John 11:2 ASV, John 11:3 ASV, John 11:4 ASV and John 11:5-16 ASV

Jesus gets a message from Mary & Martha, two sisters with whom he is very close. In fact, he is close not only with the sisters, but with their brother Lazarus. These sisters will play a big role in t he next few weeks, and we get a hint of that when John (the author) point out that this Mary is the one who will anoint Jesus.

The message they send to Jesus is simple: "Lazarus is sick." It doesn't look good. Their sending the message because they know who Jesus is. And they know that if he comes to them, he'll take care of things. If anyone can heal Lazarus, it's Jesus.

You would think that Jesus would jump into action the moment he gets the news. After all, these are not just any people, these are people who are very close to him.

And yet, he seems to do nothing. He makes a simple statement, "Lazarus' sickness will not end in death." And then he stays put ... for two days.

Finally, after two days, he tells the disciples that they need to go to Lazarus. I love how these guys respond. At first they are afraid - after all, Bethany is not a safe place for Jesus. There are a lot of Religious leaders there who would love to see him d ead.

And then, when Jesus tells them that Lazarus is sleeping, they try to use that to convince him not to go - and risk his life. After all, if the dude is sleeping, why go? Why not just stay put?

It seems like Jesus is always having to make things really simple for these guys. "He's dead, guys. Dead."

Now, doesn't that seem to contradict what he said two days ago, when he told them that Lazarus' sickness would not end in death? Of course it does. But that's 'cause Jesus knows the WHOLE story.

So, what can we take from this? In a nutshell: God's timing is often different than ours. Sometimes, when we pray and ask God for something, the answer doesn't come right away. At times, it's because the answer is "no."

But often, it's because the timing is right. God has something far bigger than we realize in store for us through answering the prayer. He could have gone to Lazarus two days ago, when he was sick, and healed him. But he had something far greater to do through Lazarus.

He alludes to that with his disciples when he says, "I'm glad we didn't go before now, because this will give you an opportunity to really believe in me."

But, the disciples still didn't get it. Thomas sums up how they're all feeling: "Let's go die with him."

Don't lose hope when God doesn't answer your cries right away. Perhaps he is wanting to do something even more incredible than you are asking. Perhaps.