There were indeed, we may perhaps venture to say, three reasons for the Lord’s delay in responding to the sisters’ appeal. The first is contained in the scripture cited (vs. 4): had the Lord gone at once and healed Lazarus, glory might still have been brought to God, but God was about to render a striking testimony to the Person of His beloved Son through resurrection, and hence He did not interpose until Lazarus was dead. Calling Lazarus out of his tomb was, while preeminently for the glory of God, the manifest witness that Jesus was the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead. This phrase is better rendered “by resurrection of the dead”; it is so constructed to include the raising of the dead by the Lord Himself, and His own resurrection.
The second reason is found in the position which the Lord, though the Son, occupies especially in this gospel. He never spoke or acted excepting at the will of the Father (John 5:1919Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (John 5:19); John 12:4949For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. (John 12:49); John 14:1010Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (John 14:10)); and thus He remained where He was until it was the Father’s will that He should go to Bethany as much as He loved these sorrowing sisters, He was not governed by His affections, but by the Father’s will, to which He ever, in His perfection, entirely, and at all times, responded.
Finally, it cannot be doubted that the delay was used to exercise the hearts of the sisters, and to prepare them, each in her measure, for the bright outshining of the glory of God (see vs. 40) which they were to behold in the raising of their brother. This is one of the secrets of the Lord’s ways with His people. They cry to Him, and seemingly He does not hear. But He does hear, and if the help sought be not instantly granted, it is only that He would first produce through exercise the state of soul suited for the blessing He is about to bestow. His way, surely we would all confess, is ever perfect, and it only needs that, with the knowledge of His love, we should repose in Him with unshaken confidence in all circumstances.
Passing over the instruction the Lord gave to His disciples in connection with the death of Lazarus and His care for them in seeking to establish their faith (vss. 7-16), we read that when Jesus came to Bethany He found that Lazarus had lain in the grave four days already. When He raised the daughter of Jairus she had only just died; the son of the widow of Nain was being carried to the grave when the Lord met him and restored him to life; in the case of Lazarus death had possessed its prey for four days, in order that there might be a still more significant display of divine power in His resurrection. Also a number of Jews had come from Jerusalem to comfort Martha and Mary concerning their brother and were thus ready to be eye-witnesses of the power of Jesus in raising the dead.