Lingering Jesus

   This Sunday (6/26) we are studying the story of Lazarus again, but from the perspective of the Lingering Jesus. What happens when he waits before answering our prayers? I think we all struggle with how long things take in general, and maybe this part of the story will help us to think about trusting the timing of God. That's going to be very hard for us.


   In the story, Mary and Martha send a note to Jesus who is out of town, that their brother, Lazarus, whom Jesus loves, they remind him, is very sick. Please come and heal him. Not an usual request by any stretch of imagination. Jesus gets the invitation and decides to stay where he is for a few more days. He even tells the disciples this will work out for God's glory, but Lazarus will die first. How is this going to be good?


   We all suffer from impatience. It's not our fault completely, we have been programmed by a world that get's thousands of chances to teach us to be impatient, to learn to get everything quicker than before. Right now there is a commercial playing on that promises to clean your computer so it come run twice as fast as it does now. Speed is relative and if you have an old PC anyway, cleaning it will help but it won't be like a new one out of the box. Yet we would hope it could be.


   When we pray we want the answer before we hang up. And most of us use a phone to God that only has the speaker and not an ear piece. We talk a lot to God, but don't let God talk back to us about our request. God always answers prayers, but not always to our liking. Sometimes the answer is Yes now, or it might be a Yes, but not Yet. Sometimes it could be a Yes, when you get ready to handle it. Sometimes it is NO because it is not good for us, even if we don't realize the answer we want could be bad news.


   I appreciate the illustration of the fancy stitched carpet. On the top side, the one we walk on it looks beautiful, especially if it has a picture, we really like that. But, if we flip the rug over it is covered with knots and doesn't look at all like the top half. Answers to prayer are like that sometimes. It looks confusing, knotty, and ugly to be able to get us to the whole picture we are expecting. Some knots have to occur to hold other situations in place, and we don't like the knots.


   I pray for your patience and growth in understanding when answers seem to be far off. I hope that as we look at what God has said about lingering, that we will see and appreciate the glory that is shown, even in the death of a Lazarus in our lives. That may be an important step to the lesson "I am the Resurrection and the Life" which we hear at funerals. Maybe this is a time for us to learn it as a step in our transformation and growth.


   Blessings on your journey


Pastor Jeff