He remained for two days in the place where he was

I love the verses in Scripture that speak about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11:1-44. What I am specifically drawn to about this story is Jesus' intensely personal relationship with each sister and the way he knows and comforts each of them in their grief. I love each sister's honest response to Jesus' presence, the ways they speak their minds and hearts so openly and bluntly to him.

I also love it because verses 5 and 6 (NAB) in this story always cause me to pause: "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was." These verses say the opposite of what my instinctual response would be -- since he loves them, it makes sense Jesus would rush to his friends while Lazarus is dying. Instead, he stays where he is. He doesn't go. Yet.

It doesn't seem to make sense. How do these two sentences go together?

But I forget who Jesus is. As Martha later proclaims, he is the Messiah, the Son of God. He is not bound by time or death. He knows he can do anything, and he waits so he can perform a miracle for his friends by giving their brother life again after he has died. He wants his friends to witness something that will have them stand in wonder and awe and amazement, joy and laughter and delight, so he can bring them to deeper faith in him and deeper faith in God.

His going to them shows his love for them in other ways, too. He knows by going to Judea to be with his friends, he is walking to his death. As his disciples point out, the Jews were just trying to stone him there for heresy because, after they asked, he told them he was one with the Father (John 10:30 NAB). He knows he will raise Lazarus from the dead as a foreshadowing of his own resurrection, as a sign of his power over death. He knows by doing this, the Jews in power will kill him. It is the final home stretch, and his disciples sense it, too: Thomas says, "Let us also go to die with him" (John 11:16 NAB).

And so, he goes. They all do.

And in this is love, to lay down one's life for one's friends. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was.

When, like Martha and Mary, we feel the Lord is remaining inactive in our lives, when we are waiting on him to come, when we are asking for life and it feels like we have none, let us, too, dare to have faith that in his waiting is the deepest of love. Let us have the courage to believe the inaction of this God who so wants to be with us is actually intentional action. Let us have the vision to see we are in the middle of a story, and the end will leave us with no cause to worry.

Because when he comes -- and he, my friend, will come -- it will be to give us his presence, to amaze us with the fulfillment of what we hardly dared to hope was possible and to speak, no matter what the cost to him, of the deepest love.