"Do you believe this?"

     I wonder: what must it have felt like to have witnessed Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead?  We are so familiar with the story that we can forget this was an actual, real event with real people experiencing real emotions, real tears, real fear, real disappointment with God.
    Just for a moment, place yourself in that knot of mourners who, only days earlier, witnessed Lazarus gradually grow weaker, slowly sicker and sicker, all the while waiting and hoping for Jesus to come.  His desperate sisters, Mary and Martha, had sent for the Savior, knowing, indeed certain, that Jesus would come to their brother's rescue.  After all, think of how many folks Jesus had already healed--the blind, the lame, the bleeding, the disease-ridden.
     Now here was Lazarus--Jesus' dear friend, the man whom the Lord most often stayed with whenever He was in town, the man devoted to the Savior, determined to provide comfort,  hospitality, and rest to this One Lazarus believed was the Messiah.  This beloved and devoted friend of Jesus was sick, and he needed the Savior and needed Him NOW.  Lazarus' whole family, in fact, adored Jesus, followed Him, served Him, trusted and believed in Him.  So if ever there was a slam-dunk for Jesus coming and supernaturally healing someone, well, this was it.  Jesus would come.  He must come.
     But day after day after day, Jesus does not come.
     And Lazarus dies waiting for Him to come.  Do you suppose Lazarus felt abandoned or mystified?   Wonder if he doubted or despaired... or just wondered?
     What if you are Mary or Martha?   You suddenly find yourself, perhaps for the first time, doubting Jesus.  Doubting His goodness.  Doubting His love.  Doubting His ways and His plans.  Doubting His timing.  What are the first words out of Martha's mouth when Jesus finally arrives (a full 4 days after Lazarus' death): "Lord, if You have been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:21)  Likewise, when Jesus approaches the sorrowing Mary, her first words are the same, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:32)
     If only.
     If only He had come.  If only He had come sooner.  If only He had had spoken a word of healing, even from a distance.  If only He had listened.  If only He had hurried or helped or healed in some way, in any way, then the outcome would have been--should have been--different for this devoted, dedicated follower.
     What are we to think, those of us standing by the tomb of Lazarus, weeping and wondering?  Or those of us who pray and pray for healing of a loved one or healing of a relationship or healing of an addiction or healing of some incurable disease... and God seems strangely absent or late or distant.   We may silently accuse Jesus, "Lord, if only You had been here..."  But Lazarus lies dead in the tomb these four days.   And our loved one grows sicker.   That addiction seems impossibly tenacious.  That relationship remains wounded and tenuous.  That prodigal child continues to struggle.
     And then Jesus commands, "Take away the stone." (v.39).  Martha judiciously answers, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." (v.39)  How could there not be!  Lazarus is dead.  Absolutely, totally dead.  Decay has set in and mourning has been going on for four long days in Jesus' glaring absence.  Wouldn't we have responded in the same way?   Part accusation, part resentment, part incredulity at the audacity of Jesus' command.
     But deeply hidden within the heart of Martha was that tiny seed of faith, of hope beyond hope, that maybe just maybe... even now... could Jesus do something?  Just moments earlier Jesus had told her, "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.  DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?"   Does she believe?  Against all the evidence of four days of mourning her dead brother.   Despite her disappointment.  Despite her frustration at the Savior's delay and absence.  Despite all her doubts and fears and questions, will she believe?  Will we?
     Jesus again reminds Martha, after her comment about the odor of a dead man, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" (v.40)  I don't pretend to understand all this--all this mystery in the will and ways of God.  Who can understand the mind of God or fully comprehend His plans and His timing?  In the words of that great old hymn "God moves in a mysterious way:"

1. God moves in a mysterious way
   His wonders to perform;
   He plants His footsteps in the sea
   And rides upon the storm.
2. Deep in unfathomable mines
   Of never failing skill
   He treasures up His bright designs
   And works His sov’reign will.
3. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
   The clouds ye so much dread
   Are big with mercy and shall break
   In blessings on your head.
4. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
   But trust Him for His grace;
   Behind a frowning providence
   He hides a smiling face.
5. His purposes will ripen fast,
   Unfolding every hour;
   The bud may have a bitter taste,
   But sweet will be the flow’r.
6. Blind unbelief is sure to err
   And scan His work in vain;
   God is His own interpreter,
   And He will make it plain.
7.      And so, as we stand, stunned and weeping, outside the tomb of our friend or our brother, Lazarus, we hear Jesus commandingly shout: "Lazarus, come out!" (v.43)  Silently we peer into the gloom of the darkened tomb, holding our breath, shocked, doubting... yet hoping... and wondering.  
8.     Until we see a dead man walking.  Bound by dirty linen wrappings.  Dead, yet shuffling into the light and into life and into the joyous arms of his weeping sisters... only now tears of joy, of laughter, of awe and wonder.  This, even this--Jesus has power even over this most hated, most formidable, most desperate enemy: death.  So we all stare at our dead friend and brother and stand amazed at such a Savior who defeats man's most ancient and despicable and powerful foe.  If Jesus can do this, what can't He do?  And if He can do this, if He promises that those who believe in Him, though they die, yet shall they live, well, then what ultimately need we fear?  He has conquered death, redeemed it, and promised that He will do the same for every one of us who believes in Him.  
9.      So the question remains, "Do you believe this?"  Do we trust Him when we can't understand?  Do we believe even when He seems to delay?  Do we trust even when His ways or His timing or His plans for us or our loved ones are not what we hoped and wanted and dreamed?  
10.      "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" Jesus tells us.  How many of us have been encouraged by the story of Lazarus?  How much greater and deeper and stronger and more glorious this one event, because Jesus didn't just heal a sick Lazarus but instead raised a dead Lazarus?  He can heal, sure, but He can also raise that which is dead and buried and hopeless to new life!  Jesus does His best work in a graveyard!  All saw the glory of God that day in an astounding, wonderful, life-changing way. 
11.      God does indeed "move in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform."  Might we too take "fresh courage" as we trust that the "clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head."  The clouds of death, of disease, of delay, of disappointment with God, will yet break with unexpected mercy on our heads... and we will see the glory of God.  His delays are not denials... only displays of His sovereign power and plan that will ultimately be for our greater good and His greater glory.  
12.     He asks us to believe and trust even when we cannot comprehend--to trust the One who sees the whole picture and has all the power to accomplish that which is ultimately best, pleasing and perfect.  The choice is ours.  While we may wonder, while we wait, He asks us: "Do you believe this?"   Lord, like the father of the sick young child, we too answer, "Lord, I believe!  Help Thou my unbelief!"   Help us to see Your glory!  To God be the glory.