I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
-John 11:25b-26a

Our pastor preached an amazing sermon about Lazarus on Easter Sunday. He spoke beautifully about Jesus as the great I Am and focused on John 11, where Christ tells Martha, the beloved sister of Lazarus who is lying, dead, in a sealed tomb, that He is the resurrection and the life. Can you imagine?

Your hopes are dead, but Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Your son is dead, but Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Your marriage is dead, but Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

When we trust Christ for salvation, He promises to raise to life all the things death has stolen from you. And perhaps some of those won’t occur until the final resurrection. But perhaps Jesus wants to display His peculiar glory through the magnificent workmanship of His power over the grave by raising them to life – now. Perhaps He wants to remind you, and your family, and your friends, and your coworkers, and everyone standing around watching the situation in your life that appears hopeless that death remains conquered through His resurrection and life.

But before that magnificent moment when Jesus called out to a silent tomb, “Lazarus, come forth,” there was death. There was a terrible moment when Mary and Martha’s beloved brother breathed his last. There was even an apparent moment of sheer callousness as Christ delayed His trip to Bethany to ensure that Lazarus would truly be dead.

What? Why?!

Our lives are so often lived in The Delay – the moment of time separating death and resurrection. To those of us well acquainted with The Delay, it doesn’t feel like a moment of time. It was probably no more than 4 days between the time Lazarus died and when Jesus showed up on the scene to work His miracle. But I guarantee, those four days lasted years for Lazarus’ family. However, when we see the magnitude of God’s power to raise a dead man to life, those four days suddenly pale in comparison.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison
-2 Corinthians 4:17

We continue to cling to a promise we believe God gave us: That we will see the workmanship of Jesus in our lives, and that our family’s suffering will not be in vain. Right now, we feel as though The Delay will last forever. Our experience tells us that this will never be different. We are crying out to Christ, and His answer is to apparently tarry longer. The reality of our family’s trial feels like a death, which no resurrection can touch. But somehow, we are being prepared for an eternal weight of glory that will cause The Delay to pale in comparison.