His glory

Tonight in Bible study we read about Lazarus.  We've been learning about his sisters Mary and Martha and their first encounter with His Son; when He comes to their home in Bethany with His disciples.  Their next mention in the Bible is when Lazarus is sick.  They (Mary and Martha) send word to the Son that "the one He loves" is sick, His reply is "The sickness will not end in death."  Relived the messenger returns to Bethany, only to find Lazarus getting worse and then later dead.  Then to make things worse, the Son waited two more days before returning to Bethany.  By the time He gets to Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for 4 days. In fact in one translation because he had been dead so long, when He asks to have the tomb opened the sisters look at each other and say, "He stinketh!"  The Message says "Master, by this time there's a stench.  He's been dead for 4 days."

Now when the messenger comes to the Son, not only does He tell him that, "The sickness will not end in death."  He also goes on to say, "It will become an occasion to show His glory by glorifying His Son."  I'm sure the messenger knew that He had healed others just by saying the word.  He didn't have to actually touch them for healing to take place, so the servant left thinking that things would be fine and Lazarus would be alive and out of bed by the time he got back to Bethany, but he wasn't.  I imagine that if Martha and Mary wouldn't have had their previous encounter with Him, He wouldn't have gotten the welcome He got when He finally arrived in Bethany four days later.

But because of that encounter when Martha hears that the Son in on the road to Bethany, she abruptly leaves her work at her home and all of her fellow mourners and runs to meet Him.  When she gets to Him she says something very different then what she said to Him at their first encounter.  She says, "Master, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.  Even now, I know that whatever you ask He will give you." 

What amazing faith had developed in Martha since the last time they were spoken about.  During their first encounter, Martha all but reprimands Him for allowing Mary to sit at His feet and not help with the chores of the house. But now she looks at Him and says, "Not my will but Your will be done."  She had surrendered.

I've given up trying to remember what I have talked about in other posts, I post what is on my heart at that time and yes I know I repeat myself, but the repetition is as much for me as it is you.  I repeat things that I need to remember.  Experts say you must hear or see something 7 times before it is stored in your long term memory.  So if I've talked about surrender before, just know that your going to hear about it at least 5 more time and knowing myself the way I do, it might be more then that...

Surrender.  Turning it over.  Giving it to Him.  Your will be done. This is no longer my burden to bear, take it from me.  Sometimes surrender comes easily and other times not so easily.  Sometimes it's simple to turn it over and other times we have such a hard grip on something its very difficult to let go of.  But sooner or later we surrender.  For me its normally later but eventually I look up towards the heavens and say, "I just can't deal with this any longer, its Yours."

I had that experience two weekends ago.  Sitting at the metaphoric feet of His Son, I cried out and said those exact words.  I had such a tight grip on my own reality that I had forgotten that its not about me and what I want.  Its about what He wants and what He wants is not always what I want.  The woman that wrote the book we are studying in our Bible study put it this way, "Never put a comma where He has put a period." and "Never put a period where He has put a comma."  I had tried to insert a comma where He had put a period but reality smacked me in the face.  I couldn't ignore it any longer.  As my old boss said, "It is what it is."

Reality is ugly.  I bet when Martha and Mary realized that the Son wasn't coming and the reality that Lazarus was actually going to die set it, I imagine they were upset and grieving.  When he did actually die, many mourners gathered to sympathize with the sisters.  Many people's reality was changed. "What would they do without Lazarus?" they thought.  In fact when the Son saw all the people mourning Lazarus' death He even wept.  Lazarus was loved and now he was gone and of course the people that were there doubted His love for Lazarus.  They said, "Well, if He loved him so much, why didn't He do something to keep him from dying?  After all, He opened the eyes of a blind man."

Why doesn't He always intervene?  When bad things happen to good people, why doesn't He sweep in and save the day? Where is He when we need Him the most?  If He is gracious and loving, He wouldn't want us to suffer, right?

Funny though while reading the assigned reading for our study I came across this line, "His plan is released when we believe and obey."  Oh yes...let me repeat that line with my interpretation, "His plan is released when we Trust and Obey." 

I had been searching for the answer to "Why do bad things happen to good people?" When I was reminded that, "The sickness will not end in death. It will become an occasion to show His glory by glorifying His Son."  I was to trust and obey because the outcome would be for the greater glory. He had put a period, where I wanted a comma.  But like all good stories the end of a sentence or chapter just means there is another one waiting to be discovered. 

Hebrews 2:10 says this, " ¹⁰For it was becoming to Him, because of whom [are] the all things, and through whom [are] the all things, many sons to glory bringing, the author of their salvation through sufferings to make perfect..."

 Hebrews 12:2 says, " ²looking to the author and perfecter of faith -- Jesus, who, over-against the joy set before him -- did endure a cross, shame having despised, on the right hand also of the throne of God did sit down;"

 He was, as my young daughter used to say, "The bestest person ever!" to walk this earth and look what He had to endure.  The Message translation says it this way, "Keep your eyes on Him, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever."

Though He doubted, though He was afraid, though He wept, even when He was beaten and mocked, especially when He was handed the cross, He kept His eyes on His Father, because He knew that the period in His sentence was just the beginning for us.  So when you see that looming period on the horizon, have faith that though it might be the end of this chapter, it might be the beginning of an entirely new series written by the Author and Finisher of your life.