things we can understand the least, the things we're absolutely powerless against, are the things God puts into our lives for us to have the chance to see His glory in our lives.

Carmen - "Lazarus"