S166P6 – The good disciple: hope in the hopeless times
Jn. 11:20-27
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
Martha is not the only one who faced a challenging moment here. We see her words, but we know that it very well could have been a common sentiment among those who followed Jesus. The expectation was that sending for Jesus when Lazarus was sick would have saved Lazarus from death. Jesus only came after Lazarus died, and this created a question for Martha. She had faith that Jesus could have healed him, but Jesus let him die. Now she had to consider what she believed. Although her faith seems to waver throughout this chapter, Martha confessed that she believed that God would give Jesus whatever He asked. Jesus might not have healed Lazarus, but Martha believed that He still could do something here.
When we pray for God to heal someone who is sick, we are looking for that healing to occur. We know that He is glorified when a miracle happens, but that does not mean that God must answer that prayer to bring himself the greatest glory. If we look at this situation the way most of us logically reason, we likely would agree that God receives greater glory from raising the dead than from healing the sick. In fact, Jesus had explained to his disciples earlier in this chapter that the death of Lazarus occurred so that they would believe. The question is whether we believe that God can answer the greater prayer and perform the greater miracle when our first request bears no fruit. Should this not just give us a chance to hope for more?
Our faith will be challenged time and again in this life. One of the ways in which this occurs is by the unanswered prayer. We might have all the hope in the world for a certain outcome, and God might not come through no matter how we plead. We need to decide how we will handle that when it occurs. We can think that God is no longer there. We can think that God is powerless to move. We also can think that God has a greater plan in store and that He still hears our prayers and answers according to his perfect will. The unanswered prayer should not make us hope less. Father, help us to remain strong in faith and to continue hoping for greater things when You answer our prayers with silence.