You know, sometimes things just don’t make sense.

All the reasoning, statistics, science, knowledge in the world cannot make some things make sense.

If I was Martha and Mary, I think that was how I would have felt. In John 11 we read that their brother Lazarus had fallen ill. Martha and Mary sent word of this to Jesus.

Jesus, whom Mary had anointed with perfume…

Jesus, whom scripture shows was close enough to Lazarus to say he LOVED him…

Jesus, who had healed so many, performed numerous miracles…

Upon hearing the news, Jesus waited. He didn’t come right away. He stayed where he was. And Lazarus died.

If I was Martha or Mary, I don’t think I would have understood.  To have seen Jesus’ miracles, to have born witness to his power… but to be left with a dead brother.

Why?

Why didn’t Jesus, who had healed a man BORN blind, healed a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years, healed an officials’ son who wasn’t even present with Jesus when the healing took place…

Why didn’t THIS JESUS, who had done so much, immediately act to heal Lazarus.

The crowd who’d gathered to mourn with the sisters was perplexed, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Both Martha and Mary say to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

But he wasn’t there. And Lazarus did die.

Like I said, sometimes things just don’t make sense.

It is enough to break your heart.

It moved Jesus to the core.

John 11:35, “Jesus wept.”

Shortest verse in the Bible, often quoted by youth group kids who need to quickly reference a scripture. But it is SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!

Jesus shows here a side of God we need to know exists. See Jesus, who knows the miracle that is to come, who knows the “why” this happened… well he experiences the grief of his beloved friends and he is “deeply moved in spirit and troubled” and he cried. Not just a red eyes and a small tear. He WEPT.

God’s reasoning/timing may be beyond our comprehension…

But his caring, compassion, love, grief are RIGHT WITH US.

Many of you are praying for miracles, crying for God to show up. Many of you, like Martha and Mary, have called and God hasn’t come.

I can’t answer the why- I’d be foolish to try.

Tonight I cry out to our God who mourns alongside us, for Him to walk with you in this time of life and be your comfort, strength and hope.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalms 34:18)

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (Psalms 147:3)

~Jillene