Delayed Love

The sisters sent word to Jesus, 'Lord, the one who you love is ill.'...

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was two more days.

John 11.3,5,6

Josh Moody:

The strangest verbal connection is made in verse 6: having heard in verse 5 that Jesus loved this family, we find that John considers it logical that instead of Jesus rushing off to be with Lazarus, he stays where he is somewhat longer. “So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.” The delay is because of Jesus’ love. It is a strange thought that the Lord’s love sometimes means delayed answers to the most urgent of requests. Such, though, was the experience of Lazarus and his sisters, and such is the common experience of Christians today. We are not to interpret the Lord’s delays as lack of care, but as evidence of love. God’s delays very rarely feel loving—understandably enough we want answers to our prayers on a human timescale, and it is hard for us to look at life from the perspective of the One for whom a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day (2 Peter 3:8). And God does not always give us the reason for his delays, at least not in this life. But we can turn to this story and see that Jesus’ delay allowed Lazarus, and everyone there, forevermore to be 100% certain of the resurrection of the dead. Jesus’ “delayed” love is a marvelous love.