Lazarus Come Out From Your Timetable

“Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.” 

Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, ” 

John 11:5-7, 18 NIV 

(Read the full passage at: https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.11.5-18.NIV)

‘Jimmy! Stroke!’ 

Those were the unforgettable few words I managed to form and yell from our front door as a Lacunar stroke took hold of my brain. 

I am still amazed at God’s planning and timing. I could not determine that I would have a stroke at around 1.15pm on Thursday 24^th September, and that our neighbour Jimmy would be taking his dog back from a walk at that precise time, and that Jimmy would be on leave from work and could take me to hospital.  

It felt like God was conducting the orchestra of time and chance with surgical precision. 

But I’ve been around the block for long enough that things don’t always feel that way. 

They often seem chaotic. Disorganised. A bit of a riot. Things don’t always happen when we feel they need to. Test results come late. Transport is not on time. Ambulances aren’t there when we need them. People let us down. 

Help arrives too late. 

These occasions are very hard to take. 

But what happened here would have been even more so. 

Lazarus was sick. He was dying. What could be more important than the health of a friend, nay, a loved one? 

Help was just less than two miles away. Just two miles.  

Now, I’m not supposed to be walking too far yet, but give me a few weeks and I might be able to manage two miles 

Yet Jesus didn’t come. He didn’t come to their aid. He didn’t come to heal Lazarus. 

Because He had a higher purpose to serve than simply healing Lazarus from his sickness. 

It takes no faith at all to believe in God when He, in His Sovereignty, is conducting the orchestra of time and chance and it’s playing a symphony. God may seem like a genie to us, or some kind of fairy Godfather. 

But when that same orchestra is playing free jazz and we can make no sense of the cacophonous din, that’s when real faith is required. 

Because the God of the symphony is also the God of the free jazz. And He loves us. 

We just need to trust His heart and His purpose.