Friday’s section of this week’s lesson asks, if God is in charge why do innocent people suffer?

The question reminded me of the story about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead in John 11:1-44. Let’s take a look at some of the points in this story that may help us answer this question.

When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” John 11:4 NKJV

Image © Kim Justinen from GoodSalt.com

The good news for all of us is that even though Lazarus dies that is not how the story ends! Lazarus is resurrected. Dear friend, if you have recently laid a loved one to rest, be assured that is not how the story ends. Death is not the final chapter. The resurrection is. Still, Jesus allowed one of his best friends to get sick and die. Why?  John 11:4 tells us that it was  allowed so that God would be glorified. Are you willing to get sick and even face death if it will give God glory?

This reminds me of a sermon I heard on Hebrews 11:35-38 which mentions people who were killed for their faith. The preacher said many say they have enough faith to be healed, but do we have enough faith not to be healed? What if more people became converted through our death than our life? What if our sickness glorified God more than our health? This new year I realized God does not need me to make goals and plans. He needs me to make a total surrender. This new year I rededicated my life to Jesus and told Him I was totally surrendered to Him. He can take me and do with me as He pleases in 2021. He can promote me if that will glorify His name. He can also let me get sick and die if that will glorify his name. After all, by giving my life to Jesus I am only giving what I was not going to be able to keep anyways.

So Jesus allows Lazarus to get sick and die so it would glorify God. How so? Well,  it was important for Jesus to let him actually die and then not show up to the home till four days afterwards. It allowed people to understand that Lazarus was really dead and that Jesus had the power to resurrect him. Had Jesus forsaken Lazarus and his sisters by seeming so distant? Not at all! It was all part of a magnificent plan that would bring glory to God with a happy ending for all.

Remember when Jesus healed the little girl in Mark 5:21-43? He said the girl was not dead but only asleep. Everyone laughed at Him. Of course Jesus calls death sleep, since the dead person is going to be resurrected. However the Sadducees and Pharisees both loved to twist the words of Jesus. The Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection especially had something at stake in the miracle Jesus performed for this little girl. Jesus’ statement that the girl was not dead but asleep could have given the Sadducees opportunity to say that even Jesus admitted Himself that the girl was only asleep and had never actually died. Thus Jesus did not actually resurrect her. I believe this is very possible because even today people love twisting the words of prophecy and Scripture to their own destruction. I believe the Sadducees very well might have used that as an opportunity to twist Jesus’ words when He said she was not dead but only asleep.

If the Pharisees and Sadducees were able to twist Jesus’ own words to discredit His miracle of raising the girl to life, thus making many people lose faith in God, it could explain why Jesus allowed Lazarus to get sick and die. By waiting four days before resurrecting him,  there is no way anyone could say Lazarus was not actually dead but only literally sleeping as they insinuated with the girl. Obviously Jesus’ plan worked, because the story says,,

Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.  John 11:45 NKJV

By allowing Lazarus to suffer and die, millions who have faced death have been comforted with the hope of the resurrection. By allowing Lazarus to suffer and die, millions have believed in Jesus as their Savior from sin and death.

God wants us to prosper in heath and strength as we love and serve God with all of our health and strength. But if God could win more people to His kingdom by letting you suffer and die would you be okay with that?

The one who stands nearest to Christ will be he who has drunk most deeply of His spirit of self-sacrificing love,–love that “vaunteth not itself, . . . seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil,”–love that moves the disciple, as it moved our Lord, to give all, to live and labor and sacrifice even unto death, for the saving of humanity. –Ellen White, Conflict and Courage, Page 314.

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